Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

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Clay
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Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by Clay »

As part of my "old school" fishing project I have purchased an old no label bamboo casting rod that has no collector value. Since it is old, I am concerned about the bamboo splitting or breaking. Does anyone have any suggestions as far as reinforcing it? At this point, I am planning on wrapping a super braid line in a spiral pattern from the butt to the tip top, and then varnishing it.
wrong99
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Re: Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by wrong99 »

No. There's really little you can do aside from the spiral wrapping. That will maybe help a little. If treated right (like any other rod) and it doesn't exhibit any signs of current delamination, there's no reason to think it will split or delaminate.
Mark
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john elder
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Re: Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by john elder »

I agree with Mark....just fish it and see what happens. If you get delamination, you can bend a bit to open and work in some Titebond II glue into the joints, then tightly wrap with twine, being careful not to torque it and keep the flats straight. That glue will set up and be stronger than the original (probable) hide glue. If it was a better quality rod, I would suggest being more anal about the type of glue and methodologies, but for what you want to do, it will be fine....and it may not occur at all.

john
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Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
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Ron Mc
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Re: Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by Ron Mc »

fwiw, I'm fishing fly rods made c. 1915, and one marked as made in 1918. They were both high-grade rods, but most problems with original condition old rods are going to be fairly visible - dry rot could be hidden in a recent restoration if somebody varnished over it.
The only thing that a wrap would prevent is delamination. You can see delam by very gently twisting each section.
You check for loose ferrules by joining the adjacent sections and make gentle rod-loading motions - you'll feel a loose ferrule as a click.
oc1
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Re: Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by oc1 »

I would rub it down with a drying oil first. Something like Tru Oil or linseed. Oil is the best thing for dried bamboo and also helps highlight any delamination or cracking. The oil will tell you something about the condition of the finish as well

I went through a phase; turning old bamboo fly rods into ultralight baitcasting rods. They were fun to use but plenty were broken. The newer ones that had been impregnated with bakelite held up a little better than the early ones.

It's worth doing a stress test before investing any time in the rod. A fast running fish will burn my thumb with about three pounds of thumb drag on the spool. So, a three pound (dead weight) stress test seemed appropriate. If you are fishing a light fly tippet or a heavy star drag outfit, that would influence how much pressure you need to apply in a stress test.
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gadabout
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Re: Strengthening and old bamboo rod.

Post by gadabout »

You should probably be more worried about your graphite rods breaking than that old bamboo rod. I’ll bet that you could probably put that rod in the floor and stand on it with your full body weight and not damage it. Don’t try that with your other rods.
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