retro-swelling a bamboo rod butt

[Joshua Field]

I've gotten pretty into these little 5'6', 6' and 7'6 banty rods (which are the two top sections from a larger rod converted to a small light rod). The one weakness I'm finding with these is that the butt section doesn't have as much stiffness as I'd like. I had an old scrap butt section laying around and I took a stab at swelling the butt by splitting the rod on each seam, making thin inserts and re-gluing them in. It actually came out pretty well for a first attempt... but I had some trouble getting good splits on the seams.

questions:

1) anyone done this before? I couldn't find anyone online who had done it (aside from starting with a rod being build from scratch)

2. suggestions for splitting the cane? I tried using a razor to start the cut, but the glue seams were stronger than the cane and so the cane wanted to shred. I also tried a heat gun, torque, driving a nail in the end... none of which really gave me a nice split. I thought about soaking the butt section in water....

Here is a pic - you can see it is a bit rough, but was just an experiment to try splitting, size the shims, etc. I might try to pick up some scrap cane on ebay and do some additional tests.



Here is a sketch of the method I'm using to plan the inserts:
img121.exs.cx/img121/7131/diagram7ef.jpg
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[AgMD]

Hoo-wee an interesting, if ambitious product. If the rod was glued up w/ hide glue , the major glue used pre WWII , soaking in moderatly hot water would seem to be the way to go. once soaked and split, one would need to use care to prevent warping durring the drying process. Perhaps slips of polyetheline plastic ( pieces of zip loc bags) between the sections to prevent re-adhesion and then binding as one would when gluing a new rod??? If epoxy - most likely on post war rods , HOT water seems to be the only answer, followed by acetone to remove the old glue.
Shims -- I have seen swelled butts which used cedar ( Spanish cedar ?) shims in a swelled butt. Nice contrast and a lightweight, straight grained wood. You might also consider Sitka spruce which can be got at www.aircraftspruce.com.
Reel seats -- first choice is: aluminum or nickle silver. Aluminum -- light weight , low cost -- Anglers Workshop at
www.distantwaters.com/onlstore_aw/aw_home.asp
or www.customtackle.com/
For nickle silver -- not inexpensive , but if you go with simple slip rings not too expensive either
Here the best choices are Golden Witch or REC although the Bellinger stock could be got from the same venders as the aluminum.
Now let me guestion the premis of this experiment. And I base this question out of ignorence not knolledge.I wonder if the swelled butt , which will extend only a relativly short way up the butt section, will offer enough stiffening action on the rest of the butt section? I really don't know the answer to this and I am eager to see the results of your experiment.
An alternative concept -- Intermediate wraps. I have read more than once that intermediate wraps will "stiffen" the action of a rod. One could start off by making wraps , say 3 or 4 inches apart ( perhaps decreasing distance as one progresses up the rod) , and then if more was needed , add another series at the mid point of those wraps. One attraction of this experiment is that it could be done over existing varnish. How much would this alter the action? Here I am afraid we have gone way beyond my level of experience -- but it would make for an interesting experiment. In fact I have a mid and tip that I have thought about banty-ising --- hmmm.
AgMD

[Joshua Field]

Thanks for the parts links - ordered some guides and thread... I ended up getting a good deal on reel seats on ebay.

I think I'll try wraps on this first rod attempt but I'm still very curious what swelling will do to the rod flex and want to try it. I'll wait until I've had some good practice with spare parts and can get my hands on an old cane rod for less than $25 before I attempt it. I'm hunting ebay for old mis-matched parts and will pick up some cedar online and give that a shot.

I found a guy who is making amazing rods (although a bit over-dressed for my taste - some crazy customer of his had diamonds embedded on the handle... not a good idea and looks pretty goofy!) and he is using ebony inserts which must be a terribly difficult thing to do... ebony is super hard but gets really brittle at fine points. Still - the workmanship is pretty outstanding:


www.wagnerrods.com

I wouldn't want to make a swell anything near this dramatic of a taper. I'm thinking more gradual and not nearly as big a finished o.d.