Calcutta Wooden Rods

[The Great Maudu]

David Spangler who goes by Normslanding, sent me these to post for him. Rather than hijack the other thread I thought this was so cool it deserved its own place. The following is the info David sent with the pics.

"The two on the outside are about 10.5 ft they  are freaks of nature.  They have fast tapers. The rod in the middle is a  Calstar 900 and is something to compare to. I have more all smaller than these".

[54bullseye]

What kind of wood Hickory ??  Long rods for one piece !!    John Tayor

[Normslanding]

The wood is Calcutta, it is like Cane. It's very strong, and light. You have to find a female to make a rod, the males are heavy. It is what wood Gaff's are made out of. You have to look thru thousands today to find one suitable for a rod. There are other factors that make a Calcutta a good rod.

[The Great Maudu]

Do they make a big game version? Where do you find these?

[sdlehr]

"Calcutta Cane" is the bamboo Dendrocalamus strictus used to make "Cane" rods. I'm just starting to learn about this, Steve (Oc1) is the resident expert as far as I am concerned. Bambusa textilis is the bamboo usually used for split cane rods (and woven baskets), the differences are in the composition of power fibers and their distribution in the culm (the bamboo shoot). Split cane rods are six- or seven-sided (mostly six), and look like a hexagon (or heptagon) in cross-section.

Mike, I have read of big game split cane rods made of three 6-piece concentric layers for a total of 18 pieces of cane each. The claim was that were very light and strong.

These pictures don't look like these rods are made of split bamboo, they could be Quads as recently highlighted by Oldmanjoe. Are they round in cross-section? It's a little hard to interpret the highlights on them in the pics, I can't tell if they are round or not.

[oc1]

The photos are of whole cane rods.  There are beauty wraps over the nodes.  Calcutta cane does not have prominent nodes.  The nodes can be smoothed out a little to make them even less prominent, but do not take off too much material or it will make a weak spot.

You can make Calcutta cane rods for any weight class.  It is very strong and very versatile.  The culms are up to sixty feet tall and the rod maker cuts out the section with the taper and diameter needed for the task at hand.  Somewhere on the web there is an old photo of a guy in Florida with a large shark caught with a 16/0 senator on a stout Calcutta cane rod.  Back when I tarpon fished, the largest one I landed was 6'2" and it was on a Calcutta cane rod.  Now, I use Calcutta cane to cast 1/4 ounce jigs for bones.

They started importing Calcutta cane into the U.S. for fishing rods in 1850.  It was from India by way of the British.  The canes were readily available in coastal tackle shops into the mid 1970's.  Then it started to become hard to find.  Now, the only place I know to get it is Frank's Cane and Rush in Huntington Beach.

If you were born and raised on fiberglass and graphite, the cane requires a little getting used to.  After fighting a fish the rod will have a bend in it.  You can bend it the other way to straighten it out some.   Some people obsess about keeping the cane straight but the best approach is to just get over it.  The bend makes little or no difference in casting or use if you can ignore it.  Also, calcutta cane makes for a rod with very slow action.  This is good because it transfers the load down into the butt section and protects the tip from breaking, but bad because it feels sort of noodle-like.  Calcutta cane does not have prominent nodes like most types of bamboo.  However, like most bamboo, the tips of the culm (less than about 1/4 to 3/8 inch diameter) will zig zag.  The zig zags do not impact strength or action, but they can cause the line to get wrapped around the rod in a strong breeze. 

For ten to twelve foot light to ultralight casting rods, I have been splicing in a two to four foot tip section of Chinese cane (Phyllostachys aurea).  The Chinese cane does not zig zag as much as Calcutta and is usable down to a diameter of about 1/8 inch.  The Chinese cane also has a snappier action for casting light jigs.  But, the Chinese cane does not have the strength of Calcutta so it is not suitable for mid sections or butt sections.  When fighting a fish, the Chinese cane tip section is pointing straight at the water and all the bend and load is taken up by the Calcutta.

-steve

[oldmanjoe]

Those are some nice looking rods     Whole cane sticks  with wraps  at the growth rings and then in between them  to help keep from splitting .
  As a kid i fished with Calcutta poles  .    They were about 6 and a half foot long with guides on top and bottom .     After they took a set you loosen the clamp on the butt and rotate 180 and restrung  .   The tip was a roller with a bridge to keep the line on the roller.   My younger brother has my grandfather`s  stick  , i will get pictures from him .
 
joe

[Normslanding]

Actually they are Calcutta not cane. Calcuttas are also wrapped over the nodes. They are also wrapped over longitudinal cracks. I re-wrapped these several times over a period of the years.  There is a lot to wrapping Calcutta than there is to glass or the newer stuff.

[sdlehr]

Actually they are Calcutta not cane.

Actually, Calcutta is a city in India, one of the places in which the bamboo Dendrocalamus strictus grows natively. I think we need to get rid of the terms "Calcutta" and "Cane"; they are confusing. These are bamboo rods. They may be termed "Calcutta cane" rods and that is quite precise and descriptive - it describes one particular species of bamboo. "Cane" can be from many bamboo species. It can get even more confusing when one talks about "caning a chair". That is also bamboo, termed "cane", but this is usually Bambusa textilis, which is, incidentally, the bamboo of choice for split bamboo rods, also known as "split cane" rods. The terminology has been confusing for at least decades if not centuries. The "cane" in a "split cane rod" is not necessarily the same as the "cane" in a "whole cane rod" or in a "Quad cane rod", or even the "cane" in a "caned" chair.

[oc1]

Cane is a hollow jointed grass.  Sugar cane is in the grass family (Poaceae) and is a type of cane.  Bamboo is in the grass family and is a type of cane.  Calcutta (Dendrocalamus strictus) is a type of bamboo and therefore a type of cane. 

The material used for caning a chair in not cane at all.  It is rattan which is shaved from a climbing vine in the palm family, Arecaceae. 

By the way, some bamboo and hardwood fishing rods had rattan handles.  I've been playing around with it and it looks pretty cool.
-steve

[Swami805]

Wow dropping taxonomy bombs on AT. Linnaeus would be proud.

[sdlehr]

The material used for caning a chair in not cane at all.  

I thought I had read that B textilis is used for caning furniture, but maybe I made it up. My point was that the terms "Calcutta" and "Cane" are not at all precise. I think that's been demonstrated adequately.

[oc1]

Just to confuse things there are also rods made from hardwoods like hickory, greenheart, ironwood and lancewood.  "Lancewood" is a good example of why we need old Carl Linnaeus.  It seems every region of the world has their own plant called "lancewood" in English.  Afterall, everyone needed a good lance back in the day.  Trouble is, they all have different taxonomy, growth habits, appearance, performance characteristics, etc.  I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out which lancewood was used for fishing poles in America.  Based on geography, it may be the Caribbean lancewkood (Oxandra lanceolata), but I really have no way to know.
-steve

[thorhammer]

Y'all need to go get a bobber and crickets and just go fishing. And I'm a biologist.

[Bill B]

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night......does that count    Bill