Bamboo and double guides

[oc1]

Phillipson made fly and spinning rods in tobacco fiberglass too.  I don't fly fish but have striped a couple of Phillipson fiberglass fly rods to make ultralight baitcasting rods.  I don't know where they found all that extra loading without increasing the overall weight, but they did and it's dramatic.  Very nice rods and everything they say about them is true.
-steve

[Gfish]

Cool. "Grass rods".
I've got maybe the same rod Gary. A Montague. If you wanna completely restore yours, there's a rubber end piece cap that goes on the bottom of the handle. Mine has a partial sticker above the handle that proclaims it as "tonkin bamboo"( Gulf of Tonkin, SE Asia ?) something they seemed to be proud of.

[oc1]

"tonkin bamboo"( Gulf of Tonkin, SE Asia ?) something they seemed to be proud of.

Yeah, it's from northern Viet Nam into southern China. There was a period when international relations were so bad that western rod builders couldn't get Tonkin cane.  Things are much better now, but there is no longer much demand for bamboo so it still takes some effort to get good culms.  Last time I looked there was only one or two places selling it and the costs plus shipping is really really high.
-steve

[Dominick]

According to Hoyle, Bamboo / Calcutta are of the grass family.

Thanks foe that... Calcutta reels are made of grass  Dominick

[TRS]

Rods marked Calcutta are generally older, the Calcutta cane from India was the transition from wood to cane, then Tonkin was found to be a superior type. The finest Tonkin cane cane from a very small area in Guangdong province, but this was generally used for flyrods, after the post war embargo, suppliers switched to Vietnam as a source. The scarcity of quality bamboo played a large part in the advancement in fiberglass rod technology.

Today a quality culm of Tonkin seems pricey untill you count up the hours to turn the raw material into a finished fly rod. 

[philaroman]

WOW!!!  you guys are hittin' a major point of interest & major "sore spot"
can old cane be restored to "fishable"    ...mine's unused, zero set

grabbed a "bargain" old Japanese 3-pc. SPINNING!!! ...9-10'(3m?)  ...light Surf?, Steelhead?

allegedly brought over by a post-Korea GI...  still had the steel seat wrapped in that age-appropriate greasy wax paper

definitely unused, 'cause the darn ferules don't fit 

what can I do,
with this pretty, straight boo?
                 

[TRS]

Sadly the quality in those rods was at best questionable, glue, cane, guides, and reel seats are all prone to failure. I spent about 30 hours restoring one, looked outstanding, snapped on a bluegill.   You can get lucky, some of them will fish okay, but the majority are best used as wall hangers. If you want to fish an old bamboo there are basically two types expensive and needs work.

Sometimes one will slip by at auction, last month I bought an Orvis spinning rod for $118.00, old Montigue rods are still very reasonable, but they usually need guides.  The best source of fishable split cane spinning/boat rods I've found is rods from the UK on the big auction site.  The drawback is a $25.00 rod may cost $50 or more in shipping, but the same rod if commissioned from a current rod maker will go north of $500.00 and a 1k price is not uncommon.

A friend used to make light spinning rods from broken fly rods, they were very good rods, I believe he favored domestic brands such as Granger, Montigue and South Bend. I think he said he had approx 10 to 25 hours in each rod, depending if the goal was for show or go.

If you decide to pursue "grass" rods let me know I can point you in the right direction for anything you might need. It used to be a mildly serious addiction, then realizing I had a problem I switched to greenheart wooden rods, lately I've been eying combination rods made of whole cane, Greenheart, Lancewood and or split cane.

Tom

Tom

[oc1]

Tom, where-the-heck did you find greenheart?  I looked once but came up empty and had to go with ipe (bethabara)
-steve

[TRS]

Steve
I purchased Greenheart dowls and unfinished turned sections in England (my daughter lives there) and brought them back as luggage.  I have bought most of my rods from England via the big auction site UK version.  The draw back is shipping!!, I have bought numerous rods where the shipping was double the cost of the rod.  I have been offered various large 14 to 20 foot single piece Greenheart rods, just never wanted to pay the shipping.

If your interested in greenheart let me know what format and I'll try to find you a source,  your best bet may be to repurpose an existing rod.  One of my favorites for conventional fishing is Hardy's Everyman model greenheart pike rod.

Tom

[oc1]

Gulp!  I doubt that I'll be buying many Hardy rods.  Do you know anyone over there who would ship three to five foot dowels or a 3' to 5' piece of half to one inch thick lumber?  Long lumber and long one-piece rods are nice, but there are financial limits you know.

I read somewhere that if you had a good long hardwood rod (back in their day) it would be too long to bring into the house, yet you wouldn't want to leave it outside after the fishing season.  Instead, you would have a two or three piece rod held together by lashings that were tied for the season.  After the season it was untied and the pieces brought indoors away from the weather.

-steve

edit: I mean shipped by a commercial lumber establishment, not your daughter.  She probably thinks your weird already. 

[TRS]

Steve,
Don't fear the Hardy, other than unbranded, they have been my cheapest Greenhearts I have never payed more than $100 for a Hardy pike rod. Most of them were less than $50, Hardy in the US has always been a high end company, in the UK they produced a full range of tackle, much of it for what is referred to as coarse fishing in the UK.  Spliced joints are interesting and we're used by most of the high quality big rod builders, I've passed on several, due to size, and unfamiliarity with the use of spliced joints.

Orvis offered Greenheart fly rods in thier 1978 and 1979 catalog's, I believe there were smaller one piece trout rods

I will look for a source of wood for you, when I got mine they were scarce, and much higher than common rods in need of restoration. 

Tom

[Crow]

Is this the type of lumber you guys are discussing ?

https://www.westwindhardwood.com/product/hardwoods/greenheart/

[TRS]

Crow,

That's the right species, thanks for the link.  I never looked for raw wood, having no lathe, dowls and turned sections were my interest. Hopefully they might have something for Steve.

Tom

[jon_elc]

there's grandpa's old bamboo rod hanging up in my mom's garage.  i'll pull it down next time and share some pics...

[Crow]

While doing some "surfing" on greenheart, I found this:
https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-2/greenheart