201801 - Issue 58 Description

January 2018
Issue 58

Power Fibers is published in Adobe Acrobat format. To view the magazine, you must download the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can get it here.

To get this issue, order the 2018 Issue CD on the “Backissue CDs” page.

The January, 2018 issue of Power Fibers contains:

Building a Hollow-Built Bamboo Switch Rod

I thought it would be fun to document my pro-cess along the way, so here are some early photos. First, the bamboo is selected and split. For this Switch Rod, four pieces of matching bamboo were used...

Seven Section Interchangeable Rod

When I started on this project, my vision was to build an all-purpose rod that was not only inter-changeable for a variety of conditions, but one that offered a different action supplied by two mids and four tips in variable lengths and dimensions. The rod is basically a 5/6 weight but will cast a range of lines from 4 to 7, subjectively. Depending upon the configuration...

Nodeless Construction

Nodeless construction of bamboo fly rods of-fer some advantages and requires its own tech-niques. I have developed several methods and jigs that make the process much smoother for me. What follows are some of these methods and tools. This is what works for me.

The initial step is to saw out the nodes and ap-proximately 3-4 cm on each side of the node. This leaves the beautiful straight grained...

Rod Turning Chuck

I acquired a 6 RPM gear motor from a electric surplus company on the web. I planned to make a rod turning setup for varnishing wraps. To do this, I would need to make a rod chuck for the motor...

Some Myths of Bamboo Rodmaking and Beyond

What is fascinating about our craft is making a graceful, highly flexible fishing rod from a natural material, which has nodes and often has not grown straight. The deeper I became involved with rod making, the more questions arose for me about processing methods, bamboo species used, and the occurrence of bamboo. The scientific literature contains few facts about Tonkin (Pseudosasa ama-bilis, in the past the scientific name was Arundinaria amabilis), the bamboo species which is used almost exclusively for rod making...

Making a Basket Weave Rattan Handle

The concept of making such a grip presented itself in the mid-2000’s when I found myself with way too much idle time. Upon experimenting with three fly grip styles; Half Wells, Cigar, and Reverse Half Wells aka Western style, I concluded that a 6.5” to 7.5” inch RHW style with its shape, taper and contours was better suited for the basket weave design and just seemed to look better than the others. After making several recent basket weave fly grips...