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More details for those of you who are curious. Power fibers, why are they important? these are what gives the bamboo flyrod it's action. More and denser power fibers are what rod makers want in their rods when all is said and done. The enamel is the outside layer of the bamboo culm that...

I managed to make a quick recording of Bill making some curls of bamboo. If you listen the plane shaving the bamboo strip sounds very similar to stripping a wrapping ribbon over scissors to make a decorative bow for a present. Mike

Making a bamboo fly rod is not a quick process by any means. We are moving three steps forward then two steps back at times. You would think it's frustrating but really all it is doing is letting you know you should have spent a bit more time on the previous step. The fewer times you have to...

We really got to enjoy some nice weather and a fine assortment cane rods to test cast. Aso lot of friends to chat with and compare rod making and casting notes with. I Always look forward to face to face time with those I chat with online and in messages. Mike

Got the rods ready for the Fling tomorrow

Bill and I had another rod making session today. We are zeroing in on the base strips now. Bill planed a strip and for some reason it was under sized so he had to grab another strip and try again and we tried to figure out what went wrong. The second strip was much better, good enough to...

Damn you are getting pretty fancy on the wraps Steve!

I think it's time to bring this to the top again. The date is Sunday May 3rd, 10am till 2pm roughly time wise. The location is Cascade View Park Redmond Wa. Here is the address, 16202 NE 40th St, Redmond, WA 98052 I hope to see many of you there again this year. I'll be bringing about 9...

Oh, and you might see that strip of cardboard with the numbers on it near the form. That is a drywall shim strip that I mark all my station settings on so I can check the strip for accuracy. The nice thing is that for each taper I make I have this to set the form to the taper it represents and...

Today Bill planed down one base strip to the form surface to test the "set" that I applied earlier in the process. After a few adjustments and some head scratching, we are now VERY close to the measurements we want at each of the set stations. The strip that Bill was planing for this turned...

Well after a spring vacation on a Cruise Ship it's time to get back to Bill's adventure making a bamboo fly rod. We are moving on the important details now. Time to try to hit some numbers repeatably every 5" on six strips to complete a tapered strip for a section before glue up. At each of...

Thank you for the kind words and posting. Mike

We do have the Bellinger Planing forms set to the taper (recipe) for the base section of the Martha Marie taper we have decided on. This is the thicker section with the grip and reel seat. We are planing all the tip strips in this first. The reason for this is to check the taper we have the...

Sunday the 3rd might be a bit quieter at the Cascade Crest Park.

How about we focus on the 2nd or the 3rd of May. The following weekend is Mother's Day weekend so that might be an issue for some of us, mainly me.

In an effort to continue the past tradition, is there any interest in another day casting and talking bamboo fly rods? Looking back to the 2025 event we met the first weekend of May.

Looks like a fun outing.

More planing today but we are moving on to the adjustable forms. Here is Bill making bamboo curls.

I'll describe the planing forms and how they are to be able to create such small strips necessary for the tip section. The forms are 60" long, two steel bars about 1" square. Along the sides of these every 5" there are two set screws, one will push the bars apart, the other will draw them...