RODS AND ROD MAKING. 45 



be twisted or bent over the charcoal of the tackle 

 maker. 



The other solid rod woods are ash and willow. The 

 former, which in weight is between willow and hickory 

 (willow being the lightest of all), is extensively used for 

 hollow butts of bottom and trolling rods, as it bores well 

 and is of good medium strength. It is also used for the 

 solid butts of salmon rods. For middle joints it has been 

 found too weak and yielding, the difference in strength 

 between ash and greenhart being such that a top made 

 of the latter would be as strong, or very nearly, as the 

 joint next below it of the former. 



Willow is a good deal used for the butts of common 

 rods, as it '' bores" more readily than any other wood ; 

 indeed its centre is little harder than the pith of a reed. 

 In seasoning, both ash and willow require more care to 

 make them " usable" than do the heavier woods. Fir is 

 also occasionally used for solid butts. 



I now come to the hollow woods, or canes and bam- 

 boos. Of these by far the most valuable, indeed the 

 only one which can be used properly in either trolling- 

 or fly-rods, is that grown in the East Indies — commonly 

 known as the " mottled" bamboo — which has a consider- 

 able thickness throughout its length, and in the upper 

 parts is almost solid. There is another East India cane, 

 which is quite solid but lacking elasticity. It goes 

 amongst the tackle makers by the expressive name of 

 " puddeny." 



