ROD-MAKING. 448 



white, even to the heart, and the laminae remarkably close and 

 fine ; it breaks with a long splintery fracture, the very oppo- 

 site of lancewood, which though stiff and springy is not so 

 strong, but short and crisp in its grain. 



For trolling or bait rods, the butt may be of almost any 

 hard wood. If hollow, good maple or ash will do; some- 

 times holly is used in England. The s^ond piece should be 

 of good white ash or hickory; the third of hickory or iron- 

 wood ; and the tip of lancewood or the best-seasoned iron- 

 wood, or spliced bamboo, or East India reed, known as 

 " Malacca cane." 



Unless ordered in three, English fly-rods, intended for 

 Trout-fishing, are generally of four pieces. The woods mostly 

 used are, ash for the butt, and hickory for the second and 

 third joints. The tip for one-fourth or a third of its length, 

 of hickory or lancewood, and the remainder, out to the point, 

 of spliced bamboo. 



I would recommend for a Trout fly-rod, white ash for the 

 but, iron wood for the middle piece, and Malacca cane, rent 

 and glued, for the tip. The latter material is much superior 

 to the short-jointed bamboo used by professional rod-makers, 

 both in strength and elasticity, having a steel-like spring 

 which the bamboo does not possess, besides being longer 

 between the joints, and consequently requiring fewer splices. 

 The bamboo is seldom more than ten inches, while the cane 

 is frequently sixteen or eighteen inches between the joints, if 

 taken near the butt. 



The amateur rod-maker should be provided with a work- 

 bench six or eight feet long, and a vice on one side or at one 

 end of it, a drawing-knife, a jack and a fore plane, a large 

 coarse flat file (those used for sharpening mill-saws are best), 

 sand- paper, and several strips of wood about two feet long, 

 with grooves of different sizes in them. One of these pieces 

 of wood is to be screwed firmly in the vice, and the stick is 



