SPLIT BAMBOO RODMAKING 199 



best rods are equipped with pinned ferrules, 

 and it is seldom indeed that one of them ever 

 comes loose, even when kept in very dry places. 

 In selecting the guides for your rod, try to 

 procure tops fitted with phosphor-bronze, or, 

 failing in that, hard steel rings. For the hand 

 guide agate is all right, though I dislike agates 

 for fly rods for the reason that they are so 

 easily broken. Bronze is better in every way, 

 and as it is a so-called greasy metal, it wears 

 but slowly, and to offset this the rings may be 

 turned now and then and cemented with a drop 

 of shellac. For the other guides, select bronzed 

 steel snake rings, and have them a trifle large 

 rather than too small, so that the line will ren- 

 der through them freely. It is a curious fact 

 that the total number of guides for a fly rod 

 is generally 13. May it be a lucky number 

 with you. 



