26 AMATEUR RODMAKING 



winding. Rods wound solidly with silk on a 

 machine are bound in all places with equal 

 pressure, and if this winding gives strength, as 

 claimed, the strengthening medium is uniform. 

 In winding by hand you will at first lay the silk 

 on with the greatest tension you can exert, but 

 it is tedious work, and after a few minutes your 

 fingers will begin to cramp and ache and you 

 will wind less carefully. When you stop to 

 rest the tension is relaxed, then you resume 

 with vigor, and so on until the long contract 

 is finished. The result must be that the silk is 

 wound so tight in places that it will cut into the 

 wood when the preserving medium causes it to 

 shrink; elsewhere there will be loose spots, fol- 

 lowed by tight places anything but uniform 

 winding, giving you a soft rod. 



In this way you may defeat your purpose, 

 yet never know where the real fault lies. Ten 

 to one the wood will be given the blame, as 

 being poor, and you may try the same thing 

 with another rod, to be again disappointed. 



It can be said with perfect safety that six- 

 strip split bamboo is to-day the favorite fishing 

 rod material in the United States. More rods 

 of this sort are used in fly-and bait-casting for 

 fish and in tournaments than all other mate- 

 rials combined. They are even replacing solid 



