182 AMATEUR RODMAKING 



waste of two perfectly good cents. Tonkin is 

 used by all first-class rodmakers, and al- 

 though some of them may sigh for the good 

 old days of the Calcutta rod, in the final analy- 

 sis they will admit albeit modestly that they 

 are making mighty good rods to-day. The 

 truth is that their best rods are better by far 

 than any that grandpa ever made of any ma- 

 terial. What more, then, does any amateur 

 rodmaker want? 



Tonkin cane comes to our markets in bun- 

 dles of two sizes. The longer canes are six 

 feet or a trifle more in length, and the average 

 diameter is about ij^ inches. The canes in 

 the shorter bundles are about 3^ feet long, 

 and their diameter is about i inch. These are 

 used for tips or are bored and capped for tip 

 tubes. 



From the six-foot canes select at least three, 

 being particular to pick those in which the dis- 

 tance between knots varies. As a rule the dis- 

 tance between knots is quite uniform, but I 

 have seen canes which had only three knots. 

 In some the knots are very close together near 

 the root, and far apart at the top end. Of 

 course, the shorter the joints of your rod are 

 to be, the more latitude will you have in match- 

 ing up the strips, but if you are planning to 



