ROD- MAKING. 451 



reduced and rounded ; any number of them can be prepared 

 at the same time. For several reasons, it is better that the 

 last ten or twelve inches of a tip for a Trout fly-rod should 

 be a single piece ; that is, the piece itself should be a unit, not 

 rent and glued after the manner just described; for in reducing 

 so delicate a part, if quadrupled, the four pieces are apt to be 

 of unequal thickness. Besides, the point of the tip is more 

 apt to get wet than the lower part, and of course would be 

 more apt to divide or split apart when so small a portion of 

 glue is used. A tip made in this way should be wrapped at 

 intervals of an inch along its whole length; six or eight turns 

 of fine silk at each wrapping are sufficient ; each separate 

 wrapping should be fastened off with the invisible knot. 



The middle piece of a Trout fly-rod may be made without 

 splices, by splitting a piece of Malacca cane through the 

 joints, the whole length required, avoiding the root of the 

 shoot, or bud, represented in the drawing of a piece of cane 

 below. There is only one bud or shoot at each joint, and as 



they occur alternately on opposite sides, they can be easil) 

 avoided in splitting. Tips may be made in the same manner 

 the quarters being drawn through the V tool, and glued and 

 finished as already described. Tips for Salmon-rods made in 

 this way are unequalled. 



The only alleged objection to rent and glued tips is, that 

 they require care in keeping them from getting wet. I 

 have fished with them for more than ten years, and only on 

 one occasion, when I persisted in fishing all day in a rain, 

 have I found them defective in this particular, and then only 

 because the varnish had worn off. This was before I resorted 

 to oiling my rods, and when I did not have the wrappings so 



