142 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 2, 1913. 
Hand-Made vs. Machine-Made Rods 
By GEORGE M. CLOUSE 
T HE pendulum of the world’s movements, 
commercial and otherwise, is far spent to¬ 
ward low prices, great quantities and 
speed in everything. How soon will we learn 
the good lesson taught by older nations, viz.: 
that quality and efficiency are the goals toward 
which the pendulum of this country’s progress 
should and must ultimately swing? I believe 
the world to-day has awakened from a hypnotic 
age of graft, spoil, etc., and like Diogenes of 
old is going about with a searchlight hunting 
honest men. We who are lovers of the fly and 
bait rods are also awakening to realize that our 
beloved instruments, too, bear the stamp of 
speed, and I am afraid, inefficiency. Rods of 
low quality at high prices, or rods of high prices 
and low quality, whether it be “lowcockohiram 
or hicockoloram,” the purchaser frequently gets 
the same result in either case. 
What I may say about the machine-made 
rod is entirely without malice to any such maker, 
but will only be my honest convictions, without 
financial influence, and but a plea and a hope 
for the revival of the famous hand-made split 
bamboo rod of forty years ago. 
This in no way would be a step backward, 
for there are many such coveted rods in service 
to-day. One of these jewels is in my guarded 
keeping now, and its action and backbone I will 
wager would be equal to a hard battle with a 
ten-pound bass. 
What I mean by a machine-made rod is 
one whose strips are sawed and shaped by a 
machine planer. There are other characteristics, 
but these two processes are the most important, 
and upon which the classification is made. I 
will explain later on. Machine-made rods are 
not to be condemned, because of their low 
price, or inferior quality, or envied popularity; 
for they have their places in the fisherman's 
world—in the hands of the novice; for the fish¬ 
ermen who do not care for better rods; for 
those who think they cannot afford the price of 
a hand-made rod; and last, but not least, for 
the “tight-wad.” 
Tackle dealers should not regard machine- 
made rods in competition with hand-made rods 
for the reason that if a prospective buyer wanted 
a rod of one class, he is not likely to be in¬ 
terested in the other. The best grades of 
machine-made rods have as good a finish and 
appearance as any hand-made rod, and these 
deceptive qualities can be detected only by ac¬ 
tual use, and the short life of the rod. There 
is not an article made that can be so much alike 
and yet be so different as can be proven in 
machine-made rods from hand-made rods. The 
honest price of any article is an indication of 
its quality, efficiency, labor, or material; but this 
rule is frequently made too elastic when dealing 
in angling rods. 
A serious objection to the best grades of 
machine-made rods is the fact that they are fre¬ 
quently boldly and unscrupulously placed on the 
market as being hand-made and at a price equal 
to, more or less, than a genuine hand-made rod 
which costs from $15 to $25 each, while the 
actual cost of machine-made rods is about from 
$1 to $4 each. Now, if a machine-made rod and 
a hand-made rod are so much alike and yet so 
different, let us expose the difference to plain 
view. As a beginner, I will describe the main 
points in making both machine-made and hand¬ 
made rods. In the former the cane is cut to 
the length of the joint of the rod being made, 
and the growth joints are smoothed down by a 
machine. It is then sawed into strips which are 
fed to another machine and cut to the desired 
size and shape. Six of these strips are then 
dipped into glue and bound together with a cord 
wrapped on by another machine. The joint is 
then straightened and laid away to dry, after 
which it is smoothed down bv still another 
machine. The mounting, winding and varnish¬ 
ing are done by hand. In hand-made rods the 
cane butt only is cut to the desired length, the 
growth joints are smoothed down by a hand file. 
A strong jack-knife then splits it into strips which 
are reduced to near the desired size by a pen¬ 
knife. They are now laid on the form and 
planed to size and shape by a small hand plane, 
then glued and straightened, after which each 
is in various ways tested and classified. Usually 
many weeks are passed before this same joint 
is again tested, then smoothed by a hand file 
and steel wool, and finally mounted, wrapped 
and varnished. 
Here are now two rods made and yet the 
difference seems unimportant. But drive the 
probe still deeper. Now, I said that in machine- 
made rods the strips were sawed, and in hand¬ 
made rods they were split. Here is the first 
difference also seemingly of little importance. 
Now if the strips are sawed, the grain of the 
cane is ignored, and if they are split the grain 
must be parallel throughout. And of course the 
straight grain strips are most desired for a 
strong rod. To split is to seek for quality; to 
saw is to seek for economy and quantity. When 
the cane is split by hand, it is the first oppor¬ 
tunity for the maker to get acquainted with the 
cane; to know its varied qualities. 
By far the most important process of rod¬ 
making is shaping and sizing of the strips, and 
it is at this point alone that decision is reached 
as to the rod’s classification, and also where 
the most data is gathered by the rod-maker of 
hand-made rods, and it is here the greatest dam¬ 
age is done to the rods. First, we will consider 
the machine-planed strips, but before doing so 
allow me to say that bamboo cane is composed 
of a series of small tubes which give that springy 
and stiff nature to it. If you take a strip and 
tap it sharply with a hammer, then bend it as 
you did before, it will very likely break with 
short fibers where the hammer struck, because 
the little tubes were collapsed and the cane made 
lifeless and less strong according to the degree 
and extent of the crushing or pressing together 
these tubes or pores. Now this is just what 
takes place when a strip is forced through a 
machine planer, because a sufficient pressure 
must be made by the rollers to feed the strips 
to the cutters, and this pressure is great enough 
to impair the strength, life and action of the 
cane, and in turn of the rod to an unknown 
degree until the rod receives actual service suf¬ 
ficient to test it. Again, there is no opportunity 
or time, even if the machine had brains, to 
prevent a mixture of qualities of the cane; sec¬ 
ond, let us see about the strips treated by hand. 
One strip is laid into a groove of the length 
and size the finished product is to be, and planed 
with a small hand plane to an exact geometrical 
scale according to the form into which the 
maker has incorporated his own ideas and which 
always individualizes his rods. 
While this planing process is going on by 
the hand worker, he has found out whether the 
strip is hard or soft. He bends it to see if it 
is tough enough and whether or not it takes 
on a set, and by other sense of touch sees how 
resilient, how stiff, and how pliable it is. Then 
each strip as it is planed is classified with others 
having like qualities, so that when the rod is 
made up by such grouping of like to like, there 
will have been created a unit whose law is unto 
itself. It is here that the soul of the rod is 
born. Such a rod made from these scientific 
and. philosophical principles will be strong and 
true, reliable and not apt to warp, pleasurable 
and long lived. I may mention right here that 
the same piece of cane will produce strips whose 
properties may vary with each other; therefore, 
no conglomeration of unequaled and mismatched 
qualities is in a properly made hand-made rod. 
It will also be seen that it is impossible for a 
machine-made rod to hope to have these quali¬ 
ties so grouped that reliability of action and en¬ 
durance can be depended upon. 
Glue and gluing are smaller, but yet im¬ 
portant processes of rod-making. In machine- 
made rods the glue used is often cheap and is 
contained in small vats into which the strips 
are dipped, then bound with a cord by a machine. 
In hand-made rods the glue is the very best 
■'mported quality, costing about three times 
the price of the common grade. It is then 
brushed thoroughly into every pore of the strips 
which have been previously heated, then bound 
by hand with a very strong imported flaxen cord 
wrapped spirally from end to end, reversed and 
wrapped again. 
As to the mountings and the silk windings 
