March 9, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
touching the surface very lightly, to smoothe it 
evenly. 
Set each joint on end in a warm place free 
from all dust and out of the wind or any draft 
that may carry particles of dust. When the rod 
is varnished entire, joint it up and suspend from 
a brad in a warm place where no person or ob¬ 
ject will touch it for three days. It will dry in a 
few hours, but should not be touched until the 
varnish is hard. Drying the rod in the sun, 
while not always harmful, is likely to expose it 
to the wind and dust as well, and the summer 
sun is too hot. Choose a dry day for the work. 
Clean the brush carefully with hot water and 
soap and dry it in a place free from dust. Keep 
the varnish bottle tightly corked and expose it 
to the air as little as possible. 
Renewing Windings. 
Now take up a rod that has a frayed or loose 
winding here and there. Cut all these off and 
prepare to renew. Tackle dealers will supply you 
with rod silk. The standard is cerise or flame- 
red, size o (fine) and 00 (very fine). Light 
green is generally another standard color, but no 
matter what the color chosen, it must be one or 
two shades lighter than your first choice, as all 
silk darkens when waxed and varnished, and it 
will lose its sheen. Avoid lilac, purple and other 
delicate shades, as they will fade on exposure 
to the sun. Orange is a good color, and if you 
desire less of the so-called barber-pole effect 
a few anglers object to, select cream-colored silk 
which is practically transparent under the var¬ 
nish. If you must depend on dry goods stores 
for silk, A is usually the smallest size obtainable, 
and will answer, although it is less neat than 
the finer sizes on trout rods. The larger the 
rod the coarser may the silk be, and the writer 
winds the guides of his salt water rods with 
button-hole silk, which is strong enough for a 
fishing line. For trout rods and light bait-cast¬ 
ing rods 00 is the best size for all windings. 
If the windings are for beauty alone, putting 
them on without wax will tend to preserve their 
color, but this is not advisable in any event, and 
particularly not on dry wood. On a new rod, 
with the preliminary coat of varnish a trifle 
soft, yet not tacky, unwaxed silk will adhere 
when it will not on hard varnish. Provided the 
silk is treated with absolutely colorless wax in 
clean hands, it will keep its color fairly well, 
but after the first two or three windings are in 
place and shellacked, the tyro will understand 
why dark shades of silk cannot well be used. 
For example, dark green silk, waxed, but not 
shellacked, will turn almost black. Wax causes 
the silk to grip the wood firmly and water¬ 
proofs the wood in places where there is only 
one coat of varnish. A split bamboo rod. prop¬ 
erly made and cemented, will give a good ac¬ 
count of itself without windings, provided it is 
not exposed to rain or actual soaking. Follow¬ 
ing this line of reasoning, some rodmakers hold 
that winding a rod does not strengthen it 
materially. This may be true of rods whose 
windings are i )/ 2 or 2 inches apart, but if these 
are placed an inch or less apart, they do 
strengthen the rod. A rod that is soft in action 
can be stiffened noticeably by close windings or 
by winding continuously from end to end in 
spiral form, provided the spirals are not so close 
together as to come under the descriptive term 
“solidly woundfor, curiously enough, while 
solid winding strengthens a rod, it also renders 
it soft in action, loading it down with a non- 
resilient sleeve filled with wax and varnish. 
I do not advocate continuous spiral winding, 
but I believe in stiffening a rod in this manner 
if the need arises. The plan I have followed 
with satisfactory results is to start winding in 
the usual way, but after completing the usual 
ten or a dozen turns, instead of cutting the 
silk and pulling the end under, I follow the 
“band” by winding spirally (each spiral about 
1/32 of an inch from the next one) for an 
inch or more, then winding solidly ten or twelve 
turns, followed by another inch of spiral wind¬ 
ing, and so on to the first guide, where the silk 
ends. Another series of bands and spiral wind¬ 
ing is begun on the opposite side of the guide, 
ending at the second guide, or the ferrule, as 
the case may be. This spiral winding calls for 
three coats of varnish, which should fill the in¬ 
terstices between spirals, so that the surface of 
rod is entirely smooth, as otherwise a knock or 
rough handling will break the silk. The bands 
alone are coated with shellac. 
Silk wax is obtainable in the trade, or it can 
be made as follows, the formula being that 
recommended by J. H. Keene, the veteran ang¬ 
ling writer: 
Best yellow rosin, 2 ounces; white beeswax, 
sliced, 1 drachm; dissolve by heat and add fresh, 
unsalted lard, 2 x / 2 drachms. Stir ten minutes, 
pour into water and pull. 
Another formula, which is recommended by 
Colonel R. F. Meysey-Thompson, the famous 
English author, follows: 
Powdered white rosin, gum arabic and lano- 
line, one part each; or two parts rosin and no 
gum arabic. Simmer together until melted, add 
a few drops of essence of lemon, pour into 
cold water, pull and roll until of the proper con¬ 
sistency, when it can be cut into cakes and 
wrapped in chamois skin. If too soft, add rosin; 
if too hard, add lanoline. Obviously it must be 
kept free from dust. 
If the varnish is not to be touched, scrape 
the places where the old windings were the 
merest trifle with the point of a knife. Then 
lay out on your work table a small spool of 
button-hole silk, the silk to be used in wind¬ 
ing, wax, a pair of small scissors, and a very 
sharp knife. From the button-hole silk cut a 
piece three inches long, wax this, lay the ends 
together and draw it through the fingers until 
it will lie straight with the looped end ready 
for use. Wax the winding silk carefully a yard 
at a time, as used. Take up the joint <0 be 
wound, lay the silk along the rod, hold the 
end with the left thumb, and beedn the first 
circlet, toward the right, under the rod, over 
the end of silk, to the right, and under the rod 
again. Draw the winding as tight as possible, 
and it will adhere to the wood, so that you can 
hold the silk in the right hand, but by turning 
the rod to the left with that hand, wind evenly 
and closely. If it is to be a ten or twelve turn 
winding, after the sixth turn lay the loop of 
button-hole silk along the rod. loop toward the 
left, and wind over it. (If the winding is too 
38' 
narrow, the loop should be wound over from 
the beginning.) 
Count each complete turn, in order that all 
windings will be uniform (at least at first). At 
the end hold the wound silk under the thumb 
and snip it off an inch beyond the loop, tuck 
the end through the loop and pull the latter 
under the winding, the end of silk following. 
When the loop is free, pull on the end of wind¬ 
ing until tight, then shave it off even with the 
winding and cut the first end even with the 
last turn of silk. (This is often cut after five 
or six turns are wound on.) This method will 
be understood better by referring to the st'eAhes. 
which show the simplest one of several methods 
of forming so-called endless windings. 
When all the old windings have been re¬ 
newed, coat the silk, and it alone, with the best 
grain alcohol shellac, and while the shellac is 
fresh, pass it over a thin flame, turning the rod 
rapidly meanwhile. This will cement the wind¬ 
ing, wax and shellac and make a neat finish. 
After a second coat of shellac is dry, coat wind¬ 
ing with coach varnish, using a fine-pointed 
brush and letting the varnish extend a trifle be¬ 
yond the winding on each side. 
If guides must be rewound, fasten them in 
place temporarily with waxed thread and begin 
to wind with silk toward the guide and not 
away from it. In this way the end of guide-seat 
is covered first and the windings will be even, 
whereas if you begin next the guide the wax 
will slip on the slope of guide-seat and will not 
be neat. Where the guide is to be wound with 
two or more colors, as red with green edgings, 
the two outside edgings should be put on first, 
the original silk-end left without cutting, in 
order that the wider center band will grip it and 
hold all together. Both outside edgings being 
finished, wind the two wide bands, then the two 
inner edgings. Perry D. Frazer. 
Tip and Top. 
Annapolis Royal, N. S., March 1 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: The Americans seldom 
apply themselves to a sport without improv¬ 
ing it in some way, but they do not seem to have 
been so happy in the invention of new varieties 
of terminology. I may be quite wrong when I 
ascribe to our countrymen the change from top 
to tip, as descriptive of the uppermost joint of 
a fishing rod, but it is certain that the British 
have not used tip in this sense for many years 
if ever. 
May I be allowed to make a strenuous appeal 
for the readoption of the old and proper word 
top? A tip is, and should be understood to be, 
quite a different thing, namely the ringed de¬ 
vice fixed to the end of the top, through which 
the line passes. The correct use of these two 
little words would save a good many misunder¬ 
standings. Edward Breck. 
A Remarkable Fish Find. 
Curious articles have frequently been found 
in the stomachs of the various fish caught in 
Florida waters, but it remained for Ephraim W. 
Jones, a negro fisherman, who lives in the Styx 
district, to discover one of the most remarkable 
“finds.” 
Recently, while fishing off the pier, Jones 
caught a good-sized kingfish. Upon cleaning the 
fish he found a pair of ladies’ rimless eye glasses 
attached to a delicate gold chain. The glasses 
were in a fine state of preservation. Mr. Emer¬ 
son D. Prescott, superintendent of the Arche¬ 
ological Department at Washington, who Fas 
been a guest at the Royal Poinciana, heard of 
Mr. Jones’ find and bought the glasses from him. 
Mr. Prescott left for Washington recently.-* 
Palm Beach News. 
A Good Catch. 
A press dispatch from Palm Beach, Fla., dated 
Feb. 27, says William Dietsch, of New York 
city, and two companions caught ten amber 
jacks off Soldiers Key that morning with rods 
and reels, the fish averaging 50 pounds each. 
1 hese were school fish, evidently driven near 
shore by their larger enemies. 
Fig. 1 shows the first step in winding a rod (when separate pull-through loop is used). The end of the 
winding silk, a, is held under the thumb of the left hand, together with the loop, which is of heavy silk. 
() ne turn of the rod is made, the silk (c) binding the end, a. In Fig. 2, the form of the usual ornamental 
winding is shown. End of silk, c, is slipped through loop e and held with thumb until it (c) can be cut 
off with sharp scissors. The ends of loop d-e are then grasped, and loop and free end ( c ) of silk pulled 
under the winding, as illustrated in Fig. 3. The end, c, is then cut off close to the silk. (The end may 
be cut off after three or four turns, bind it, or after the end c is pulled through)) Fig. 4 shows the 
method of inserting loop, d-e in a wide winding, as for a ferrule end or guide. Fig. 5 shows a narrow 
hand of red and the beginning of a wide band of another color, say green. In this case, the end, a, of 
the red silk is not cut off, it serving to hold the two windings together. The loop is inserted in the green 
silk, as shown in Fig. 4. 
