62 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. ii, 1908. 
to machine tools, or who have been advised by 
professional rodmakers; but the average begin¬ 
ner at rodmaking will work with even poorer 
facilities, perhaps, than I have commanded, and 
for him the methods described may be of some 
value. Above all things I wish to make all steps 
plain and simple. They are not scientific, but 
are practical. 
It is folly for the beginner to attempt to make 
his first rod of split bamboo, or even to obtain 
glued-up stock and fit it. Instead, he should 
obtain that material which is easiest to manipu¬ 
late, and carry the work through to some sort of 
conclusion. Then, and only then, will he master 
the first step in rodmaking and begin to realize 
how easy and. yet how difficult it is to make a 
good rod. 
Without question split bamboo is the best mater¬ 
ial known to-day. If you can obtain the material 
in butts, joints and tips, glued-up, so that the 
“making” consists merely in finishing it and fitting 
hand-grasps, ferrules and trimmings, if care is 
exercised a very good rod will be the result. But 
I would strongly advise the novice not to at¬ 
tempt to make a split bamboo rod complete; at 
least not until he has had ample practice in mak¬ 
ing all-wood rods. Instead, pay a visit to some 
professional rodmaker, if this be possible, at a 
time when he is making split bamboo rods, and 
ask permission to watch him at work for a little 
while. If you do, my word for it, you will- go 
away a wiser if not a sadder man, for you will 
have obtained the correct impression that the 
skill necessary to finish the six slender strips 
and fit them together perfectly is beyond you at 
the time, even if you can secure bamboo that 
will prove to be worth cutting up. 
This is one of the difficulties encountered in 
rodmaking, for not all of the material that looks 
good will be worth the labor of cutting. I know 
one old rodmaker who, on splitting out his 
material, tests each slender strip by bending until 
the ends meet, then examining the circlet for 
w T eak spots, and if any show he smashes the 
whole piece and tries again—a severe test, but 
one that will show defects before further labor 
is wasted. Not that this is the correct test, but 
it is one of several, the most important one being 
an examination based on long experience. 
Some of the best rodmakers will supply you 
with glued-up butts and joints, and if you are 
determined to make your first rod of this material, 
select these somewhat longer than the joints of 
your rod-to-be, so that you can pick out the best 
part of each piece when you come to fitting the 
ferrules. Take only hand made stock, for 
machine made material is not always worth 
using. The hand made stock will cost more than 
you anticipate, but it is much cheaper in the 
end. If glued-up split bamboo is to be the 
material, the method of performing the different 
parts of the fitting will be the same as described 
further on for all-wood rods. 
Next to split bamboo in the woods easily ob¬ 
tainable in the open market comes washaba, or, 
as it is known in the trade, bethabara. This is 
a heavy wood, but it is nicely adapted to short 
bait-casting rods, and one can be made to weigh 
five to six and one-half ounces, and very slender, 
that will be exceedingly powerful and full of 
ginger. Hence the weight of bethabara does not 
signify. Bethabara slightly resembles butternut 
or a light grade of black walnut in color; with 
this exception, that when freshly sawed the sur¬ 
face is covered with greenish yellow dust, very 
heavy and a bit sticky to the touch, giving one 
the impression that the wood has been sprinkled 
with yellow ochre. The wood being so hard, 
the rough saw marks hide the grain, and it is 
difficult to tell a good piece from a bad one. 
Look closely at all sides, or better, scrape two 
sides until the grain will show, and if there are 
any knots or if the corners show splinters that 
may be broken off short, discard it and look 
further. Pound the sticks smartly on the floor 
and examine closely for worm holes, which, al¬ 
though very small, are fatal to good material. 
I have said that the wood shows dust of a 
greenish-yellow color, but this seems partially 
absent in some bethabara. I prefer the grade 
which shows this characteristic, and which the 
English rodmakers call green washaba; but the 
brown washaba, the grade that does not, is much 
harder and has a closer and longer grain in the 
perfect pieces, although it seems more difficult 
to get perfect pieces in this grade. Hence it 
is well to stick to the green or dusty grades, which 
run nice as a rule and can be planed from 
both ends and on all sides with impunity. Some 
dealers sell other varieties 'of imported woods 
for bethabara, and some try to supply very poor 
greenheart instead; but reliable men may be de¬ 
pended on to give you what you ask for. 
The fine shavings from bethabara are so wiry 
and tough that a handful of them can be used 
for a long time in polishing finished joints. They 
cling together totally unlike those from green- 
heart, which are short and very brittle. 
Bethabara logs are sawed into planks which 
go to the rodmakers in thicknesses of seven- 
eighths of an inch, sometimes more. Generally 
the lumbermen cut logs into pieces seven-eighths 
by one inch and three feet long, but you can get 
other lengths. These pieces must be ripped. If, 
however, they will cut the material to your 
order, it will be well to have the butt five-eighths 
of an inch and the tips three-eighths for a two- 
piece rod. There is a good deal of cutting before 
you can be satisfied with the squared stock; and 
another thing, you must decide which end of 
your stock is to be the butt, or large end, be¬ 
fore you begin to taper it. 
There are two or three peculiarities about this 
wood that will astonish you at first. Stock that 
is cut thin may be very crooked. I have worked 
pieces so crooked that it seemed a waste of time 
to do anything with them, but after they were 
finished and the rod hung up by the top on a 
brad driven into the wall, all the kinks soon dis¬ 
appeared and the rod became as straight as a 
perfect arrow. 
This method of straightening is advisable with 
any rod, and especially tips. Where rods are 
put away in tackle cabinets or closets, with all 
parts tied up in a cloth partition case, it very 
often happens that one of the strings of the case 
is tied more securely than the others, thus bend¬ 
ing the tips slightly; and, if left in this shape 
for long, with perhaps some heavy object rest¬ 
ing against all, a very crooked rod may be taken 
out later on. Even standing joints on the floor 
with the tops resting against the wall may warp 
them. Better hang tips up, and the whole rod, 
too, if practicable. Dealers who handle the 
finest wood rods often suspend them all from 
the tops in cases made for this purpose. 
Bethabara as a rule does not warp or take set 
easily, but cut any wood into thin strips and 
throw it about and it will warp out of shape. 
Varnish puts an end to this, as it prevents rapid 
changes of temperature from affecting the wood 
easily. 
In preparing to work bethabara, put on a pair 
of overalls or a long apron. The dust is very 
penetrating and somewhat sticky, and there is an 
oily substance that adheres to the edge of the 
plane, dulling it until removed. Wash your 
hands with soap and water, and you will be 
surprised to see the water turn a deep salmon 
color, and the lather from the soap just like 
so much red paint. No stain need be feared, 
however, although old rodmakers tell me that 
after continued working of this wood, their hair 
takes on a slight pinkish shade, due, evidently, 
to the action of the alkali in the soap. 
Dagama in perfect pieces is even more easily 
obtainable than bethabara, and of all the rod 
materials known I strongly advise the beginner 
to make his first rod of dagama. He will have 
less difficulty in working it, is more likely to get 
first-class stock of nice straight grain, and it will 
give him good satisfaction. Having in mind the 
disappointing experiences I had in my first at¬ 
tempts to work bethabara, due for the most part 
to poor material, I asked several of the best 
known firms of rodmakers for their opinions, and 
these agreed perfectly with my own, which is 
that while first-class bethabara will give better 
satisfaction, dagama of good quality is more 
easily obtained, can be worked to better advan¬ 
tage by the novice, and will make a good 
rod. 
Dagama comes from Cuba and is rather com ■ 
mon. The tree grows to a height of forty or 
fifty feet and has few branches. As a rule it 
comes in billets six or seven feet long, split from 
the log, but as these are not expensive, the 
novice who expects to make two or three rods 
can use the best part of a billet to advantage. 
The wood is rather white when first split, but 
exposure to the air turns it pale yellow and it 
darkens slightly when made up into rods. _ It 
resembles lancewood so closely that unless pieces 
of both are placed side by side it is difficult to 
tell which is which. Its grain is closer and 
straighter than that of lancewood, however, and 
it has none of the pins or knots that characterize 
lancewood and make that wood so unsatisfac¬ 
tory to work. Dagama is light, stiff and elastic, 
breaks with a long, splintering fracture, some¬ 
what like hickory, is easy to work with or across 
the grain, and may be highly polished. Ferrules 
slightly larger than those used on bethabara will 
answer. 
Early References to the Reel. 
Mr. R. B. Marston, in an editorial note in the 
Fishing Gazette, says: 
“Forest and Stream, of New York, says that 
the Sporting and Dramatic News, of London, is 
authority for the statement that the earliest book 
reference to the use of the reel in angling is 
found in the ‘Gentleman’s Recreation,’ by David 
Cox, dated 1721. This is a mistake. Cox merely 
copied previous writers on angling. In a little 
book I wrote about fifteen years ago, called 
•Walton and Some Earlier Writers on Angling,’ 
I pointed out that both Walton and Barker be¬ 
fore him described the reel, or wheel, or winder; 
this was in the middle of the previous century. 
Barker used a 16 foot salmon rod.” 
