300 
FOREST AND STREAM 
every direction and noting the arch as well as 
their inclination to set. If they will not spring 
back straight, particularly when the rind is on 
the convex side of the curve, they may not be 
properly seasoned. If faults appear in these 
rejected strips, examine their mates, which you 
propose to use, but do not subject them to 
severe strains. The weeding out of poor ma¬ 
terial, if it is done at this stage, may save time 
and labor later on. See that the bamboo has 
no greenish hue, indicating that it is not sea¬ 
soned. It should be yellow and split far ahead 
of the knife blade. 
If six strips pass inspection, place them so 
that no two knots will be opposite or even near 
each other, saw off the ends and mark all of 
the strips, so that they cannot be reversed by 
accident. Dipping the butt ends in red ink is a 
good plan. Number them from i to 6 on the 
rind side. They should be some three inches 
longer than the finished joint is to be, so that 
you will have leeway in trimming the ends. 
Sharpen your plane on an oilstone until its 
edge is very keen. Bamboo requires the utmost 
care in planing, and a dull tool must not be 
used on it. Set the plane yery fine and test it 
on a rejected strip of cane. It is well, too, to 
put an old glove on your left hand while you 
hold the cane in place in planing and filing it. 
A slip may result disastrously, for the rough 
edge of a triangular strip of cane will make a 
jagged wound. 
If your material is Tonkin cane, the same 
rules laid down for Calcutta may be applied 
to it. 
You will now prepare to bevel two sides of 
each one of your strips, to make its section 
triangular, with the apex exactly opposite the 
center of the enamel base, and the angle formed 
by the two sides to be 60 degrees, as illustrated 
in Fig. 44. 
There are “forty-’leven” ways to do the rough 
beveling, and as many more methods employed 
in finishing the strips. You can begin to bevel 
the strips in the grooved edge of a tongued- 
and-grooved board. Another way is to nail a 
strip of wood near the edge of your work bench, 
forming a right-angled rabbet. Some rodmakers 
use a hardwood block with rabbets cut in two 
corners. Still another plan is to prepare two 
blocks like those illustrated in Fig. 41, with the 
angle of the groove 60 degrees. 
I like the grooved board referred to, in the 
chapter on “One-Piece Bait-Casting Rods.” You 
can procure a piece about four feet long and 
keep it handy. It is serviceable for rounding 
wood rods, for squaring bamboo strips, which 
lie well in the groove; and for the preliminary 
beveling of these strips. This piece of board, 
and the hardwood block illustrated in Fig. 42, 
will answer all your requirements in split cane 
work. 
Some amateurs, however, like to use blocks 
similar to those illustrated in Fig. 41. To make 
these, procure two pieces of seasoned hard¬ 
wood. Cherry, birch or maple will be better 
than oak; beech will answer. Make the blocks 
four feet long, 2 inches wide and \ l / 2 inches 
thick. Plane off the corners as indicated by 
the dotted lines in Fig. 41. Plane very carefully, 
a little at a time, then fasten the two blocks 
temporarily in the vise while you test the 
groove with the handy little gauge illustrated 
in Fig. 43. This is a center gauge costing 
twenty cents at hardware shops, and it not only 
has three 60-degree notches, but scales gradu¬ 
ated in I4tbs, 20ths, 24ths and 32ds of an inch. 
As it is tempered steel, you can true up the 
groove with it and with a three-cornered file 
fig. 41. 
from which the handle has been removed. Both 
the gauge and the file have angles of 60 degrees. 
The depth of the groove does not so much mat¬ 
ter as its shape, for on this depends the char¬ 
acter of your finished strips. 
When satisfied that one of the grooves is 
correct, fasten the two blocks securely with at 
least four screws, reverse and true up the other 
groove. 
We will assume, for the sake of brevity and 
simplicity, that your first groove is to be for 
the rough beveling of the strips of the butt joint 
of a two-piece rod, whose diameter at the large 
end is to be 15-32 of an inch, and at the small 
end 9-32. We will also assume that the depth 
of the groove is uniformly J^-inch from end to 
end. Secure the block against shifting and 
plane its face until the depth of the groove at 
one end is 15-64 and at the other 9-64 inch. To 
be certain there are no uneven places, test with 
a straight edge, both lengthwise and across the 
block, then mark its entire face with a pencil. 
FIG 44. FIG. 45. FIG. 46. 
The depth of the second groove will range 
from 9-64 to 3-64, assuming that the tip end 
of your rod is to be 3-32 inch when finished. 
Now place a squared strip of cane in the 
large groove of your block, with the rind at one 
side, and take off a very fine shaving with your 
plane. Turn the strip and plane the other side, 
being careful to go over the knots with a shear¬ 
ing motion, else the plane will “bite” into the 
[Feb. 22 , 1908 . 
| 
knots. See that you do not take off any of the 
face of the block, which you marked with 
pencil for this purpose. 
By this time your strip will be roughly tri¬ 
angular, but the edges should not be sharp. 
Take up another strip and bevel it in the same 
fashion and so on until the six strips are ready 
for the finer work. 
Turn the block over and bevel the strips for the 
tips in the shallow groove, then lay the block 
aside. Some amateurs finish their strips in 
grooves of this sort, but it is so difficult to make 
a perfect groove of this length, and to prevent 
the strip from rolling, that the following-method 
is the better one: 
For this purpose procure a block of hard 
maple, birch or beech, two inches thick, 2j4 
inches wide and six inches long. Make it fast 
in the vise and with a pencil draw four parallel 
lines from end to end. With a saw cut shallow 
grooves on these marks. Take up your three- 
cornered file and cut the first groove. Its bot¬ 
tom will be slightly round, as the edge of the 
file is rather blunt, but you can true up the 
groove with the point of your steel gauge (Fig. 
43 )- Cut the first groove 15-64, *the second 
13-64, the third 11-64, and the fourth 9-64 inch 
deep. In this work the utmost care must be 
exercised to keep the top side of the file level 
with the surface of the block, to keep the angles 
of the groove perfect. 
Turn the block over, draw four or five lines 
as before, groove them with the saw, and file 
the grooves. (See Fig. 42.) Make the first 
one hi-inch deep, the second 7-64, the third 3-32, 
the fourth 5-64 and the last one 1-16 inch deep. 
These are for your tips, which require the 
greatest care; therefore the grooves may be 
safely made uniform in depth and you can shift 
steadily to a smaller groove as you file from the 
large to the small end. Cover both faces of the 
block with pencil marks, to assist you in keep¬ 
ing the file out of contact with the block. 
Fastening this block in the vise with the larger 
set of grooves up, begin with one of the strips 
for the butt of your rod. Lay it in the largest 
groove with the enamel at one side, and com¬ 
mencing at the butt end work your flat file for¬ 
ward and back, being careful to hold it parallel 
with the face of the block. Turn the strip often, 
in order that you may be sure to keep the angles 
true, and go from groove to groove until the 
strip is reduced evenly throughout its length, 
beginning again in the largest groove and con¬ 
tinuing as before, until the strip will lie in the 
groove flush with the surface of the block, no 
matter which side is uppermost. Do not attempt 
to file across the grain of your strip, as it will 
sliver if you do. The plane cannot with safety 
be used in finishing strips. The proper tool for 
this is the flat file. 
Test all angles of the strip frequently with 
the little steel gauge, going from end to end, 
filing, testing, sighting along the strip, blowing 
the dust out of each groove before laying the 
strip in it. 
Proceed in like fashion with the other strips, 
each one of which must be an equilateral tri¬ 
angle in section; that is, excepting the convexity 
of the rind side. In other words, the apex of 
the triangle must be exactly opposite the center 
of the enamel base, as in Fig. 44, and the angle 
formed by the two pith sides 60 degrees. Each 
of the edges must be sharp, and in order to 
