Welcome to Karma Kamp. We look forward to personally guide you through the bamboo rod building process, so you can learn and implement the techniques needed to build your very own bamboo fly rod.
If you have ever felt the pride of catching a fish on fly that you have tied, you will LOVE the feeling when that fly is attached to a bamboo rod that has a piece of your soul guiding it.
Good Bamboo
Good bamboo is based on a number of factors, but one of the most important is the presence of power fibers. Power fibers are located on the outermost edge of good Tonkin Cane and the thicker and deeper they are toward the lumen or interior of the bamboo culm: the better. The power fibers are seen in this picture as the dark "stippling" on the outer edges. This is a scrap piece from a very nice piece of bamboo, that was used to build a 6/7# fly rod.
From Culm to Rod
The process of taking a whole piece of bamboo and turning it into a fishable rod, involves many steps and hours of work. However, the process is what makes fishing with cane so special. At Karma Kane Rods, we are willing to provide instruction in both classroom and personal settings, where we will assist and guide you through the many steps needed for rod completion. and hopefully shorten your learning curve. This is how we learned to work with cane and we would be honored and humbled to pass this knowledge on to you. Our instruction will involve both theory and technique as we know it, but the actual work will be performed by you. At times we will work side by side in order to complete a task, but in other instances you will be left alone with your tools, cane, and thoughts.
Bamboo Splitting Tools
In order to split the culm of bamboo into workable strips, the bamboo rod builder will use a bamboo froe and mallet to start the split. Various methods are used to guide the split to obtain multiple strips of 1/4" width. This is a difficult skill to master, but it can be done with practice.
Good Planes
Good adjustable hand planes with sharp blades are a necessary component of the rod builders arsenal. There are many good planes out there, but typically the bamboo rod builder will choose a hand plane similar to the old Stanley 9 1/2 block plane. Techniques for sharpening and planing will be disseminated.
So what do you say?
How about you give us a call or shoot us an email, grab a plane, and start working with cane!
[email protected] or 616-502-0573
[email protected] or 616-502-0573
