Nodes and Flaming

Today I worked on an order for a rod that was lightly flamed. When you look at the culms of bamboo you will see light and dark spots. When you sand off the enamel of the bamboo most of the real differences will come off. This will give the rod a more balanced color. This rod should end up as a light caramel color. This bamboo is currently at 6' long. I will cut it down to around 55" in order to line up the nodes correctly. 

There are two sets of culms in this picture. The one on the right will only have two sets of nodes on the finished sections. I will use this pair for tips. Since tips take most of the bending with the rod, I prefer to use the stronger pieces for that. When you are talking about a rod that is 8'4" long and only have two sets of nodes in the tip section that is pretty good. 

The second pair of culms (on the left) has more nodes and will be used for the butt sections. Since the butt sections have more material I prefer to use the pieces with the most nodes for these. I will be able to get two completed rods out of these four culms if all goes as planned. 

Right after Christmas I will be heading up to the Taylor River in Colorado to do some winter fishing. I have fished here quite a bit in the summer and this will be the first in the winter. It should be interesting.