Split Cane Fishing Rods - An Overview
(Originally written in February, 1998 By Ian Scott)
Garrison. Payne. Thomas. Leonard. Names from the past that almost any classic rod afficiondo knows and maybe dreams of owning. What is the mystique of a split cane or bamboo fishing rod? Perhaps some would think it is in the history. Others appreciate the 40 hours plus of labour that goes into a fine handmade cane rod. Although many anglers and collectors associate split cane with days gone by, of anglers that wouldn't dare to be seen casting without a tie and jacket, there are still many today that shun modern technology, modern fibres, and who scoff at talk of high modulus and high speed rods. Many of those anglers would far rather forgo the wispy light advanced synthetics of today for a heavier natural material tool they claim offers grace, superb castability, and a far superior sense of really fishing.
Resources For Anglers would like to briefly introduce anglers to the world of split cane rods and those, who even today, believe that anything else is just not worth it. Hopefully even those who do enjoy the feel of a finely made cane rod will find this presentation from RFA interesting. If nothing else, perhaps a greater understanding and appreciation of cane.
Let's take a look at the history, the materials, and those even in this day and age who still spend loving hours at their craft.
Cane: What It Is
Far be it for us to assume that everyone knows what cane, as referring to fishing rods is. Most perhaps do know that cane is actually bamboo.
Bamboo species grow all over the world, and it is generally accepted that it is a member of the Grass family. There are many subspecies of bamboo, many of which require particular climate conditions to grow and thrive. Apart from fishing rods, bamboo has found many uses, including ornamental, furniture material, and pulp and paper. It has been used to make a type of plywood. Floors maybe made from bamboo. Even musical instruments are manufactured from this species.
Although other sub-species have been tried, Tonkin Cane (Arundinaria amabilis) is the favored bamboo type used in the making of split cane fishing rods. Until the early 1900's Calcutta cane, from India was the choice of craftsmen for the finest rods.
Tonkin, or "The lovely bamboo"as the latin name is loosely translated, grows only in the Guangdong Province of China, and for many years there was a shortage of the material in the Western world due to trade embargoes. Only recently has the supply of Tonkin become more available, and even so, quality cane is still not dependable, with often half of a shipment junked for not meeting standards.
As trade with China increases, it is hoped that the supply of Tonkin will improve in the future.
Brief History
Who ever thought of splitting a piece of bamboo, planing and tapering the split pieces then rejoining them to make a multi sided fishing rod?
Up until cane became the material of choice for rods, wood was the natural and perhaps only material that could be used. In Izaac Walton's day, rods were often made of elder, ash, chestnut, oak, or hazel, were often 19 feet or longer in length and certainly weighed an immense amount comparitively speaking. Eventually, greenheart became a wood of choice to make fishing rods with, as the wood could be finely carved and tapered to a fine point and it had the necessary characteristics; the right 'flex', was strong, and when casting became a practice, had the ability to cast lines well.
There were many ingenious practices in the 'old' days to make rods, and even in the 17th century, there were craftsmen who designed and made fishing rods, some of the wood sections even were hollowed out with a hot wire to decrease the weight and improve the performance of the finished product.
It was probably not until the early 19th century when cane was used seriously by anglers in the Western world for fishing. In 1845, Samuel Phillippe, a violin maker from Pensylvania, split cane and laminated the strips together to build the first split cane rod. Some historians believe that this type of work had been done in the United Kingdom 50 years earlier, however it was the work of the Americans that brought this splitting, planing and laminating of cane into an acceptable method of constructing fishing rods. These first rods were of a 3 and 4 strip construction, and it was not until some years later that the more common 6 strip rods were built. Many give credit to Hiram Leonard, the founder of the H. L. Leonard Rod company for the first 6 strip rods, however others believe it was in fact Charles Murphy of New Jersey, a freind of Phillippe, who originated the concept.
In the years that followed, many other craftsmen took up the art of splitting cane into strips and laminating them together after careful planing to very thin and close tolerances in order to obtain the finest tapers for rods to suit any fishing conditions. Bevelers were developed that could cut precise tapered triangular strips, and in fact, many of the bevelers that were made in the late 19th century are still in use today by rod crafters.
Many companies were founded to take advantage of the increased interest in fly fishing, and produced production line cane rods. Some of these companies are well known, such as Montague, Hardy Brothers of England, and South Bend and produced thousands of rods, including fly, bait casting, boat and surf rods from cane.
There is a belief today that simply because something is old, it holds great value. The fact is that many cane rods available are not worth a great deal in monetary value, and collectors prefer those rods built by individual craftsmen, and their desire is not for the production line products. Having said that, some would today still prefer to fish with an old production cane rod worth not very much on the collector's market to the expensive advanced composite material rods of today.
The Craft
Imagine you have 6 triangular strips of a wood like material, and you want to taper each piece such that when you glue them back together, the size at the tip will be one sixteenth of an inch. All the pieces must be exactly equal in thickness throughout the length, and each piece must fit each other, meeting at the edges without overlap, all along. Further, your taper is such that you have made adjustments for casting a particular weight and distance, and the finished blank requires enough strength yet be flexible to land large fish. This is only one part of the very long process of constructing a split cane rod.
Before investing 40 hours or more of labour into a cane rod, the builder must inspect the stock of cane. Like any other material that must undergo the rigours Mother Nature imparts, the cane may have been subject to disease, insect infestations, bad growth years, and improper harvesting, among other problems. It must be seasoned well before it maybe deemed suitable for use as material for a rod. Imperfections in the raw material will certainly show themselves in the finished product.
After a culm has been selected, it is often flame treated or oven tempered before the crafter splits it apart. The inside membrane must be removed and the outside bumps are filed away. Split pieces are then selected, and then placed in metal forms that have grooves of exacting depths and shape. High quality planes are then used to remove the excess remaining above the groove. Generally, (there are exceptions as many builders continue to experiment and build rods with more or less than 6 sides) 6 strips are then glued together and wrapped with string while the glue cures. If all went well, and the blank passes a further inspection as to its performance, it will not need to be discarded and the further work of cutting it into sections and attaching ferrules, usually of high quality nickle silver may commence. A grip of cork rings with a reel seat is attached, and guides are wrapped with silk thread.
There are many more steps of an 'art' type that go into completing a rod. An art which cannot be merely described in word, but an art that maybe only appreciated by watching a true craftsman at work, admiring his skill and love for his craft, holding the rod in hand, then casting a fly to rising fish, waiting to test its elegant strength against the equally graceful leaps of the hooked prey.
Cane Rod Makers Today
It may come as a surprise to some to realize that some of the finest split cane rods are being made today, in this day and age of technology. In fact, even though the craft itself reminds us of a time gone by, when folk worked hard with their hands, and quality was not simply a buzword but a creed to work by, there are still many today who carry on in the traditions of the master rod builders.
Technology may in a sense be distant from them, yet in many ways, technology has even improved upon some of the works of the masters. No doubt, one may have all the fanciest and most up to date tools and still produce junk while a true craftsman with simple tools can produce works of great value, however, even many of those who still use simple tools are able to take advantage of such things as networking, taper archives, and email to learn of new and better techniques and material.
You will not find anyone who has become a millionaire from building cane rods. Perhaps some of the still existent large companies that are able to produce cane rods relatively quickly can show a profit in time, the truth is most rod crafters never realize their true worth in time monetarily. Their reward remains their craft itself. Perhaps their reward is in the fact they are carrying on old values of quality, so often lost today. Perhaps its simply in the reward of knowing they themselves, as well as their customers or recipients of their work have used and caught some fish, and the rod was what brought the most pleasure.
Regardless of what the reward is, it exists, and today there remains many who are devoted to producing the finest fishing tools possible. We hope that after reading through some of the articles, you will have a greater appreciation for this breed of craftsman and understand the true value of a fine split cane rod. Perhaps you are not ready to purchase a rod, or maybe you wish to build one yourself. Maybe you never will own or handle one of these elegant works, but we invite you to look at our Crafters Today Resource and learn more about the individuals continuing the art. Contact them, they are a fine bunch, always willing to share a thing or two with anyone about what they do.
When you discover the price of a finely crafted rod, and realize the work, we are sure you will also realize it is an investment not only of your money, but the investment of time spent by its maker.
The Future
It is often said that today, consumers are a technically expectant market. If a vaccuum cleaner doesn't use centrifugal forces, or our coffee makers aren't computer designed for ultimate taste, we won't buy them. It seems as if our products must have the latest buzzword attached to the product in order for them to be of any use.
Modern rod makers have not ignored this fact, and their marketing material is full of terms that most of us have no idea what they even mean, or how it relates to us as anglers. In fact, this is not even a marketing ploy only ubiquitous to the latest decades. An old Popular Science © magazine from the early 1950's displayed an advertisement from a maker of fibreglass fishing rods which described this material in technological terms of the day in order to convince consumers that it was somehow better.
There is no doubt that the fishing industry, and the consumers of it have benefitted from technology, and will continue to do so in the future. But is technology always better?
Even modern cane rod builders have taken advantage of technology. There are taper designs that have been computer generated, and newer and better materials such as epoxies are used in the crafting of cane rods. But this use of technology only improves upon the old craft itself with the end result of a better product for the consumer. There will always be a demand for classic cane rods because of the nature of the product. Not all anglers will desire to fish with one, or even own such a rod as a collector's item. However, there seems to be a direct correlation between the numbers of buzzwords in modern products and the growing desire among a large part of the population, no matter the product, for those items that exude quality, craftsmanship, and evoke thoughts of a simpler time.
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns for cane rods in the future is the supply of Tonkin cane. Because it is only found naturally in China, political climates have caused the stock of useable Tonkin in the Western world to be somewhat eratic and unpredictable. At this time, there is a good supply of Tonkin available, although much of it is useless for good rods. With education and continuing improvement in relations, there is hope that Tonkin will long be available to the craftsperson building their rods.
Some builders are experimenting with other types of cane, some reporting good results, others have mixed or poor opinions. Perhaps there will be found a cane that closely matches the characteristics of Tonkin and less dependance on Tonkin will be needed. Even so, fly anglers and classic tackle afficiondos, being what they are and tradition being a large part of their make-up, it is doubtful that anything other than Tonkin will suffice for what would be considered quality split cane rods.
What about the price? Will consumers pay over $1,000.00 for a fishing rod? There will always be a group of anglers that will be more than willing to pay the price for something that will not only hold its value, but may in fact be an investment. If nothing else, it will retain some important place in future generations as Grandad's rod.
There is an increasing interest in this craft, and we feel that although the majority of anglers will never own a cane rod, there remains enough interest and appreciation for them that there will always be cane craftspeople, restorers, and as the interest grows, so will the numbers of anglers that take their cane rod, bought without the hype of how many millions of modulus it is, take it to their river, and enjoy its 'feel', with the appreciation that no modern rod manufacturer can duplicate its action, and look forward to testing their skills against the wary fish in its environment.
Perhaps others experiences and thoughts of bamboo rods will convince you that a split cane rod is worth investing in, and that this rod, although a huge part of our angling history, is also a rod for today and will continue to be so tomorrow.
Our Cane Rod Makers Directory
Garrison. Payne. Thomas. Leonard. Names from the past that almost any classic rod afficiondo knows and maybe dreams of owning. What is the mystique of a split cane or bamboo fishing rod? Perhaps some would think it is in the history. Others appreciate the 40 hours plus of labour that goes into a fine handmade cane rod. Although many anglers and collectors associate split cane with days gone by, of anglers that wouldn't dare to be seen casting without a tie and jacket, there are still many today that shun modern technology, modern fibres, and who scoff at talk of high modulus and high speed rods. Many of those anglers would far rather forgo the wispy light advanced synthetics of today for a heavier natural material tool they claim offers grace, superb castability, and a far superior sense of really fishing.
Resources For Anglers would like to briefly introduce anglers to the world of split cane rods and those, who even today, believe that anything else is just not worth it. Hopefully even those who do enjoy the feel of a finely made cane rod will find this presentation from RFA interesting. If nothing else, perhaps a greater understanding and appreciation of cane.
Let's take a look at the history, the materials, and those even in this day and age who still spend loving hours at their craft.
Cane: What It Is
Far be it for us to assume that everyone knows what cane, as referring to fishing rods is. Most perhaps do know that cane is actually bamboo.
Bamboo species grow all over the world, and it is generally accepted that it is a member of the Grass family. There are many subspecies of bamboo, many of which require particular climate conditions to grow and thrive. Apart from fishing rods, bamboo has found many uses, including ornamental, furniture material, and pulp and paper. It has been used to make a type of plywood. Floors maybe made from bamboo. Even musical instruments are manufactured from this species.
Although other sub-species have been tried, Tonkin Cane (Arundinaria amabilis) is the favored bamboo type used in the making of split cane fishing rods. Until the early 1900's Calcutta cane, from India was the choice of craftsmen for the finest rods.
Tonkin, or "The lovely bamboo"as the latin name is loosely translated, grows only in the Guangdong Province of China, and for many years there was a shortage of the material in the Western world due to trade embargoes. Only recently has the supply of Tonkin become more available, and even so, quality cane is still not dependable, with often half of a shipment junked for not meeting standards.
As trade with China increases, it is hoped that the supply of Tonkin will improve in the future.
Brief History
Who ever thought of splitting a piece of bamboo, planing and tapering the split pieces then rejoining them to make a multi sided fishing rod?
Up until cane became the material of choice for rods, wood was the natural and perhaps only material that could be used. In Izaac Walton's day, rods were often made of elder, ash, chestnut, oak, or hazel, were often 19 feet or longer in length and certainly weighed an immense amount comparitively speaking. Eventually, greenheart became a wood of choice to make fishing rods with, as the wood could be finely carved and tapered to a fine point and it had the necessary characteristics; the right 'flex', was strong, and when casting became a practice, had the ability to cast lines well.
There were many ingenious practices in the 'old' days to make rods, and even in the 17th century, there were craftsmen who designed and made fishing rods, some of the wood sections even were hollowed out with a hot wire to decrease the weight and improve the performance of the finished product.
It was probably not until the early 19th century when cane was used seriously by anglers in the Western world for fishing. In 1845, Samuel Phillippe, a violin maker from Pensylvania, split cane and laminated the strips together to build the first split cane rod. Some historians believe that this type of work had been done in the United Kingdom 50 years earlier, however it was the work of the Americans that brought this splitting, planing and laminating of cane into an acceptable method of constructing fishing rods. These first rods were of a 3 and 4 strip construction, and it was not until some years later that the more common 6 strip rods were built. Many give credit to Hiram Leonard, the founder of the H. L. Leonard Rod company for the first 6 strip rods, however others believe it was in fact Charles Murphy of New Jersey, a freind of Phillippe, who originated the concept.
In the years that followed, many other craftsmen took up the art of splitting cane into strips and laminating them together after careful planing to very thin and close tolerances in order to obtain the finest tapers for rods to suit any fishing conditions. Bevelers were developed that could cut precise tapered triangular strips, and in fact, many of the bevelers that were made in the late 19th century are still in use today by rod crafters.
Many companies were founded to take advantage of the increased interest in fly fishing, and produced production line cane rods. Some of these companies are well known, such as Montague, Hardy Brothers of England, and South Bend and produced thousands of rods, including fly, bait casting, boat and surf rods from cane.
There is a belief today that simply because something is old, it holds great value. The fact is that many cane rods available are not worth a great deal in monetary value, and collectors prefer those rods built by individual craftsmen, and their desire is not for the production line products. Having said that, some would today still prefer to fish with an old production cane rod worth not very much on the collector's market to the expensive advanced composite material rods of today.
The Craft
Imagine you have 6 triangular strips of a wood like material, and you want to taper each piece such that when you glue them back together, the size at the tip will be one sixteenth of an inch. All the pieces must be exactly equal in thickness throughout the length, and each piece must fit each other, meeting at the edges without overlap, all along. Further, your taper is such that you have made adjustments for casting a particular weight and distance, and the finished blank requires enough strength yet be flexible to land large fish. This is only one part of the very long process of constructing a split cane rod.
Before investing 40 hours or more of labour into a cane rod, the builder must inspect the stock of cane. Like any other material that must undergo the rigours Mother Nature imparts, the cane may have been subject to disease, insect infestations, bad growth years, and improper harvesting, among other problems. It must be seasoned well before it maybe deemed suitable for use as material for a rod. Imperfections in the raw material will certainly show themselves in the finished product.
After a culm has been selected, it is often flame treated or oven tempered before the crafter splits it apart. The inside membrane must be removed and the outside bumps are filed away. Split pieces are then selected, and then placed in metal forms that have grooves of exacting depths and shape. High quality planes are then used to remove the excess remaining above the groove. Generally, (there are exceptions as many builders continue to experiment and build rods with more or less than 6 sides) 6 strips are then glued together and wrapped with string while the glue cures. If all went well, and the blank passes a further inspection as to its performance, it will not need to be discarded and the further work of cutting it into sections and attaching ferrules, usually of high quality nickle silver may commence. A grip of cork rings with a reel seat is attached, and guides are wrapped with silk thread.
There are many more steps of an 'art' type that go into completing a rod. An art which cannot be merely described in word, but an art that maybe only appreciated by watching a true craftsman at work, admiring his skill and love for his craft, holding the rod in hand, then casting a fly to rising fish, waiting to test its elegant strength against the equally graceful leaps of the hooked prey.
Cane Rod Makers Today
It may come as a surprise to some to realize that some of the finest split cane rods are being made today, in this day and age of technology. In fact, even though the craft itself reminds us of a time gone by, when folk worked hard with their hands, and quality was not simply a buzword but a creed to work by, there are still many today who carry on in the traditions of the master rod builders.
Technology may in a sense be distant from them, yet in many ways, technology has even improved upon some of the works of the masters. No doubt, one may have all the fanciest and most up to date tools and still produce junk while a true craftsman with simple tools can produce works of great value, however, even many of those who still use simple tools are able to take advantage of such things as networking, taper archives, and email to learn of new and better techniques and material.
You will not find anyone who has become a millionaire from building cane rods. Perhaps some of the still existent large companies that are able to produce cane rods relatively quickly can show a profit in time, the truth is most rod crafters never realize their true worth in time monetarily. Their reward remains their craft itself. Perhaps their reward is in the fact they are carrying on old values of quality, so often lost today. Perhaps its simply in the reward of knowing they themselves, as well as their customers or recipients of their work have used and caught some fish, and the rod was what brought the most pleasure.
Regardless of what the reward is, it exists, and today there remains many who are devoted to producing the finest fishing tools possible. We hope that after reading through some of the articles, you will have a greater appreciation for this breed of craftsman and understand the true value of a fine split cane rod. Perhaps you are not ready to purchase a rod, or maybe you wish to build one yourself. Maybe you never will own or handle one of these elegant works, but we invite you to look at our Crafters Today Resource and learn more about the individuals continuing the art. Contact them, they are a fine bunch, always willing to share a thing or two with anyone about what they do.
When you discover the price of a finely crafted rod, and realize the work, we are sure you will also realize it is an investment not only of your money, but the investment of time spent by its maker.
The Future
It is often said that today, consumers are a technically expectant market. If a vaccuum cleaner doesn't use centrifugal forces, or our coffee makers aren't computer designed for ultimate taste, we won't buy them. It seems as if our products must have the latest buzzword attached to the product in order for them to be of any use.
Modern rod makers have not ignored this fact, and their marketing material is full of terms that most of us have no idea what they even mean, or how it relates to us as anglers. In fact, this is not even a marketing ploy only ubiquitous to the latest decades. An old Popular Science © magazine from the early 1950's displayed an advertisement from a maker of fibreglass fishing rods which described this material in technological terms of the day in order to convince consumers that it was somehow better.
There is no doubt that the fishing industry, and the consumers of it have benefitted from technology, and will continue to do so in the future. But is technology always better?
Even modern cane rod builders have taken advantage of technology. There are taper designs that have been computer generated, and newer and better materials such as epoxies are used in the crafting of cane rods. But this use of technology only improves upon the old craft itself with the end result of a better product for the consumer. There will always be a demand for classic cane rods because of the nature of the product. Not all anglers will desire to fish with one, or even own such a rod as a collector's item. However, there seems to be a direct correlation between the numbers of buzzwords in modern products and the growing desire among a large part of the population, no matter the product, for those items that exude quality, craftsmanship, and evoke thoughts of a simpler time.
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns for cane rods in the future is the supply of Tonkin cane. Because it is only found naturally in China, political climates have caused the stock of useable Tonkin in the Western world to be somewhat eratic and unpredictable. At this time, there is a good supply of Tonkin available, although much of it is useless for good rods. With education and continuing improvement in relations, there is hope that Tonkin will long be available to the craftsperson building their rods.
Some builders are experimenting with other types of cane, some reporting good results, others have mixed or poor opinions. Perhaps there will be found a cane that closely matches the characteristics of Tonkin and less dependance on Tonkin will be needed. Even so, fly anglers and classic tackle afficiondos, being what they are and tradition being a large part of their make-up, it is doubtful that anything other than Tonkin will suffice for what would be considered quality split cane rods.
What about the price? Will consumers pay over $1,000.00 for a fishing rod? There will always be a group of anglers that will be more than willing to pay the price for something that will not only hold its value, but may in fact be an investment. If nothing else, it will retain some important place in future generations as Grandad's rod.
There is an increasing interest in this craft, and we feel that although the majority of anglers will never own a cane rod, there remains enough interest and appreciation for them that there will always be cane craftspeople, restorers, and as the interest grows, so will the numbers of anglers that take their cane rod, bought without the hype of how many millions of modulus it is, take it to their river, and enjoy its 'feel', with the appreciation that no modern rod manufacturer can duplicate its action, and look forward to testing their skills against the wary fish in its environment.
Perhaps others experiences and thoughts of bamboo rods will convince you that a split cane rod is worth investing in, and that this rod, although a huge part of our angling history, is also a rod for today and will continue to be so tomorrow.
Our Cane Rod Makers Directory