Jeff Purdy loves to catch fish -- so much so that he has taught himself the highly demanding craft of building his own custom bamboo fly rods. This is not a craft for the casual hobbyist; it requires exacting attention to detail and hours upon hours of work. The results of all this labor, however, can be a fishing pole of extraordinary strength and beauty.
"My father gave me his father's fly rod that was built in the 1920's," Jeff explains, "and it fascinated me. I went out and learned as much as could about the sport, and now I build them myself."
Creating bamboo fly rods requires that you first build the tools used in constructing the poles. "It took me about six months to build all of the custom tools and equipment needed to build the rods," Jeff says. "You just don't go out and buy it -- you build it." A planing form, a binder (figure A), and an oven in which to bake the bamboo are just some of the equipment that must be built prior to beginning the process.
Jeff makes his fly rods from Ton kin cane (figure B) that is imported from China. It is the cane of preference because of its strength and flexibility. "With the first splitting of the cane with a Froe, you try to make the pieces all the same size," Jeff explains. Then you begin the process of planing the cane (figure C) using the planing form to create six pieces which will eventually form the rod. Some of the tapers on the tip portion of the rod range from .17 of an inch to .013 of an inch, and it must be exact."
When the cane has been planed, it is then bound together using string and glue and placed in an oven to remove the moisture from the cane. Once that is done, then all the binding material must be removed by scrapping and sanding the cane. This is when you have to be careful, because it is very easy to accidentally split the cane at this point. "You'll spend hours in the workshop planing and sanding, however, I find it very relaxing," Jeff says.
After the rod has been sanded and cleaned, it can be finished in either polyurethane or spar varnish. Jeff has created his own equipment using parts from a sewing machine to help him mount the jeweled guides on hid fly rod. "It's a very satisfying hobby," Jeff says. "It's something you produced, it's made by hand, and now you can go out and fool the fish with it."
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