Fishing Rod Design

The Caliper Tool is used to measure the width (i.e. the length) of each section of a fishing rod

At the heart of a fishing rod ACTION is a fishing rod design and the concept of TAPER.

A fishing rod has a thicker "butt" and a thinner "top" as you know. Basically, a rod is a cone. Now, HOW you pass from "thick" to "thin" is what we mean by TAPER of a fishing rod. The changes, section by section, of the cross-sectional length define the taper of the rod and so the final "impressions" that you have while fly-casting.

When a rodmaker wants to make a "progressive, semiparabolic, medium fast" rod , he can do it by designing on paper the taper profile, centimeter after centimeter (inch after inch) of the fishing rod he is going to build.

There can be infinite variations of a similar design, because you can infinetely vary centimer after centimeter (inch after inch) the length of each cross-section of a rod.

That's why you need a PLANING FORM to make a bamboo rod: it helps you create the "inner most nature" of the fishing rod, that is...yes, the TAPER.

The Metal Planing Form, a must for bamboo rodmaking and fishing rod design

Every 5 inches, you set the DEPTH of the trench where you lay the bamboo strips to be hand-planed. In this way, you create the right taper.

You can also make the final parallel form (there is a preliminary, "parallel" planing form in wood) that you can make on your own. Italian bamboo rodmaker Marzio Giglio explained how to make one (for "quad" rods) at the First European Gathering of Bamboo Rodmakers held in Sansepolcro, Tuscany (Italy).

When you glued the strips together, the fishing rod has been "created" and this is what Alberto Poratelli is meaning when he speaks of the nicest moment in bamboo rodmaking, when the rod takes shape like coming out from a cocoon.

TIP!

There is a software known by all bamboo rodmakers to help you creating your fishing rod design: it's called RodDNA and run by Larry Tusoni.

From fishing rod design to bamboo rodmaking tools