Updates and High Tolerances

I have been working every night to get some of the processes done on a couple of rods. The high tolerances you work with can be difficult and frustrating but in the end it is satisfying to see things come out right. This picture shoes the tickness of one shaving of bamboo from the hand plane. That is 1/1000 of an inch!

The dark bundled sections are for the rod I am building for myself.

After you cut all of the sections to length, stagger the nodes, flatten the nodes and straighten the strips you need to rough them into equilateral triangles. This helps in the heat treating process as well as final planing to come later. Here are the butt sections of Dave's rod bundled together for heat treatment. Heat treating will actually help to temper the bamboo as well as straighten the strips a little so that final planing goes a little more smoothly. So far there are about 15 hours into this rod, not even close to looking like a great fishing rod yet.

My Fishing Boys

When I came home tonight Lincoln was wearing a little fishing vest. He looked so good, I had to dress the boys up to take some pictures. I hope they like fishing as much as they like wearing all of the gear!
It's too bad it is winter and there is 5 inches of snow on the ground... these guys are ready to go!

Payne 100 and ?

The other night I got down to splitting the bamboo for my next two rods. I started out with one whole culm and ended up with enough split strips for the Payne 100 for Dave and the yet un-decided taper for Nate. Here is the culm before:And here is the culm after:The big box is my Christmas present and I only wish I could use it right now. I have wanted a shop vac for a long time! Thanks for standing out in the cold with me for a great deal Dad!

The more I work on rods the more my mind thinks about them. I love to work with bamboo and can't wait to get these closer to being planed. (Nate, contact me about your rod. We need to decide on a taper. I can't go any farther until we decide.)

Super Lo

This guy and his brother are the greatest things in the world. They make me laugh all of the time and Lo is my Super Hero. They both make me want to be a better dad. I love you both!

For Nate

While I am waiting for new cane to arrive as well as various parts for 3 different rods I received a number of prompts from different people to put up a new post to read. So this one is for Nate.

Right now I am working on 2 rods technically. My brother is building a rod for himself. I wanted to build it for him for Christmas but I couldn't afford the time or the parts that he would want so as my gift to him I am teaching him how to build a rod and he is building his own. The other rod I am working on is one for myself. It is coming along nicely and as soon as I get back out to the garage I will shoot some pictures of the work in progress.

I have more cane on the way for a rod for my cousin and Nate as well. They will not be the same rod taper but I will be building them more or less at the same time. the more I think about both of them the more excited I get. I am always wanting to try something new so each will have a little something special on it.

Here are some more picture of my grandpas rod to see some of the detail that I like to put into each rod.

Progress!

Last week Daniel and I had a great time but we forgot to take some pictures. These are from the week before. In this picture Daniel is using a heat gun to straighten his strips and get them ready to put them through the beveler to give them an initial 60degree shape.
Here Daniel is flattening the nodes with a file so that they lay flat. This can be a time consuming process because you need to be careful not to take too much because you can ruin the strip and have to start over.Daniel is now taking off the inner pith of the the bamboo so it lays flat on the "belly" side of the bamboo.
All of this process took about 3 hours for both of us to get through all of the strips for two rods. Last week we beveled all of the strips in the beveler and then bound them together and put them in a special oven to bake @ 375 degrees for about 12-14 minutes. That night we worked from 8 to midnight. We got Daniel all beveled and baked but I only got about half of my strips beveled. I spent about two and a half hours finishing the beveling and binding and cleaning. There are many ways to make a mess and bamboo rod building hits most of those. Next we will be starting in on final planing and getting pretty close to completing a section of rod.

Catch Magazine

Here is another plug for the best online magazine out there. Not only is it about fishing but it revolves around photography. If you like either one then this is defiantly a page worthy of a bookmark if not the top bar quick link!

catchmagazine.net

Go, you wont be disappointed!

Lunchtime Escape

Today at lunch I decided to take my lunch and a book up the canyon. I went and walked up the Bonneville Shoreline trail and sat and had a very nice PB and Honey sandwich and apple. The Solitude was very nice. I then walked up to Bridal Veil Falls for a quick look and snapped this photo with my phone. I didn't see more than 5 other people and it was a nice way to spend a lunch break. I think I will be doing this again!

A Mash Up... in more ways than one!

In this post I wanted to post a couple f pictures of Daniel and I fishing from a couple months ago and some from this last weekend with Nate but I only have pictures from a couple of months ago so I will give you the oral version of this weekend. Plus at the end will be a short video for all you naysayers about the fragility of a bamboo fly rod. Here is the Mash Up of information and a little mashing of a fly rod to boot.

A couple of months ago Daniel and I took an evening and went out to Thistle to fish. I hadnt been there since we took Nate at new years and so we thought we would give it a try. IT is a fairly small stream but has some nice size browns that are not always the smartest fish in the river. We had a good time fooling a few on a stretch that I had never fished before. Daniel had a couple of times so he know where to tell me to put the fly to get me into a few fish. Here are a couple of pictures.

Thanks for showing me a new piece of water Daniel!

This last weekend my est friend Nate Barker fly up from Dallas to do a little fishing (Thanks Kalli!). Friday we fished Hobble Creek and caught rainbows, browns, and then Wardsworth gave up a couple brookies. We had a great time except for the stinging nettle . Hobble and Wards are very small streams and I was impressed with Nate's improvement in casting on such a hard little stream.

The next day started out great. We took off and went up and over the right fork of Hobble Creek and into the Diamond Fork Drainage. We stopped at Sixth water and started down stream. The Creek looked good and there were lots of good pockets and back eddies the looked like they would hold a lot of sizable fish... Nope. We fished for about an hour with only one strike.

We decided to leave and go down to Thistle and see if the fishing was any better... Nope. We fished for another two hours and got one strike at the very end of our time there. It was a pretty disappointing day but Nate's casting did improve overall. We had a great time over the weekend and made some good memories. Thanks for coming up Nate!

This is the final section of this post. There are a lot of people out there that think that bamboo rods are weak and will not be as durable over the long term as graphite. Well watch the video, I bet most graphite rods could not hold up to this abuse.


Well, who wants to put in an order for a new Naneum Creek Bamboo rod?

The next rod

Daniel and I have started our next rods. It will be my second and Daniels first. The First steps are to flame the cane if you want a certain color for your final rod and then split it into different strips to be used. Here are a few pictures of the process.Thursday night we will be cutting them to the right length and then straightening them so that they can be put through a planer for the initial beveling process.

Final Product

So after a lot of hard work and hours of thinking and re-thinking how I was going to finish this first rod I completed it with 2 days of drying time to get it to Washington in time to give it to my Grandpa during the family reunion. Here are some pictures...

This is a photo of the rod after I glued it all together and before I cut it to its final lengths. There is a butt section and two tip sections.
This is the glued rod just after cutting to length and after I put the first coat of varnish on. The wraps, guides, reel seat, cork and ferrules had not been mounted yet. All of those curls in the picture are slices of bamboo that are 0.001 inches thick.
Here is the finished rod ready to go into the tube and be taken to Washington.
I decided to make my first rod and give it to my Grandpa because he is the one who taught me to fish. I was about 4 years old and I know that I didn't realize the impact that he and fishing would have on me. I have since fished all over a lot of the western states and have seen beautiful places that I would not have seen had it not been for fishing that area. At one point in college Kris and I even lived a block off of one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Henry's Fork in Idaho. I have spent memorable times with friends and family and made memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.

There is no way that I could pay Pa back for the things that he taught me about fishing but this is the closest I could come. I don't get to see Pa get emotional very often and it was touching to see him do that when I gave it to him. I hope he enjoys fishing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

No matter what kind of rod you fish, how much you paid for it, where you fish or how many fish you catch, it will be the memories that you make that will be your fishing experiences and that is better than any fish in the world.

Of Blood and Bamboo

The time has come for me to give an update on the Bamboo Fly Rod I am building for my Grandpa. I decided on a Jim Payne 97. It is a 7 foot 4 weight rod that is a classic taper. I have been trying to get all of my tools built for the last 2 years and I finally have everything together to finally finish the rod. I Finished the final planing on the butt section last night so no I just need to glue it up and then I can start to varnish, add the cork, the guides and and the reel seat. Then it is off to planing the two tip sections and finish those off. I am rapidly trying to complete the rod before the family reunion so that Pa and the rest of the fly fisherman can test cast it and tell me how bad of a job I did. With all of the hours I put into the tools I figure I am sitting at about 40 hours on tools. And another 30-40 on the rod itself. For those of you who dont know, once you plane the strips of bamboo down to the shape they need to be for gluing, they become razor sharp. I have sliced lots of different parts of my fingers off over the tie I have been doing the work. Unfortunately you really need to feel the material with your bare hands in order to really work the materials. I will post some pictures when I get everything glued up and then some more when I start to add all of the finishing touches. I have really enjoyed the process and I hope that by the end of the year I will have completed 2 more. One for Logan and one for another surprise member of the family!

Time for a new post Ben...

Hello, I'm Kristi.
Hijacked his blog to tell him,
Time for a new post.

Check out that haiku. But really Ben. Time for a new post. Love you!

Late Night

Logan and Lincoln took long naps today and Kris went to get her hair done. The end result... late dinner at the Rice King in downtown Provo. Cheap, tons of food and we didnt have to make it. We got home late put this boys down late and I settled in to write my talk for Sunday. Although the idea of giving a talk doesnt scare me, giving a talk without being able to interact with anyone like I would teaching scares the crap out of me. Most of the time I can get along without too much trouble on most topics but I really don't feel like I have the experience for speaking on Finding Peace during times of Adversity. There are many more people in our ward that have had adverse times and maintained their peace and faith more than I have. Luckily I can draw from them and their experiences. I dont like to stay up this late because Logan is an early riser but the events of this afternoon and trying to prepare this talk took their toll and now it is nearly midnight.

Naked Paper

Today in church we gave the program to Lo to color on. In a fairly loud voice he said, "I want naked paper". Meaning blank paper.

My "New" Truck!

After quite a few months of searching, offering, inspecting, getting disappointed and then doing all of that over again, I finally have a "new" truck. It is not anything really special but I love it. I had a '92 Dodge Dakota for a while (Thanks Mom and Dad and Grammy and Pa) and I drove that thing everywhere. It went Fly fishing in Idaho more times than I think I can count (and got stuck going fishing more than once), Fishing in Utah, over to Denver ("How big is this mountain range?"-Maegs) multiple times, caught on fire, and hauled its fair share of loads. It finally died on vacation in California. Well I have a new 2002 Dodge Dakota. This time it has 4 wheel drive so hopefully I don't get stuck fishing, it never catches on fire and it does it's fair share of hauling loads as well. Welcome to the family Dakota!

Surprise Party

This last week was stressful and busy. Each day was a blur and Kris did an awesome job of capping it off with a surprise party at our favorite pizza place. There were a lot of people there and it was fun to see them all. It's not every day that you turn thirty. As part of the celebration Kris got everyone to write Haiku's about me. I thought it would be fun to share some with you.

In an off hand way
A single speed shiftless set
Rushed off his own face
-Riley

Yes Ben is my boss
When I go on Vacation,
Him I do not see.
-Brad?

Bicycle, Hockey
Finally got a truck
Talk about some luck!
-Donny?

Hand in Ben's office
Muting the speaker to yell
So glad they don't know.
-Alaina?

Family and friends
At the Pizza Pie Cafe
Birthday boy, you rock!
-Andy

A fly tying man
Principal of delinquents
father of two boys.
-Tamara

Always there to help
We talk, we laugh, and we tease
What a great brother.
-Tamara

Biking down my road
Dan falls down multiple times
Ben needs a cold drink.
-Kaye

Food should go in mouths
Not plastered to Kaye's noggin
Ben should watch his back.
-Kaye

Happy Birthday Ben
Next year I will be on time
Sorry Ben, I suck.
-Daniel

He's gone fly fishing
Call on the Ham radio
Always something new.
-Daniel

Another year gone
You are 30 years old now
That's older than me.
-Tamara

Ben is tall and Smart
He likes to fish and ride bikes
My favorite Uncle.
-Mercer

Thanks again to everyone that my my birthday so great. I really enjoyed all of the kind wishes at the party, in cards, in texts, on facebook, and in person. I am glad I have great friends and family who have supported me for 30 years despite my problems. Love you all!

New Video

I am not a bass fisherman but this makes want to be one! Really great film. It is pretty cool because the footage sets you up and then all of a sudden... fish on!

Summer Shoes

Man I wish spring and summer would get here. There are so many good shoes to wear during that time of year. Exhibit A provided by Crocs, modeled by Lo.

Poe Jam

Lately Logan has taken an interest in his "Poe Jam". He looks in between his toes and picks it out. He thinks it is pretty fun. Well the other night we were driving home and he had his shoes off and was taking care of his Poe Jam. All of a sudden he came to a toe with out any and exclaimed "This one's empty!" So for all of you that have made it this far without throwing up a little in your mouth, be sure to check out your Poe Jam and make sure they are all "empty"!

Frozen Hog 2010

Many of you may think I am a little weird. This post proves that I am. 2 years ago my friend Dave Cook and I did the frozen hog. We loved the race and vowed to continue to do it. Well life happened and we were unable to do it last year. This year, Daniel and I decided to do it again. It is a mountain bike race in Alpine Utah in February. Yup, you guessed it, It is centered around ground hogs day. Well we left early and got there on time. Unfortunately while trying to park Daniel managed to get his SUV stuck in the ditch so that his car was blocking part of the road way. We didnt have time to move it before the race so off we went. The snow was melting and we walked about 2/3 of the race. The bottom half of the race was mostly melted and we could ride on the dirt most of the way. 2 laps later we were done and completely wet. We both had a great time and Daniels friend pulled us out of the ditch. I won a CO2 pump with tools attached in the raffle. and we both have some crazy man bragging rights. Anyone want to join us next year?

Did you swallow your gum?

Last week in church Kris gave some gum to Lo. After a few minutes she looked at him and asked... "Did you swallow your gum all the way down to your tummy?" His reply was... "All they way to my foot."

Wrappers

In the last couple of days we have eaten a lot of clementine oranges. They are easy to eat and really tasty too. The other day we were sitting at dinner and Logan handed me a clementine and said "A take the wrapper off!" I thought it was so funny. Now apples, oranges and anything else needs to have the wrapper taken off so that it can be eaten.

Woolly Buggers

Last night and tonight I tied up black and olive woolly buggers. Big Flies for BIG fish. I hope they work well this spring and fall. I hope that I can use these with my father in law on his little boat this summer!