Are modern builders only using tonkin bamboo? Are there other bamboo species builders are using in their rods?
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Are builders only using Tonkin Bamboo?
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 Flyfishbill |
Are builders only using Tonkin Bamboo? |
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Posts: 957 06/28/2008 17:29 |
FFBill
Go Bucks! |
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ibookje |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 1188 06/28/2008 17:38 |
As you know Marcelo Calviello uses the native Argentinean bamboo.
Some Japanese makers also use native Japanese bamboo. Jay |
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Flyfishbill |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 958 06/28/2008 17:39 |
How do these species of bamboo compare to Tonkin?
FFBill
Go Bucks! |
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ibookje |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 1189 06/28/2008 17:52 |
Geez.... The biological/scientific differences should be described somewhere.
This we have to ask Marcelo about the Argentinean bamboo. Jay |
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Flyfishbill |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 959 06/28/2008 19:32 |
I read that with winds in the Gulf of Tonkin (I think that is the region) blow in all directions which provide the flexing in the bamboo. I thought the
article also said that this is the only place in the world where the winds behaved in such a manner.
FFBill
Go Bucks! |
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czkid |
"Other" Bamboo | #5 | ||
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Posts: 3499 06/29/2008 12:37 Moderator |
Some other makers (notably Mike Brooks) have used "other" bamboo. Mike's "Green Machines" and his "Black Bamboo" rods are
made from locally available bamboo in Oregon. This is far from "down by the riverside" type cane... Mike had contacted local botany types and found
those that specialized in bamboo. He then obtained samples from these folks, and has made a few rods from those samples. I'm privileged to hold one of
the Green Machines in my possession, and I find it a really sweet rod to fish.
My take on the whole business is simple: Tonkin cane was/is the best material available in quantities suffiecient to supply the needs of 1) the old manufacturing community (pre-1950s), and 2) the hobbiest needs of the "modern" era. Is there other cane that could do the job??? Yes, is my opinion... but not in the quantities to supply even the current modest needs of the small builders existent today. Mike had to go to a lot of effort to get the cane that he used for his "non-Tonkin" rods. He also mentioned that the stuff wasn't inexpensive either, since he was buying from folks that were not "suppliers". Our friend in Argentina has a "wild" source, but I suspect he has to cull through a lot of cane to fulfill his own modist needs. I had planned on writing an article for "Power Fibers" on this very subject with inputs from various "non-Tonkin" users... but getting ready for retirement and now my wife's cancer fight have taken up most of my time. Hopefully in the future I can get back to the writing desk and accomplish that which I had promised... Ralph 
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Flyfishbill |
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Posts: 960 06/29/2008 13:55 |
Ralph,
Bill
FFBill
Go Bucks! |
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czkid |
Power Fibers, et. al. | #7 | ||
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Posts: 3501 06/29/2008 15:51 Moderator |
From what I'm told the powerfiber density is the same or greater in some of the select "other" canes. But hopefully brother Mike and company
will jump in here and speak from their experience. Tonkin cane may be more uniformly dense up to a certain point than these other canes, but the other
varieties may well be just as good if not better... but not as available.
Ralph |
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mvbrooks |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 1686 06/29/2008 17:29 |
There is nothing sacred about Tonkin cane. Calcutta cane, in good quality, makes a rid every bit as nice as anything you will discover with Tonkin. That was
THE cane to use for a period of time and was thought superior to Tonkin. Likewise, many of those lovely rods from Japan are made from a unique Japanese species
of bamboo. I have run into three different bamboo's that are as good as anything I have seen with Tonkin, but they are grown by bamboo societies, amature
and professional growers, and the cost is 4X or more what you pay for good Tonkin and availability is "iffy" at best. Now, people *do* grow Tonkin
cane in Oregon, which has a climate similar to the region in China where we get ours, and I suspect that as the value of the dollar continues to fall and
prices rise for Chinese imports, we might just see commercially growing bamboo becoming profitable in the US.
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mmorris236 |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 195 06/30/2008 09:11 |
I've thought about this often. Why is the\ Tonkin cane so entrenched, so unalterable. A great deal of that pareticular variety of cane is grown here in the
US, mostly as an ornamental garden plant. You can buy shoots from literally dozens of suppliers on the web. Bamboo has such a short generational time I would
think it could be easily varietized to produce a stronger, more uniform culm with long internodal spacing, etc, etc. Any hobbyists out there trying this. After
all the genetic hackle we all have come to love for our flies came from a hobbyist playing with chickens, why not play with Bamboo?
One consideration for this type of breeding, Bamboo does not flower often, and you cannot get genetic variation from cuttings. I may have to look into this a little deeper. |
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