Does anyone have plans for internal ferrule stations? I'm really interested in this system, but can't find a detailed explanation of what to do. (Lee Orr)

Yeah! How do guys like Bjarne Fries and Marcelo Calviello get those HUGE swells at the ferrule stations? Would one need to make some kind of specially swelled form?

I saw Marcelo's article in Power Fibers, but do not understand how to get those swells.

May I just say that those rods are SO beautiful. (Joe West)

Thanks to Bob Milardo and his index, I can tell you the info is in Issue 4, Issue 7:16-17, Issue 8:24-33 (Bob Maulucci)

I have made 5 rods with internal ferrules. The last two are 4 piece travel rods. The recommended swell is .050 per strip. I use a MHM so that is no problem. Plane it out then get the bed flat and use the flat cutter to made the female ferrule. I do not think that your swell has to be extremely abrupt but the more the better. Bjarne is using a milling machine to make his ferrule but you could even use a red devil scraper. I don't know how this would work with a regular form. I have not had any problems using silk and regular varnish on my two piece rods but on my 4 piece I started used Mirror Gloss from Woodcraft. It is an epoxy and it has to turn for 8 hours or so and takes 72 hours for a complete set. But it only takes one coat and will super reinforce the ferrule. According to Bjarne no adjustments to the taper are needed if you make a 3 or 4 piece and from the one 4 piece I have finished I would agree. I have a 4 piece penta glued but not finished. I think internal ferrules a great. (David Ray)

If any of you guys are ever planning the pain and torture of making cane-cane ferrules, here's two things I've found in making The "Little Big" by Mr. Calviello.

#1 DON'T try to fit the glued but non-wrapped ferrules together as you WILL pop the glue joint. I of course have no firsthand knowledge of this. I think Mr. Fries mentions this quite vehemently

#2 Highest strength-size ration I've been able to find in scouring fly shops and catalogs is this "Roman Moser Powersilk" which I think is a MUCH thinner Kevlar than is usually sold. I'm talking like 14/0-17/0. You try doing the HUNDREDS OF wraps needed to cover the ferrule station and you'll probably be as batty and cross eyed as I am right now.

#3 I wonder if that shrink-tape stuff they use in graphite construction would be good instead of/under/over the thread wrap? What about fiberglass cloth? But, I guess one starts to get into a slightly different aesthetic--- away from the cane to cane thing.

Not the words of an expert, but hope this might help somebody.

Also, for anyone afraid of the .150 swells--- my Bellinger forms had no problem with them at all.

My next project is going to be a one-piece 8' rod with cane-cane ferrules ;) (Joe West)

After three months of deliberations I have finally completed a Bamboo Ferruled 6'3" 2/2 for a 4/5# line rod.

The rod was after all surprisingly easy to build (this is my 48th rod) and after following published instructions from Barnes and Calviello ended up using a bastardized technique that was somewhere between what the two gentlemen had advocated in their separately published instructions.

For those of you that may be interested the pictures of my finished rod are below. (Paul Blakley)

I have seen several photos of ferrules made of bamboo. This looks like an interesting project. Has anyone on the list had experience with making them or building them into the rod? How do they effect the action of the rod? How do you keep them tight from expansion and contraction? Are they built into the taper or are they built separately then glued on? (Denny Dennis)

In summary:

1) They make a rod feel like a one piece, very smooth casters.

2) I seal the females with polyurethane varnish but some builders simply put wax on the males hoping that over a period of time the wax will impregnate into the female.

3) The ferrules are usually built into the rod by swelling the taper at the end to give a circa 50 to 60 thousandths wall thickness depending on the length of the rod and the line rating.

For more information read Power Fibers where you will find an article by B Fries on this very subject. You could also do an internet search for web sites by Marcello Calviello, Bjarne Fries and H J Schlecht for a few pics and ideas. (Paul Blakley)

I'd like to hear from anyone making bamboo ferrules, especially the different methods being employed for determining the amount of swell in the tips, wall thickness' and taper changes to the butt section where the tip over butt method is being used. Is anyone using a mathematical or scientific approach for determining the tip swell or butt section taper changes to convert existing tapers? (Wayne Daley)

If you count trial and error as "scientific" then maybe I can answer some of your questions. Robert Kope is probably the expert on the list right now. But then, this could be a closely guarded secret formula. (Jerry Foster)

No secret here, and I don't consider myself an expert. I use 0.050 wall thickness and make no adjustment in the taper for the male. I just leave the taper of the rod alone for the male ferrule and swell the butt end of the tip strips by 0.050. Then mill the wall thickness to 0.050 on the female and glue up. How's that for scientific? (Robert Kope)

Bamboo Ferrules seem to make the rod feel like it is a one piece rod. I suppose it is because there is no transition of materials as in a nickel silver ferrule. I have yet to give it full abuse to see how the .030 wall thickness holds up. As Robert said .050 is probably a safe number. (Jerry Foster)

Thank you for sharing your technique. I'm curious, have you made the same taper with both NS ferrules and bamboo ferrules ? If so, what are your impressions/observations on the differences between the rods? Do you prefer the bamboo ferrules to NS ferrules? (Wayne Daley)

Thank you for replying.  Trial and error is my method at this point also, I guess that’s a natural part of experience. What I'm trying to decide is whether or not to change the taper of the male end (butt section) smaller and not create such a large swell in the female end (tip section). Currently I'm using .070" as my wall thickness for the female ferrules on smaller rods and .085" on larger rods. (Wayne Daley)

Here is my current experiment. We'll call it a double taper, double spigot slimline ferrule.

Tip over butt..

Tip: Interior: 3/4 " at .030 over the butt dimension at the start of ferrule. 3/4 " taper to .050 interior wall thickness. 1/2 " at whatever the dimension is after the interior taper. (.060,-.070 typically)

The outside is flat for 3/4 ( .030 over )" and then tapers to the tip dimension over 3".

Butt: at the start of the ferrule I leave it flat at the current dimension for the first 3/4". this aligns with the first 3/4" of the female. Then the taper mirrors the tip inside dimensions..

I have no idea of what I said. Without being a promo, this kind of dipsy doo is possible only because of the CNC Mill, I think. I understand that this isn't much help. (Jerry Foster)

A good start would be to read the Fries articles in Power Fibers.

For what its worth and for your starter use wall thicknesses of 50 - 55 thousandths for two piece rods less than 8' with a female depth of 40 mm and an 80 mm swell and your ferrules will be just fine. (Paul Blakley)

I am attempting my first bamboo ferrules. I use Gorilla glue. How do I keep the foaming action out of the female ferrule? Should I try a different glue? (Joe Esther)

I use Titebond 2 in my bamboo ferrules. (Tony Spezio)

Better make it clearer This is on my Quad ferrules where I use four pieces of bamboo. On the Hex ferrules, I just make the butt end a bit longer and use that cutoff to make the female ferrule. It is glued up with Epon like the rest of the blank. (Tony Spezio)

I use resorcinol on most all my rods and clean out the bamboo ferrule with a cotton bud before the glue sets. (Paul Blakley)

I use Elmer's ultimate glue (aka Probond polyurethane), and I have not had a problem. I do take some precautions though. I wipe the flats on the inside of the ferrules before running the sections through the binder, and then I swab the inside with acetone after they're bound.  Once the glue sets up, if there is foam, acetone will dissolve it as long as you get to it before the glue cures.

However, about a year ago, I made a hollow quad that was also glued up with Probond. On my first try, the dimensions came out wrong and I couldn't use it. I decided to see how bad the foaming problem was so I cut the butt end of the butt section off where I had left it solid under the reel seat, and was surprised that I can see right through the length of the whole butt section. There's no evidence of foaming at all. All I had done on that one was to wipe the inside flats off before running it through the binder. (Robert Kope)

I have used a hex socket tool to keep the female ferrule open. (Tapani Salmi)

Tapani is right. I forgot to mention his trick with the Allen wrench. Thanks for posting that, Tapani

Allen wrenches make great scrapers for the inside of bamboo ferrules. They are hexagonal, come in a variety of sizes and are hardened tool steel. After he first posted about this, I went out a bought cheap set of long handled allen wrenches. If you grind off the end to leave a sharp edge it works great. I've had a couple of cases where the ferrule was too tight, or the female was asymmetric, and with the allen wrench scraper, it's really pretty easy to control how much you take off. Another useful tool is a sanding block made by gluing a small strip of sandpaper to an offcut from a rod section. (Robert Kope)

I have a question too concerning bamboo ferrules. Would they stand up to the extreme stress of spey casting in double handed rods?

I have also been thinking. If we can make a ferrule by hollowing out a swell, would it be possible to make a bamboo ferrule entirely, by leaving the rod parts, butt and tip as they are, and by making a separate ferrule in bamboo which would have the dimensions of the rod part in the ferrule zone, tapered, but dimensions plus 3mm. I would then glue the ferrule on the rod and reinforce with silk, as usual. Anybody tried this? (Geert Poorteman)

I have made bamboo ferrules just as you suggested, as a sleeve. I did this the simple way of making a 6 sided section, reinforced the ends with thread and drilled it out for the size needed. The I put it on a mandrel, still with the reinforced ends and turned them round leaving a wall of about 40 or 50 thousandths. I then used sand paper to taper one end to blend into the rod.

I used the wood hardener to strengthen the ferrule and wrapped in clear silk. I just glued it to the butt section. I have used two rods for several years with no problems so far.

I do not know if they will handle the stress of a spey rod though. Give it a shot but keep a spare rod with you. (Gordon Koppin)

This fall/winter I'd really like to attempt making a rod with an integrated bamboo hex shaped ferrule. I've read Bjarne Fries excellent article in Power Fibers issue 8 several times. Each time I read it I come a little closer to understanding his method. He seems to use two sets of forms, a regular set, and then a swell set with what I think sounds like an untapered groove. I've also read Tapani Salmi's web page describing the use of a nylon swell form and an allen wrench.

Does anyone have any other methods that they'd like to share? Or any suggestions for further reading. I'd really like to try an integrated ferrule not one that would be glued to one of the sections. I saw a presentation at Grayrock where a CNC machine was used to make the ferrule. Sorry to say that method is far out of my reach.

I have a basic set of planing forms. They just have 5" centers so swelling might be a problem. Making an additional set as described by Bjarne doesn't sound too tough if the groove is untapered. (Aaron Gaffney)

I also read Bjarne's article very carefully. I made a set of forms that are short (48") and I put a tapered groove. I figured it's no more difficult to do a tapered groove than an untapered one if you use Don Schneider's thread-cutting-tool, and triangular-file planes. You just set the taper once and then adjust the depth of the cut with the planes. I made one side of the forms for tips of 3 piece rods and one side for 2 piece tips and 3 piece mids. On each side, when I finished the groove, I just cut the swelled part of the ferrule 0.050 deeper. I was able to cut the step over about 1". I think this makes planing the swells easier than Bjarne's forms.  You just set the forms for the taper and add 0.050 to the stations below the swell.

Of course, you have to interpolate the taper to get the swell exactly where you want it, but that's pretty simple to do with a spreadsheet. (Robert Kope)

Would whoever made the ferrules out of cane a while back post a note on how they're holding up to fishing pressure?  Also, the URL for the photos of the bamboo ferrules? I thought the concept was fascinating, and was just wondering if any problems have developed. (Claude Freaner)

That was me, and they are holding up great. Matter of fact, I have started selling the rods instead of just using them for myself.

The original, a 2 wt 6 footer, did great and is now of the hands of an avid fly fisher in New York, who loves it. I have since sold 4 that were ferruled this way on 4 wt rods, and not a single problem.

I think there are some others out there that are using bamboo ferrules from time to time. Would be interesting to hear what their experiences are with them. (Bob Nunley)

Here is another link to a Danish builder that uses a bamboo ferrule, interesting site and a good read. The guys name is Bjarne Fries (??I think??) . Here is the link.

I have studied the Power Fibers article by Bob Nunley quite intensely for the last couple of days. It has held my interest for several months now, and I am about ready to give cane ferrules a go. So I was wondering if any of you have experimented with Bob's method and if you have anything to share about what you learned.

Naturally, I also have spent several hours going over Bjarne Fries hexaferrule article as well and believe it or not the similarities and differences in the two systems are beginning to make sense to me so obviously I have the same questions about his system as well.

Any input you gentleman can give me that would save me reinventing the wheel would be helpful. Nunley used one impregnation system and Fries another and I have seen posts in the past extolling the virtues of each so I won't pester you too much on those issues when I can go back to the archives. I am more interested in building shortcuts or variant techniques or improvements you may have discovered. It's been since July 2002 that these articles were published and there must be something new to share.

I was wondering if anyone tried to work out a variant for making cane ferrules using the MHM. I have this wild pipe dream that it might be possible to create a ferrule swell in the tip sections using the flat cutter head thus creating the beginnings of a female hexaferrule. Perhaps Darryl Hayashida might have some useful insight to share with me. (Dick Steinbach)

I have made the FIBH ferrules on one rod and I am really impressed. I think the hexagonal ferrule (like Bjarne Fries and Marcelo Calviello make) is superior to the round one that Bob Nunley developed for several reasons. I like the positive alignment of the guides, and the fact that it is part of the rod rather than spliced on. I used Minwax wood hardener to impregnate the ferrules and don't have any real opinion about different impregnation methods, at least as far as bamboo is concerned ;-) .

Lacking a mill to machine the wall thickness of the females, I improvised one using my drill press and a $30 cross-slide vise from Harbor Freight. That worked adequately, though it took a while to get it set up to achieve the 0.050" wall thickness I was after.

I recently purchased a MHM with the intention of using it to make bamboo ferrules with the flat cutter (as you suggest), in addition to hollow building, making quads, and other operations that are more difficult without a mill. So far, I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve where the MHM is concerned, and haven't yet finished a rod. You don't need to stop at the beginnings of the ferrule with the handmill, you can make the whole thing. I do recall reading that there is one MHM owner who is routinely making hollow-built rods with bamboo hexagonal ferrules. I don't recall who that is, but you may be able to find him in the archives of Handmill list. (Robert Kope)

Marcello's rods show up every once in a while and I have seen him post on this list several times. I do hope he responds to this post as well. His stuff is just extraordinary and if he would add anything to what I now have I would love it. 

Although I made a half dozen rods with my MHM I feel like you (still a lot to learn). I will make some posts to the MHM list to see what I can find out from them. Keep in touch, I will be happy to share! (Dick Steinbach)

In the marine industry such as the popular "West Marine" supply stores there's a product I think it's called "Git-rot" or

something of that sort- it's a very "Wet" epoxy designed to soak into wood of all types used in boat building that have gotten dry rot - this epoxy soaks into the wood by capillary action and I can tell you through experience that as you brush this stuff on it seems like the wood just drinks tons of the stuff up .  Might be a great way to impregnate the bamboo ferrules .... soaked with epoxy should toughen the ferrules up significantly .......   (John Silveira)

Bamboo ferrules are not all that difficult. Build the tip with a flare sufficient to allow for a .050" wall in the ferrule cavity. Lay the strips out partially taped just as you would to apply the glue. Use a file or sanding block to cross cut at 90 degrees to the strips, i.e., across the inner points of the strips until you have a flat section of strips. Stop at .055". Roll the section as you would to bind and you have a hole the mimics the rod. Wrap the ferrule area with tape and dry fit the butt section. Make fine adjustments using a scraper. Once a good fit is achieved with the tape, bind and glue the section.  Clean the hole with a Q-tip. Wax the butt portion with candle wax and insert it into the tip. When it is almost dry separate the tip from the butt. After the ferrule has been 100% wrapped with silk and at least one coat of varnish is dry rejoin the sections with the same indexing as prior to separation. I no longer use a hardener. No doubt about it -- these ferrules are very good.  (George Rainville)

You sure make that sound easy! And your instructions are quite clear; how long do they last before showing signs of wear? How deep do you insert the male? Thanks a lot! (Dick Steinbach)

If you are doing a 12/64, use about 1 1/4" of male slide; about 1 3/8" for a 13/64. This is a judgment thing. As to wall thickness I am sure that .025" was much to thin because the rod would wiggle apart in 5 or 6 casts .Because of the wax lube wear has not been a problem. Anyway a thin coat of varnish, super glue, or wood hardener will close up the tolerances. One thing not mentioned is that there is no reason to make a tapered fit. Straight walls work fine and they don't stick the way a taper will. (George Rainville)

Has anyone tried making the butt section the female and the tips the male? Seems like it might save some work and might work well with the rod taper. (Jerry Madigan)

It can be done but the ferrule must be glued on instead of making it one piece with the tip. Usually the cut off from the butt is about right. Drill it to the appropriate size and fit the tip. It is a quick and easy way that allows you to make one ferrule with multiple tips.  (George Rainville)

I'm wandering on the slope of the female part of a cane ferrule.

Suppose the female part (tip end) overlap the butt on 2 inches, and that you decided to end the swell on the tip five inches from the bottom. The total length of the female is 7 inches, is the slope linear over those 7 inches, or is it parallel on the two lower inches and linear on the five others?

Or do you use some different slope (non linear).

Any idea? how do you proceed? (Jean-Claude Lebraud)

Why would you want to make the ferrule that long? The ferrule is a dead spot in the rod's action, and adds weight to the rod.

I have only made a cane ferrule on one rod, but here's what I did:

I used a wall thickness of 0.050" for the for the ferrule, a depth of 2 inches, and used the taper of the rod for the taper of the ferrule. So I added 0.050" to the taper on the bottom 2" of the tip strips. I extended this taper for another 1/4" and then made the swell over as short a distance as possible. In my case that worked out to 1 1/2". This taper is sigmoid, not linear, because the cane has to bend smoothly going into and coming out of the swell. So the total length of the swelled portion of the female ferrules is 3 3/4".

My understanding of Bjarne Fries method, from his article in Power Fibers, is that he uses a step, the height of the wall thickness, in his planing form and lets the bamboo determine the length of the swell depending on the size of the strips. I made my own planing form and cut the swell in the groove over as short a distance as I could, but it's not a step. My forms have the 0.050" swell over about 1 1/2 inches.  (Robert Kope)

For those of you making/have made bamboo hexaferrules how many winds of silk do you do the females with, one layer or multiple? (Paul Blakley)

One wind and 9 coats of varnish. (Marcelo Calviello)

For those of you that have made BOBFS/FIBH type ferrules do you use a tapered male/female or a parallel male/female ferrule?

I am currently on with my first effort with this method of construction and any advice would be appreciated. (Paul Blakley)

I'm working on my first set as well. In questioning Marcelo Calviello, I believe it is parallel. He makes the tips with a hollowed swelled butt.

I made my female on the butt with extra pieces of bamboo, it's experimental and on a PMQ, so the fact that it is square would allow this. I planed everything together in two's. It's ugly, next I need to wrap it and and fit the tip.

If it works I'll have a two piece "Brush Hog" 6' 6wt. (Pete Van Schaack)

Yes, the female hole is parallel and a little more longer than the butt. In the male you can do a little taper. This allow that if at one tine the ferrule loose their fit you can go into the female hole a little more. (Marcelo Calviello)

You probably already know this, but there are several articles on bamboo ferrules in Power Fibers online magazine. They are is issues 4, 7, and 8. Issue 4 is by Bob Nunley, 7 and 8 are F.I.B.H.  (Floyd Burkett)

I'm wondering of those that create bamboo ferrules, what they use to tip the male ends of the bamboo and what they use for a water-seal in the female ferrule. Do you construct your own, or do you purchase them?

Has anyone tried using a spigot ferrule setup with Bamboo? (Wayne Daley)

I use sections of graphite from old rods to make the female insert and the male collar on hex rods and just the bamboo for the square rods. (Tony Spezio)

How do bamboo ferrules compare action wise to metal ferrules? I've got to think that they would make the rod feel more like a one piece. 

How do they hold up? Do they have a tendency of breaking? Coming apart? 

Why don't you hear more about them? My experience so far with rodmaking is that metal ferrules are at best a PITA. They're hard to fit to a rod, hard to fit to each other, expensive, and kind of temperamental. 

If bamboo ferrules don't harm the action of a rod and don't eventually break, why wouldn't everyone use them seeing as they're practically free? (Aaron Gaffney)

My first bamboo ferrule is about 5 years old. It is not my regular fishing rod but it has been cast a lot and has been at several Gatherings where it was cast by a lot of people. So far no problems with it and the quad bamboo ferrule I have on my PMQ.

I make my hex bamboo ferrules from the butt end cutoffs. The quad bamboo ferrules are made from four pieces of bamboo that have been run through a thickness planer and glued together like a box alternating the edges of the of the glue joints. I think Todd has these on his web site. I will have a hex and a quad rod with bamboo ferrules at the Catskill Gathering next week. (Tony Spezio)

I just finished fitting my second rod (1st fly rod) with an integrated bamboo ferrule and wanted to post on my progress. The fitting went much better this time around as I made some adjustments to the butt taper with what I learned the first time around. Took about 10 minutes to fit the 1.5" ferrule. Fits beautifully. Nice and snug, but not so tight that I have to really tug it apart. I'll order guides this week and hopefully give it a test cast in a couple of weeks. Seems to waggle really nice though - really light.

A couple of questions.

(1) On my first bamboo ferruled rod (a spinning rod) I sealed the inside of the female and the outside of the male with a mixture of poly glue and acetone. However, this rod is impregnated (sorry Darryl H.) so I'm wondering if I still need to seal the ferrule. I impregnated for about 36 hours in a Daly's formula Mike Brooks posted on another board. What are some opinions, will impregnating be enough to seal the ferrule, or should I also try to seal it with the glue/acetone mix?

(2) I'd like to try the guide spacing regime that has been posted about a few times. Placing guides every 5 inches and adjusting to match the rod as necessary. A couple of questions on this. What size guides should I use? I'll be starting with a lot more than I end up with? The rod is a 7'2" 5 wt. How do you attach the guides so they can be easily moved? Tape? (Aaron Gaffney)

For what it's worth I seal my females with a few coats of varnish that I apply with a cotton bud swab. (Paul Blakley)

Does anyone who builds rods with Bamboo ferrules have a good taper for 7 to 7 1/2 ft. rod. (Joe Esther)

I'm working on my third bamboo ferruled rod, so take this for what it's worth. 

I contacted Bjarne Fries, who wrote a power fibers article on bamboo ferrules, and he said to just take the taper as is. For example, if you wanted to make a 7' Sir D two piece just use the two piece numbers from Wayne's book. This is what I did for the first rod I made, a 6' spinning rod for my father-in-law.

For the next rod that I'm working on I've tried something a little different. (I'm waiting for hardware and some different finish so I haven't tested it yet). I built a 2-piece Driggs River. I used the numbers for a 2-piece Driggs, but then since the bamboo ferrule weighs less than a metal one I hollow built the but section to .080. My thinking was that if I converted the 2-piece into a 1-piece the butt numbers would be smaller, so instead of making it smaller I just hollowed it out. We'll see.

I'm also working on a 6'3" 2-weight from Wayne's book. This will also have a bamboo ferrule, for this one though I've just used the numbers as is. By the way, it's amazing how small a 6'3" 2 piece tip is. I thought a strip height of .035 was small, .028 is lots smaller.

Also, when it comes to hollowing out the bamboo ferrule part, I was much more accurate on my second attempt than my first. I used a couple of shims, a chisel (thanks Harry), and a razor blade. I was able to achieve a wall thickness of .047 with almost perfect accuracy (some were .0465 or .0475). (Aaron Gaffney)

Thanks for the great information. Would you mind elaborating a little more on your method of making bamboo ferrules? Your last paragraph seemed very interesting. (Joe Esther)

My method for making the ferrules is basically the same as that described in a Power Fibers article by B. Fries (here's a link). I made a few minor adjustments. He makes integrated ferrules, not sleeves. Since I've only done this three times and have yet to cast a rod with a bamboo ferrule, take this for what its worth.

I made a new set of wooden swell forms as described in the article. I've been shooting for a wall thickness of .047". Based on my swell forms, my swells in the tips (all three that I've made) take place over about 1.5" and then the ferrule itself is about 1.5" in length. The taper on the butt side remains unchanged. Setting the swell form takes some time, but I'm getting quicker and I'm hoping the fit will also be getting a little better.

Once the strips are tapers you hollow out the ferrule section. I wish I could send you a picture bu my camera isn't working. This hollowing was rough on my first try, but I changed methods and it worked much better on the second rod. I used spray adhesive to glue some plastic shim (an old CD case) cover with some really thin brass sheet to a piece of glass (searched around the house one night with my calipers after everyone had gone to bed until I found something that would make the .047" I was looking for. There are two pieces of this shim separated by about 3/16". I mark the length of the tips to be hollowed (the 1.5" of the fitting part of the ferrule plus about an inch extra) and stick it to the glass between the shims. Then I use a 3/4" chisel (Harry Boyd gave me this tip sometime ago and it works great) to plane off the apex of the strip. This gets me to about .003 over my target, I then scrape with a single edge razor blade until I hit my target of .047. It sounds crude, but on this last rod I was able to get all six strips hollowed to within .0005 of my target in less than 10 minutes.

After that its glue up pretty much as normal. The only thing I would say is that you want to use a glue that gives you plenty of time. I've used both Probond (PU) and URAC on the first 10 rods I made last year. I thought the URAC would set to fast for this so I used Probond. Worked great. Bind the swell area of the ferrule and the ferrule itself by hand really tight to get the swell to close, then bind the rest as usual. All three rods I've done this fall/winter have turned out arrow straight, no straightening necessary after the glue dries.

The article describes the finishing process well. On the rod I'm working on now though I'm going to try something different. On the first rod I sealed the ferrule with a mix of Probond and Acetone. This time I'm going to try impregnating the whole rod in a Mike Brooks sauce before I even wrap the ferrule in silk. I'm just waiting for some Daly's Ship and Shore to arrive. 

Anyway, long winded response, but I'd be more than happy to answer anything. Maybe I'll finish this rod up and find out its a real dog and scrap the whole process. I hope not though. I like the look of the ferrule. Plus its free. And I hate fitting ferrules. (Aaron Gaffney)

One BAD taper is the 7'6" PHY Perfectionist with an integral (Fries type) ferrule. Both myself and another list member have built one and they are awful.

On the other hand I have made a PHY 6'3" Midge with the same ferrule and it's a winner!

Strange things these bamboo ferrules, almost as though they need tapers of their own to justify the method of ferruling? (Paul Blakley)

Garrison 206. (Robert Kope)