Two Video Set – Making Bamboo Blanks & Finishing Bamboo Rods (DVD) – FINAL AVAILABILITY

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two video set

$89.95

SKU: VID-23DVD Categories: , , , ,

Product Description

FINAL AVAILABILITY (for now) – Don’t worry, our Golden Witch DVDs will be available in the future.  However, like ALL our products, there will be a long hiatus between when we close up our PA shop at the end of March, 2023 and before we re-open from our new location.  If you want the best video education to compliment some of the great rodmaking how-to books, pick up our DVD set while we’ve got dvds stacked up and ready to ship.  Now is the time to gather resources and stock up on supplies.  Thanks!

 

Watched the bamboo finishing video this morning and holy cow it is GREAT!!! I am hoping to watch again this the evening for more note taking.  Thank you very much!!! – Bruce W. (USA)

 

Hi Russ,   I just completed watching your videos on Making Bamboo Blanks and Finishing Bamboo Rods. One word sums it up, “Outstanding”!  You gave me what I needed to go forward with confidence.  Thank you, Fidel R. (USA)

 

… By the way, the DVD’s you made were perfect.  Watching those made me pull the trigger after 10 years of considering it and trying to build a fiberglass rod that matched bamboo. Thanks again – Bruce E. (USA)

 

MAKING BAMBOO BLANKS
Using the methods originally taught by Daryll Whitehead, then refined through years of custom and light production rodmaking in the Golden Witch rod shop, Russ Gooding and his team will guide you from selecting the raw culm to the finished blank. Broken into discrete steps, making bamboo blanks is a surprisingly straightforward process. This video focuses on blank making, not as a mechanical engineering exercise replete with arcane formulae, but as an accessible craft to which all anglers can aspire. Bamboo is potent, yet sublime. Try it! Featurette: Blueing Ferrules – How To Blue & Clear Coat Nickel Silver Ferrules. 87 Min

 

FINISHING BAMBOO RODS
Aesthetic decisions, fit, and finish define the quality of a split bamboo rod long before an angler tests its action over rising fish. An elegant rod is a harmonious composition, melding classic styling with components that hark back to the era of our forefathers: agate stripping guides, fine silk threads, cork, native wood, nickel silver, and natural oil & resin varnishes. Well finished, a bamboo rod looks good, feels good, and even smells good. Although each rodmaker will choose a different aesthetic, all rodmakers must master the details of fit and finish. Featurette: Ferrule Plugs—Turning Mastodon Ivory & Nickel Silver Ferrule Plugs. 90 Min.

 

Made in the USA

 

Recently Jonathan, a new maker, wrote to ask if our DVD set would compliment a book he already owned.  Here’s my response:

Hi Jonathan,
I do think our DVD set would go a long ways as a compliment to any book on rodmaking.  Wayne’s is a good one!  I had his three-ring binder early on in my rodmaking adventures….much more accessible than the Garrison ‘Bible’ (though that’s absolutely worth adding to your library at some point).  My favorite books and a lot of other info are noted in the Beginner’s PDF that Matt West and I cobbled together.  This link will take you to the page from which you can download that PDF:  https://www.goldenwitch.com/2017/05/05/bamboo-rodmaking-for-beginners/ .
The more sources you have for info, the more ways you’ll have to look at every ‘problem’ as you approach each step in the process.  There are so many ways to skin each cat, and you need to narrow down the possible to one or two actual methods that suit your skill set and your available tool set.  Try method X on a rod.  Don’t love it, then read/watch what others are doing to straighten strips or flatten nodes and try another method.  One method is likely to “click” with you, so stick with that.  Eventually you wind up with your way to make a rod that is a mix of what others have taught you directly or indirectly, plus a few solutions that you’ve come up with on your own (sometimes in parallel with other makers, sometimes you’ll truly innovate).  After a few years, you will KNOW how to make rods and you’ll be ready to teach someone your particular group of skill sets using your favored tools.
In other words, don’t get overwhelmed.  Heat treat your culm.  You’ll use a torch or an oven (or…. yes, there are other options, but some require you to break the culm down first and I don’t do that, so I can only teach what I know).  Split your culm.  You’ll use a splitter, or a froe, or a big fixed blade hunting knife, or…?  You’ll need a mallet.  One step at a time and do that step using one method that looks viable for you.  Ignore the other methods.  If it works OK, remember however that, for example, splitting strips is NEVER easy the first time, but should be straightforward after you split a few culms and it should be natural and almost without challenge after a few dozen culms if not prior to that.  If the method you try is a complete cluster, then try another method on a future culm/rod.  Take your time.  Be safe with the sharp tools (I have emergency room experience as a victim of a froe and my own poor understanding…Twist, Don’t Push).  Enjoy the process, not just the product.
-Russ

 

 

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