Lesson 10: Buying bamboo: new, used and vintage

Bamboo School · Lesson 10 of 12 · about 6 minutes

Builds on: Short Course Lesson 3 (how to judge any bamboo rod, ours included)

In the Short Course you got five quick checks for any new rod: a named taper, six visible flats, the hardware, two tips, and a straight answer about where it was built. Those still apply. This lesson is for everything else.

The rod on a table at a swap meet. The listing with four blurry photos. The one in a shop's used rack, or the one your neighbor found in his father's closet. Some of these are great buys. Some are expensive firewood. The difference usually shows up in about ten minutes of looking, if you know where to look.

New, used and vintage are different purchases

New means you know the rod's whole history, because it starts with you. You get a warranty and, from most sellers, some kind of return window. From a single American maker, as you saw in the Short Course, you'll often wait 12 to 24 months.

Used usually means a rod from a maker or company still working, or recently retired. These are often lightly fished. The questions are mostly about condition and whether anything has been repaired.

Vintage is the deep end. The great makers' rods sit here, and they hold their value: a signed Payne in good condition brings $8,000 to $15,000, and a working Dickerson 8014 $4,000 to $6,000. So do a lot of mid-century production rods, which vary widely. Some are fine fishing rods. Plenty were built from soft cane on loose tapers and were never very good.

With vintage, three things decide what a rod is worth to you: the maker, the condition, and how much of it is still original. Decide up front whether you're buying a rod to fish or a rod to keep. The answer changes which flaws matter.

Sets, straightness and glue lines

Put the rod together if the seller will let you. Then take it apart again and sight down each section on its own, the way you learned in Lesson 1.

A slight set in an old tip is common, and often fixable with the methods in Lesson 9. A hard bend in the butt, or a kink right at a ferrule, is a bigger problem.

While you're sighting, look at the flats. They should run straight down the section. If they spiral, the section has a twist, and the guides won't line up no matter how you assemble it.

Then look at the glue lines, the hairline seams between the six strips. They should be closed and tight for the full length. An open seam means the glue has let go and the section is starting to delaminate. Flex the section gently in your hand and watch the seams. If a line opens under the bend, the joint is gone.

Dark staining along a glue line, or under the varnish near the ferrules, often means water got in at some point. Older rods were often glued with adhesives that don't stand up to water as well as modern ones, so an old rod with a wet history deserves a closer look.

Ferrules

Ferrules tell you a lot about how a rod was treated.

Put the sections together. A good ferrule goes in with firm, smooth resistance and seats all the way. Then hold the rod on either side of the joint and wiggle it gently. Any click or wobble means the ferrule is worn.

Look at where the ferrule meets the cane. The ferrule shouldn't turn or slide on the cane. If it does, its glue has failed. Check the end of the female ferrule for cracks, and check the cane just past the ferrule for cracks too, since that's where the rod takes the most stress.

Replacing a ferrule is a real repair, done by someone who knows what they're doing. It's not a reason to walk away from a great rod. It is a reason to pay less.

Tips: matched, original, full length

On a rod sold with two tips, lay the tips side by side. They should be the same length. A short tip was probably broken and repaired by cutting it back and fitting a new tip top. That changes how the rod casts, and it lowers the value.

Then look for a tip that doesn't belong. Different wrap color, a different shade of cane, a different fit in the ferrule. Tips get swapped between rods over the decades. A rod that left the shop with two tips and now has one is worth less than one with both.

Refinished rods

Signs of a refinish: varnish that looks too perfect for the rod's age, wraps in colors that don't fit the era, or a maker's marking that's missing or sits on top of the new finish instead of under it.

A refinish isn't a defect. A good one can give a tired rod many more seasons. But for a rod with a famous name on it, a refinish usually lowers what collectors will pay. If you're buying to fish, that can work in your favor. If you're buying as an investment, it matters a lot. Either way, it should be in the price.

What vintage really costs to restore

This is where people get burned. A "project rod" at a good price looks like a deal until you add up the work.

Rewrapping and refinishing a rod is a lot of skilled hours. Replacing ferrules is more. Fixing delamination is often not worth it at all. The work belongs with a professional restorer, and a full job can easily cost more than you paid for the rod.

So run the math before you buy. What will the rod be worth when it's done? What will the work cost? If the second number gets close to the first, you're paying for the experience, not the rod. That's fine, as long as you know it going in.

Red flags at the low end

On new rods, the Short Course warning holds: under about $300, a lot of rods sold as bamboo are bamboo in name only. Here's what that looks like up close:

• No taper named, or a vague "classic" taper.
• Flats that look soft or rounded instead of crisp.
• Chrome-plated brass where you'd expect nickel silver.
• Thick, runny varnish, or finish pooled at the wraps.
• No clear answer about where it was built.
• No return window.

A ceramic stripping guide on its own isn't a red flag. Most inexpensive rods use one. It's the pile-up of shortcuts that tells you what you're looking at.

Questions to ask a seller

Good sellers like these questions. Be wary of ones who don't.

• Whose taper is it, and what model?
• Is the finish original, or has it been refinished?
• Any repairs? Shortened tips, replaced ferrules, rewraps?
• Are both tips original to the rod, and the same length?
• Can I see photos sighting down each section, plus close-ups of the ferrules?
• Can I cast it before I buy?
• If it isn't what you described, can I send it back?

If you can cast it, run the 15, 30 and 50-foot tests from Lesson 1. A rod can pass every visual check and still not be your rod.

Next: You know what to look for in anyone's rod. Lesson 11 shows you what we specify and check on ours before it ever ships.