Winter Care
The leaves are down and with the heat on so is the humidity in your house. Among the many things this affects are stringed instruments, cigars and bamboo rods. This is especially so with newer items as they have not reached a stasis. The materials are still prone to absorbing and expelling moisture.
This causes all kinds of hellish nightmares for instruments. Even the finest cigars are reduced to a dry heap of rubbish.
Bamboo rods are not spared either,especially newer ones,though the effects are generally not noticed till Spring when you start using the rod again. Suddenly one day a ferrule comes loose or comes off. Bailey Wood, Mr. Ferrule, has told me that shrinkage of .0005 can be enough to reek havoc.
Also many of the epoxies used for gluing ferrules shrink slightly over time. The best preventative measure is to run a humidifier where you store your rods to keep the environment stable. Winter is a good time to clean all the ferrules as well. Use a Q-tip with denatured alcohol to clean the inside of the female ferrule and the slides of the male ferrules.
Single Malt Scotch works as well but is a bit pricey.
It’s a good idea to carry a Sunshine cloth with your rod or in your fishing vest to keep the ferrules clean through the fishing season. Never use nose grease to lube your ferrules. I don’t know where this mindless idea came from but it should be purged from the Fractured Fishing Facts directory forever. A little care can save us from Big headaches in the future.
Cheers!!l
Filed under: Rod Building on December 3rd, 2007
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