Woods Other Than Bamboo Used for Rod Building

By George Leonard Herter, Edited by Lisa M. McMahon

I am taking the time for discussing the use of other woods besides bamboos for rod making only as a matter of record, as none of them is equal to bamboo nor should be considered any more for light and medium rods. This applies to rods up to fifteen-sixteenth of an inch in diameter at the butt. For heavy rods fifteen-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and larger hickory works out well if properly dried, although bamboo rods well constructed are superior to hickory even for these heavy rods.

HICKORY

True Hickory is a wood found only in the United States. We have some over thirty-five different species. The finest quality of hickory for rod making, are the types listed under solid wood rods.

The United States Forest Service rates hickory as the most shock resistant wood in existence. Hickory has the quality which enables it to be compressed or stretched and it will return quickly to its original form. Hickory wood for rod making or for handle making on rods such as surf rods may be air dried down to 8% moisture content. This can be done only in states where the humidity is not over 50%. This will not produce the finest rod, but it can be used with a reasonable chance that it will not warp badly. It can also be scientifically kiln dried down to 7% moisture content and is more suitable for rod work when this is done. Unless hickory is dried down to at least 7 % moisture content it usually warps so easily and badly that it is not too satisfactory for rod work.

DEGAME

Scientific name Calycaphyllum candidiassimum (Vahl) D. C. Other trade names for this wood besides Degame are Degama in Cuba, Lemond wood in Mexico, Lancewood in the United States and England and Pau Mulato in Central America. This wood is found in Cuba, the West Indies, Mexico, and the upper part of South America and Central America. Air dried to 12% moisture content, a cubic foot weighs 50 to 53 pounds. It is a very fine textured straight grained, strong wood. Some of it compares favorably in quality with hard maple. Its heart wood color is variegated brown. The outer sapwood is comparatively colorless. It is a denser wood than such woods as hickory and dogwood. It makes fair trolling and casting rods but tends to set easily.

BLACK PALM

Scientific name Astrocaryum Standleyanum (Bailey). Other trade names for this wood are Arrow wood and Black Bamboo. This wood is found in northern South America and in Central America. It is a form of bamboo and has bamboo-like fibers. The wood is black to dark brown in color with a spotting of beige and light tan. It is a very strong, tough wood. The hard outer part of the logs is used to make casting and trolling rods. The inner part of the log is more pithy, like bamboo, and is also used for rod making, but it is not as strong as the outer part. The fibers of the wood are coarse and tend to splinter when strained excessively as many bamboos do. On occasion, rods made from black palm are wrapped with silk or nylon their entire length to prevent any chance that the wood might spinter under heavy strains. For fly rods, Black Palm is too heavy, but it does make fair trolling and heavy bait casting rods and salt water rods combined with hickory in laminated rods, it has been very successful. Black Palm has long been the standard native Central American wood for bows and arrow shafts, and it is excellent for these purposes. A life-long friend of mine, Roland Lorenz with the United States Forestry Service, has spent all of his life in Africa, Central and South America studying woods. He has done a great deal of work with woods for both fishing rods and bows. He always keeps me well informed on any new developments.

CHENAR WOOD

The scientific name is Platanus Orientalis. Other trade names Lancewood, Plane Tree Wood. This tree is found in the far east. It was extensively imported and planted in England in the seventeenth century. It is known in England as the Plane tree. Our American Myrtle tree is a tree of this type. Chenar Wood is not very fine grained but the wood is fairly tough and hard. Chenar, air dried to 12% moisture content, weighs from 32 to 45 pounds per cubic foot. The color varies greatly. It runs from cream to pale yellows and from pale blue to purplish gray. It occasionally has a reddish tinge. Chenar wood is not an especially good wood for rod making, as it does not compress well and warps easily if not kiln dried. Its main use is for expensive gunstocks.

BETHABARA

The scientific name is Family Begnoniaceae. Species Leucoxylon Mart found in the Guianas of South America. Species Phentaphyila found in the Guianas of South America and Brazil. Species Serratifolia found in Central America.

Bethabara is a trade name copyrighted by M. A. Shipley, a manufacturer of fishing rods, in Philadelphia. His copyright has been un-sustained. This wood is also known by many other trade names such as Surinam in Dutch Surinam, Pao D'Arco, in Brazil, also Greenheart, Ironwood, Iron tree, Bow wood, Lapacho, Wasiba, and Washiba. In Mexico, the species found there is known as Noibwood, Yellow guya-can. Bastard lignum-vitae.

This wood, when air dried to 12% moisture content, weighs from 54 to 71 pounds per cubic foot. The wood is fine to medium-fine in texture and hard. The color of the wood is olive to reddish brown, and sometimes it is beautifully streaked. It is a difficult wood to cut and splinters badly. It is of no use for fly rods but does make fair trolling and bait casting rods. Its main commercial use is for harbor piles, booms and breakwaters.

GREENHEART

The scientific name is Nectandra Rodioei Schomb. Other trade names for this wood are Bibiru and Sipiri by natives. Demerara Greenhearl by British commercial buyers, Groenhartboom in Holland and Gruenholz, Gruenherzbaum and Bibirubaum in Germany. The wood, air dried to 12% moisture content, weighs about 65 to 68 pounds per cubic foot. The color of the heartwood varies from light to dark olive to nearly black with veins of light and dark. The sapwood, or outerwood, is pale yellow to greenish. Although the darker, or black heart wood, was once considered by rod makers to be superior to the heart wood in other colors, this is not at all true. The color of the heartwood does not affect its qualities in any way. The Nectandra Rodioei species of Greenheart is found mostly, but not exclusively, in British Guinea, most of it along the Pomeroon, Cuyuni, Mozaruni, Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice rivers. British Guinea exporters call their Greenheart Demerara Greenheart to distinguish it from other Greenheart. It does not all come from the Demerara river valleys, however, as might be supposed by the name.

Greenheart is very fine-textured, very heavy and strong. It has about twice the strength of white oak, according to The Forest Products Laboratory tests. It planes easily but turns very badly. Its main use is for underwater piling in harbors, as it resists salt water rot very well. Greenheart is also found in limited quantities in Surinam and, although at first thought to be a different species, is identical to that found in British Guinea.

A great many woods are known to the trade as Greenheart that are not the true Greenheart, although possessing, in most cases, very similar qualities. One is Dahoma, scientific name Piptodena Africana, found on the west coast of Africa. It is often called African Greenheart. The wood is golden brown in color. Another called Jamaican Greenheart, scientific name Ceanothus Chlorozylon, has heartwood yellowish-green in color and is heavy and hard.

Fifty years ago, Greenheart was used a great deal in England and was used somewhat in America and Canada for fly rods. Greenheart makes a heavy, slow fly rod that will throw a wet fly fairly well. The wood is so heavy and slow that false casting with it is nearly impossible. It is of no value at all for dry fly rods nor present day rods used for wet flies. It makes a fairly good light trolling rod. Hickory however, is superior for such purposes if properly dried.

TRUE LANCEWOOD

The scientific name is Anonaceae Lanceo-lata Baill. Also at times called Degame, Lemon Wood and Black Heart. Air dried at 12% moisture content, it weighs about 62 pounds per cubic foot. It is straight grained, very fine textured, strong and resilient. The sapwood is lemon to yellow in color. The heart of the wood is very small and black. This wood makes very good bows and fair trolling and bait casting rods. It is found in northern South America and the West Indies. It is marketed in small diameter poles. The sap-wood is all that is used for either rods or bows. In England, Chenar wood is often called Lance wood and is substituted for it.

BEEFWOOD

The scientific name is Sapotaceae Mimusops and Manilkara. Also known by the trade names, Bullet Wood, Horseflesh, Balata, Massaranduba, Cow Tree, Red Lancewood. Air dried to 12% moisture content, this wood weighs 55 to 75 pounds per cubic foot. It is found throughout Central America and the northern part of South America. This wood is a medium to dark reddish-brown in color. It has fine texture, the grain is usually straight and the wood is very strong and resilient. However, it is not as strong or resilient as hard maple or hickory. The dust of this wood irritates the skin of most people. Beefwood makes fair trolling rods but cannot be used for fly rods. Commercially, it is used to trim arrows and for general construction work in the tropics.

SNAKEWOOD

The scientific name is Moraceae Piratinera Guian-ensis and Brosimum. Also known by the trade name Letterwood, Air dried to 12% moisture content, it weighs 80 to 90 pounds per cubic foot. The sapwood is light and is not used. The heartwood is dark red-brown with dark markings. The wood is firm and strong, usually with straight grain. It splits easily. Occasionally, it is used to make the butts on trolling and casting rods. It is also used for bows. At times it is confused with Black Palm Wood.

ASH

The common ash found in the United States is a strong, resilient wood and was once widely used for butt sections on fly rods. If properly dried down to 10% moisture content or less, it makes butt sections  that  are superior to such wood as  Greenheart, both as  to durability and action. It was a great favorite of early rod makers.

The myth that second growth ash is better than first growth is not at all true. Both are identical, if grown uncrowded. Second growth timber sometimes gets a better chance to grow uncrowded, and hence there are many who prefer second growth timber. Today ash is used mostly for baseball bats.

HARD MAPLE

At one time this wood was used somewhat for trolling rods but not in recent years. It is used for handles on surf rods and salt water rods and is fairly well suited to this purpose.