Bamboo Fly Rod Finishes | The Alchemy

In the photo above, Koa wood from my homeland 

on the Big Island appears on most of my reel seats.

The Big Island of Hawaii is where my Portuguese ancestors migrated from Madeira on my mother's side of the family in the 1890s; many worked on the famous Parker Ranch in Kamuela. Inspired by the iconic hardwood of the Big Island, Koa was my first medium of choice as a youngster. At age 11, I was turning Koa wood bowls at Punahou School on Oahu and finishing them with Kukui nut oil. My finishing practices started with these natural oils that many of my grade-school shop teachers taught me to use, and later with marine craftsmen like my father and master Japanese carpenters. Decades later, I selectively sift through drawers of koa for the perfect figuring for a particular rod in mind. The combination of spalt, curly figuring, and burl all in one seat is quite remarkable. I call it the “Koa trilogy.” The word “Koa” translates to “warrior” in the Hawaiian language.

When you consider all the finishes on the market now, including alkyds and urethanes, it's perplexing to me because if we look back at historical finishing, “oiling out,” glazing, and varnishing techniques specifically of Flemish and Italian oil paintings, there are time-proven, flexible finishes that have lasted well over 500 years. These finishes are combinations of amber-infused walnut and linseed oils. These mediums have lasted for centuries with incredible clarity and resilience against temperature, scratching, dirt, and grime. 

Above photo: My personal cane rod seen here, now in its 25th year, still glistens 

after a quarter century with amber-infused walnut oil varnish. I learned these techniques from other craftsmen and artisans. Growing up around Japanese master carpenters in Hawaii, I learned how to protect wood, cane, and other substrates from the dreaded salt air. Now living on the US mainland, seasonal shifts are much more forgiving than the elements back home. At age 61, when I do the math, my rods will be around for my great-grandchildren to fish with, which makes me happy.

Above photo: A very unique select spalted Koa wood seat going on one of my brown tone rods with a coat of amber-imbued walnut oil.  The original piece of wood came from the Big Island near Kamuela. After turning this one, I fell in love with the chocolate browns, deep spalting, and maple-like yellows.

For the applications of a bamboo fly rod finish, these combinations of oils and ambers will last indefinitely with very simple proper care and storage. These finishes are extremely durable and, unlike urethanes and many other synthetic finishes, can be buffed and polished very easily. The urethane finishes you see on many cane rods often today are not my idea of how a cane rod should be finished or treated. These finishes are clear and lifeless, lack any depth, and although they may look great as a car finish, do not bring out the natural depth and persona of a bamboo rod. I dare say it is a step that considerably cheapens the rod's overall look and, even more importantly, makes it less durable. I have stripped down many rods with urethane finishes over the last three decades, and the finishes actually peel and chip as I sand them. A good indication that the prolonged flexural strength of urethane is questionable at best. 

I can smell fly rods with urethane finishes, and these finishes lack any physical data demonstrating their archival properties. Again, I am speaking specifically to cane finishing, not other substrates. Urethanes work; no doubt, the real question is whether alcohol-based molecules and isocyanates become brittle in time. Well, the answer is yes, they do. I have worked around enough wooden boats to understand how brittle they can become. Centuries ago, Italian and Flemish oil painters used amber-infused varnishes; these varnishes were even used for musical instruments, and well over 500 years old, they still glisten with walnut and linseed oils that mingle effortlessly with amber. The result is an incredibly long-lasting, flexible, glowing finish. Silk wraps finished with amber-infused mediums never craze or silver, even at extreme temperatures, if properly cured and maintained. Not all beautiful wraps are created equal. In time, many will cavitate and undergo oxidation. The real question is which ones will last over one hundred years. Temperature and time are always my biggest concern while finishing. Both these factors always make or break a finish. Throughout the finishing process, the rod is in a special dust-free room maintained at a constant temperature of about 86 degrees for about two weeks. The varnish is well pampered before it leaves the finishing room. I use a slurry of rottenstone and linseed oil to polish all surfaces of the rod before it goes back into the finishing room for several more days at lower temperatures. I apply finishes in three different ways.

If we look back in time, we have time-proven techniques that will outlast today's newest synthetic mediums and finishes. History has taken a lot of skinned knees and falls to get some of the oldest artifacts to last to the present day. Being mindful of centuries of experimentation is something I am very grateful for. I continue to practice these techniques in both my oil paintings and bamboo fly rods, and I am constantly humbled by their very simplicity and time proven effectiveness.

As of today, we have a readership of 205k, and I want to thank everyone for their kindness and great questions about fly tying and bamboo rod making. The ritual of writing for me is very therapeutic. Reading is fun and, for me, is a ritual I cannot do without; it strengthens the mind, keeps your neurotransmitters keen, and engages your frontal lobes. Tight lines and tight neurons!

Clint Bova

www.cjbovarods.com

www.clintbova.com