Bamboo Fly Rod Making & MQB-1

[mvbrooks]

Hi, I make bamboo fly rods and need a really tough knife. I have broken three Buck Hunters and a Gerber. In making the rods, we take a culm of bamboo about 3" in diameter with 1/2" thick walls and flame temper it and cut two 56 inch lengths with the nides staggered. Then, you take the knife, lay the blade exactly where you want to cut each culm piece in half and smack it with a rubber mallet. Nect, you split each half into thirds and each third into quarters. While splitting, you are working the knife blade, from side to side, through the peice of bamboo. This creates considerable side stresses and THAT is where I tend to break the Buck knives. The rubber mallet seems to break just about everything else. Pieces of broken knife blade flying around rather dangerous and I have been looking for something that is tougher.

In any event, I went to a knife show recently and one salesman told me what I wanted was the Camillus MQB-1 or the 3. He claimed that Special Forces types would shove the blade into a door jam and literally kick the side of the blade and knock the door off the hinge. THAT sounds like what I want. Is that true. Is the plain MQB-1 really that tough? Or is there something even better you experts could recommend for a working knife.
Thank you
Mike Brooks

 

[Peter La]

I would go with the CU/7. It is a great knife for the money. I have used one for over a year now and cannot say anything bad about it. The stock sheath is also quite good. The CU/7 is probably the most knife for the money anywhere.

 

[Protactical]

There is a tool designed to do what you want, called a froe. I recomend this one, I don't know where they got the ratty picture. Mine is perfectly nice. If you can turn your own handle, you will save money, or just weld a piece of steel to a piece of pipe. http://countryworkshops.org/froes.html

There is more to it though, this one has just the right shape, some froes are designed for woods that split off easily like cedar shingles, they can have a lot of taper, for tougher work you need a streamlined blade, which is what this one is. Antique tools are usually a good source, but most froes that one would find in flea markets were designed for shingles, and are too stout.

If you look in the Japan Woodworker catalogue, they actually have a bamboo froe, and you can never beat Japanese tools on quality. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it might be designed for splitting out pegs, which aren't very long. See page 44. http://japanwoodworkeronline.com/041203_JWW_SITE/0044.htm

I know one guy who did this work with great control by using a hunting knife blade held verticaly in a vice, and he pushed his culm through that way, this is probably the best way to stear the culm in order to break away perfectly sized strips, he was a wizard at it. However, he did need to initially split the culm, and remove the nodal dams.

 

[mvbrooks]

Thank you for your input. I found a good price on a CQB-1 and bought it. It is, really, absolutely perfect. I have excellent control, can make splits that are an even 1/4" wide, and that rubber mallet doesn't appear to phase it. At the same time, I found a really neat pie cutter for splitting the bamboo into 6 even strips at the same time (Hida Tools in Berkley, CA). The thing about the CQB-1, though...woa! It comes so sharp you can literally shave the hair off the back of your hand. ANd the craftsmanship is incredible. I wish I could afford to collect knives, I am very very impressed by this Camillus knife.

 

[roughedges]

http://www.hidatool.com/bamboo.html


There are some good tools at the above site and not just for bamboo.

I just built a shade house from different types of timber bamboo, only 4 screws involved. it was kind of a pita. I just used a big heavy knife- but then, I wasn't looking for any level of precision beyond, "that'll do."

edit: heh, I just sawyour replyregarding hida tool. I think I will be buying one of those pie splitters myself!

 

[collecter]

I recently started making a bamboo bow and had to split a 7" dia stock. It's tuff stuff! I used my 12" ontario machete and batoned it thru the full 6' length...it was slow going but worked and didn't damage the machete.

Collecter