Bamboo Tips - Tips Area
Blank Info - Straightening - Tools

< Home < Tips Area < Blank Info < Straightening < Tools

In "The Lovely Reed," Jack talks about using a brayer to "tweak" straightening.  How effective is this for those that have tried it.  (Doug Hall)

A "brayer" is a hard rubber wheel mounted on a handle.  They are normally used to spread ink for printing.  Jack lays the rod section flat after gluing up and rolls the wheel down each flat the full length of the section before hanging to dry.  He says that it allows the sections to relax any uneven tension in the binding thus straight(er).  (Doug Hall)

This works very well. I use a 2 foot length of 38mm bronze rather than a rubber roller. If the surface is flat and true you can just keep rolling the blank one face after the other and the blank comes out extremely straight with no twist.  I very often don't need to straighten at all after doing this.  (Tony Young)

I was referencing page 81 (The Lovely Reed).  After reviewing it, I realize he refers to it as a "artist hard rubber roller."  The original question was simply does anyone else do this and is it effective?"  (Doug Hall)

Yes, I use a roller that my wife gave me. She does stamping but the hard rubber roller is heavy enough to work on butts. ( she has another definition for a brayer , the guy pushing the plane on the form; but that's another story). I believe that  I do most of the straightening by eye and by rolling the recently glued strip on the clean table with open palms. I use allot of tension on the string but never twist and that clamps well enough that the brayer has never squeezed glue out from between strips. I also hang the section to dry in the clean room from a pipe that is  suspended from the ceiling, in the same place as rods with finish, dry.  I could live without it.  I am sure I have finished rods and forgot to use the brayer.  (Rich McGaughey)

Yes, I use a roller to help straighten sections.  You can use almost any kind, but I like the somewhat stiff, foam roller that wallpaper hangers use to smooth out seams.   Cheap, available and works great.  (Bill Harms)

I also use a roller, a steel one I got from Garrett Wade a little expensive at $20 but works very,  very, well.  The roller has some heft to it and is very flat, unlike the wallpaper roller I used to use that was more rounded on than flat.

I got my steel roller at the Garrett Wade web site.  (Bob Williams)

I use a hard wheel, wallpaper seam roller, and yes it does make a difference in helping to get the rod straighter. It still takes some further heat straightening to finally get the job done, but it sure does help.  (Jack Follweiler)

Yes, and yes.  Except I use wallpaper hanging type rollers... same idea.  Rolling over the blank works as good or better for me than rolling the blank.  When you press down on the blank with the roller is loosens up the binding string so the strips can readjust to one another and straighten out.  (Kyle Druey)

Can anyone explain how to use Max Satoh's tanegi?  (Lee Orr)

Heat a strip until it is al dente

Hold the Tenagi in one hand, the strip in the other

Insert the strip into the appropriate slot in the Tenagi

Pull on the strip

Throw the broken strip on the ground and stamp on it, while shaking your head in amazement at how easy it is to bend a strip with the Tenagi

Try again, pulling a bit more gently

Place the straightened strip on the bench and write Max a note thanking him for sharing!!  (Larry Blan)

Okay, let me explain how to use the tool, Tamegi not Tenagi.

If you are not interested in someone else tool, please neglect this post at this point!!

Tamegi is a lever tool to bend or unbend a rod blank which has been used by Japanese professional rod (not fly rod)  makers for around 200 years. It is not my invention.  I just introduced it to you at Grayrock.

Yes, Tamegi is just a lever. You have to apply it to your blank with appropriate force..  You must have a monkey spana which is made of steel.  If you use it to a bamboo rod with the same force when you fix the steel nut, what'll happen?

There are two types of usage of Tamegi.

1. When you want to bend or unbend at a certain POINT of a blank;

Pushing a point:

Heat the rod AROUND the point of the rod until it is al dente, and lever the Tamegi at the point where you want to unbend.  Unbend means that the dogleg part of a rod is to be straighten toward the opposite side of the bend. When heat is not enough, it is obvious that the bamboo try to stay in the current shape, or will be broken if you bend it with too much force.

2.  When you want to straighten a curved section;

Rubbing a curved section:

Heat the section to al dente, not at a certain spot but all the length of the curve of a rod.  Insert the rod into an appropriate  slot of Tamegi.   Place the end of heated part above the slot.  First unbend (bend to opposite side of curve) the section with light force and move Tamegi along the curved section keeping an appropriate tension of unbending.  Try to do this once or twice with light force.  Of course you can do this by your fingers or hand but the rod is hot.

To do this, the inner wall of the slot of Tamegi must be smoothed by sandpaper beforehand.  Otherwise, you will have a damaged surface of the rod if you apply it to a finished rod.

How to give a force:

The force is given by a palm, thumb and three fingers (center finger and two outside fingers).   Thumb should hold Tamegi, and three fingers hold a rod blank and shorten the length of those by the palm.

Your left hand keeps the rod if you use Tamegi with right hand palm. If you do this in front of your face, you can do this operation continuously turning the rod from one surface to next.   (Max Satoh)

Thanks Max, both for the tool, and correcting the name. Tenagi didn't sound right, but for the life of me, I couldn't come up with anything else. (Larry Blan)

Last night I was putting up shelves and using one of those laser leveling devices. I was admiring the straight red line projected on the wall thinking that it would be great if I could project that line on a blank. Then it occurred to me that I could project that line on a blank. All I had to do was hold the blank to the base of the level with the axis lined up with the way the laser is pointing. I am currently working on a 6ft. one piece rod, so I tested it out with the laser level. On two opposite flats the laser line goes all the way from butt to tip. On the flats 90 degrees to those two the line goes 2/3rds the way up then falls off, or if I swing it over a bit it goes 1/3rd up the blank, falls off, then comes back on at 2/3rds, then goes all the way to the tip. So that tells me the blank is slightly bowed in one direction.

I then tried it on an already finished rod. I can see the laser reflecting off the front edge of the wraps, so it is still a good indicator of the straightness of a finished rod. You should be able to see the laser reflecting off of every wrap. If not then something is crooked.

This works a lot better if you are in a darkened room.  (Darryl Hayashida)

It just occurred to me that perhaps the laser level can be used at glue up to straighten before the glue sets. I wonder if the binding string would get in the way.  (Darryl Hayashida)