Allan, there were cane rods around in the 18th century. We do know that in America in 1845, a violin maker living in Pensylvania by the name of Samuel Phillipe, constructed a split cane rod, and from there, the craft of rod making as we know it, was born. It was certainly the Americans that perfected the splitting of bamboo and re-joining the resulting strips for fishing rods. The Japanese also built split cane rods in the 18th century.
Would imagine he used the same glue as for his violins.
JIMMY D
This particular response was referring to the fact that there are still violins around that were made in the 18th century, but no bamboo rods.
Al
