But, when the intermediates are applied, they aren't just left as is. Thread in a single strand is inherently weak (unless it's something like kevlar...), but when bundled up into some form of a matrix, like closely spaced wraps, or in composite construction, a cloth or mat, then applying a "resin" to the matrix, becomes much stronger. You're mixing apples and oranges when comparing butter to the wraps. Butter increases the diameter of the rod for sure, but contributes nothing in the way of structure. A matrix of multiple wraps of thread and "resin" to make a composite, does. I can scrape butter off of a rod with a fingernail, but I dare you to try and scrape a wrap off one of my cane rods with a fingernail. Once a wrap is complete, the resin, whether it's varnish on a cane rod or epoxy on a composite rod, makes that wrap a part of the structure of the rod.
Now, if you could find some way to apply epoxy resin to butter, and make a composite matrix out of it, you might have something... ;^}
Mark
At 01:56 AM 10/7/2003, you wrote:
In a little bit of a hurry so let me reply quickly. Both theories are true. Intermediate wraps do keep old hide glue rods together.
They also stiffen the action. I've built rods with and without intermediates, and there is a marked difference. Just think about it... the intermediates definitely make the rod larger in cross section, thus increasing the taper. They simply must make a difference.
I'm sorry, but I don't buy this argument. Think about it: use butter for your intermediate wraps. Would that make tha rod stiffer? DOn't think so. If stiffening should be a product of the diameter as such, the material that constitutes that additional diameter has to have certain physical characteristics and design parameters. Intermediate wraps don't have those. I.e. the wrapping thread is not stiff by itself, Therefore, the only way it could add markedly to the action of the rod (as an added material, not as a moderator of the bamboo, see later) would be if thread were incorporated (integrally) in the 'blank' in a longitudinal direction (just like fibers) so that it could be loaded under tension while bending the rod.
I still think that the primary reason for intermediates was structural integrity. Any effect on the stiffness of the rod (and I am NOT denying that intermediates may have an effect on stiffness) has IMNSHO got to stem from an effect of the additional wraps on the bamboo blank. As said before, I suggest that intermediates may e.g. increase the pressure on the glued surfaces, decreasing (micro)slip or plastic slip (dunno if there is a term for this, but what I mean is that in bending the sections may ever so little move in respect to one another, along the glue lines, plastically deforming the glue itself) and thereby increasing the tendency of the whole rod to resist bending (i.e. making it stiffer...).
This is only an hypothesis though...
henk
====================Heisenberg was right!========================= | Dr. Henk J.M. Verhaar | | | Principal | e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]| | Ecotoxicology specialist | home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | ENVIRON Netherlands B.V. | | | Zeisteroever 17 | phone: +31 30 698 6218 | | NL-3704 GB Zeist | fax: +31 30 698 6239 | | the Netherlands | | ====================Uncertainty happens!==========================
