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page 46and so after many measurements with a measuringtape (rigorously in inches) and various felttip pens in hand, I decided to cut the culm withmy brand new Japanese saw, to split it with akitchen knife and then with the nail ixed in thevice, I divided the strips in their classical sets(1+1, 3+3, 6+6, 12+12).As a further reminder I had made a small(recycled) cardboard case where I had copiedthe splitting procedure on a section of a bamboostrip.Bamboo JournalAnd secondly I was carrying some errors in thesplitting which hadn’t been done quite right …Before iling the nodes in my strips, I decided tosquare them a little better in the 90° guide ofthe wooden planing form with my brand newDictum, to get a section as rectangular aspossible or slightly isosceles-trapezoidal:this operation would greatly facilitate the nextphase of the irst roughingNonetheless I immediately made some mistakes:I extracted material for only three rods …(sigh!), three butts and three tips; probably adefect in the inclination of the strip on the nail:maybe the operation was done in too muchhurry, well, I don’t understand …I will not bore you with the description of thenext passages in the construction but I will saythat in all the phases I trod very carefully, like“walking on eggshells”; I could feel everyonestaring: the rodmaking world, my friends andfamily who in the construction period looked atme with an expression I would describe assupportive but with a hint of scepticism regardingthe results I had announced.After the staggering I moved on to the treatmentof the nodes and the straightening of the strips,very busy phases: irstly because there are atleast two or three different methods tied to theorder in which to do these two operations ….The choice (autonomous this time) was theright one and the perfume of bamboo heatingwith the air pistol made me feel more like arodmaker!I must confess that another phase I thoroughlyenjoyed was the roughing (i.e. the planing of thelevels) of the 12 strips; the plane with a new,sharp blade was moving smoothly and conidently,the shavings accumulating and the work,although tiresome, was particularly enjoyable.Only after a few days did I notice that the newblade I had used in the Dictum was sharpenedat 25°.I tied the two sets of strips manually andwithout the use of the Garrison Binder and aftera couple of days I was ready for the heat treatmentin Simone’s oven, the temperature wasright and after two passages out came fumingtip and butt. I was ready for the next phases.Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association