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page 50Simone and I had decided to work in such a wayas to create our own models of reel seats: littleblocks of burl (Thuja and Amboyna are still thefavourites), small lathe, drill bit for the mortise,guiding tool to construct the mortise, iller andimmersion in inal varnish.Bamboo JournalI placed the guides on the rod and with an eyeon my dwindling spools of silk, I thought of thetying models I had played around with in myhead and I chose this one, even if it seems a littletoo elaborate as a irst original tying.After a few days my reel seat was ready tomount;I must admit that this element requires a lot ofwork: after choosing the type of reel seat (uplocking or down locking, with or withoutmortise), one chooses the type of wood, theshape, the length, the diameter… and then thetype of hardware to mount. Thus, this elementcan complicate the construction process considerably.Honestly, I was a little disappointed in the resultafter the varnishing; in my opinion the varnish Iuse in this application acts alone, in the sensethat it darkens all tones very much; seeing thetip and butt with the tying varnished alreadygave me a minimum of satisfaction and a littlepleasure.Well, once I found the thorns (in the tip and thebutt) I was ready to glue, with the Saratoga twocomponents glue, the handle and the reel seat.Everything was carefully gripped – but not tootightly – in a homemade pressFor the very delicate last phase of the work, i.e.the immersion varnishing of the rod, I had onceagain teamed up with Simone and together wehad calculated the mixture to use of varnish andthinners, the tube to use and the cabinet whereto store the varnished pieces.Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association