Here are some more images of bamboo rod making classes that went on Monday.  John is the solo student this week, as his classmate had to reschedule to June.  John is getting plenty of attention from me, and is really making great progress.

John removing inner node prior to straightening

This image shows John removing the inner portion of the node prior to splitting and straightening.  This allows for more controlled splitting.

After this step in rod building, John proceeds to splitting into narrower and narrower strips.   After choosing his node stagger, in this case a Garrison style, John went to town straightening and roughing his strips.

John straightens out the sweeps in his bamboo rod strips