Fly rod identification

[MarkG]

Here are a couple of other old rods I have, dark mahogany greenwood rods maybe, scratch the surface and they are light underneath. When I stripped my "greenheart" rod down, I used paint stripper to remove all the varnish and whatever else was on there and it came up the light colour that you see in the photo I posted before and I may give these rods the same treatment one day and I expect they will look a look different than they do in their old state and become light coloured.

[MarkG]

And here is a full picture of the rod in question, I think we have established that the hexagonal shape doesn't rule out greenheart and the colour does not rule it out and given I have seen this in it's raw a state , I am convinced it is greenheart, it doesn't quite look like split cane and it does not quite fish like it either, all by the by, just educational, a lovely rod to fish with, that's the main thing..Whether the grays inn rod is greenheart, I do not know but it has a lot of similarities to this rod.

[MarkG]

Greenheart is a relic of the British Empire; the wood is Chlorocardium rodiei from British Guiana, also known as demerara greenheart, sipiri, or bibiru. Numerous other woods have been used for rod making, including ash, washiba (also from Guiana), lancewood, and even pine for bottom sections, particularly among the Midlands rod makers.

Greenheart is heavy, being solid wood, while bamboo cane is much lighter, being a grass. Greenheart has a regular and obvious woody grain structure, while cane is fairly uniform in appearance, having a grainy appearance mostly at the nodes.

The rod in your image looks exactly like I would expect a split cane rod to look.

Looks can be deceiving, I think we have established that it not being round and hexagonal and a light colour does not automatically make it a split cane Also, when I made this rod I sawed off the old wooden handle right at the base, I tried removing it with heat and gentle twisting but it would not come off so last resort was to saw it off. At this point it was just something to do in the lock down. This must have been a couple of years ago at least and I cannot actually remember how it looked but I think I would have noticed the cross sections of split cane and remembered that. I have never been happy with the cork handle I put on, its a bit short, the rod became a 10ft rod and I would have preferred it longer. So, one day I might take it off and replace it with a longer cork handle and then I will make a point of having a good look inside so to speak. Not sure I will ever get round to it but could be something to do in this cold weather. At least it should settle it. I am still 90% convinced it is not split cane for all the reasons I have made but one day we will see. Be interesting to find out for sure. Anon...