Dressing Nodes

Freshly splitt bamboo strips.

No need to get the bamboo strip perfectly straight before the planing process, but there is one thing that's very important and that's the job you do with the nodal areas before you start planing the strips. Warm up the nodes with the heat gun, straighten them in the wise, and sand down rest of the hump that remains. Many use a belt sander for this task,  but I like to do it by hand using a 350-grit  sandpaper, feel that I have good control using this method, cutting as few of the power fibers as possible. This is a part of the building process that means a lot for the final result later on. If I don't do a good job here, I can end up with glue lines, and that's one thing I don't want. The goal is to get the nodes flat, straight and I think they should be as short as possible after the sanding is done. 
And it's always interesting to check out the node-work on other rods done by other makers, I try to get a sneak peek if possible, many have put some effort into this and done a great  job dressing the nodes, smooth and short, the sign of good craftsmanship.

Take your time when sanding the nodes.

Some heat and patience and the nodes are ready.