What is the easiest, fastest, or best way to varnish a bamboo blank to get a good finish/ tHANKS FOR YOUR HELP.

I don't know if this is the best or the easiest or the quickest way, but it works great for me:
1) remove old varnish with a razor held at 90-120 degrees to blank; the blade points away from the direction of your strokes. Use smooth strokes. Short , choppy strokes put liitle "ticks" in the bamboo.
2) Finish with PermaGloss. For a hex, I make one pass, with a foam brush, every other "point", from tip to butt, keeping the point in the middle of the brush, applying finsih to 2 flat sides at a time, for a total of 3 passes on each section of a hex rod. If you miss some spots, touch-up quickly, but try not to make contact with the PG that is already laid down. Do not disturb for an hour or so (longer in drier climates). You should probably wait a a few days to a week before wrappping, otherwise there is a very slight, hardly noticeable tackiness or softness that makes it a little difficult to pack threads.
Obviously, I am assuming that you are re-building an old bamboo fly rod blank, since that is what I have been doing, for my past few projects
With a new or naked blank, the PG would still be a great choice; it is gin-clear, super hard (but still very flexible), and will outlive most of us.

If you want to varnish a blank its hard to beat 4 or more coats of Tru Oil. Apply with coffe filter and 0000 steel wool between coats. If you want to do an assembled rod its another story.

Now that they've given you some easy ways to do it, I'll give you a quick run down of how most quality bamboo blanks are finished. You wrap the guides and then dip the entire rod, guides and all, into a tube containing warm, thinned varnish. The rate of removal is controlled by inches/seconds and sometimes elaborate mechanisms are utilized in this so any human error can be removed. It can take 3 or 4 "dippings" to complete the process.

Obviously this is a much more labor intensive process but it's one more method to put in your bag of rod building knowledge.

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And then there is the "how it's made " video on you tube that shows the guy at Thomas and Thomas using a turkey baster full of varnish to coat the rod.
I alyways use the dip tank or the drain tank method.

Thanks to all for the info, it's much appreciated.........Gene

Talked to a guy that made his own dip tank out of pvc pipe...he used 2inch pipe as he didn't want the expense of buying so many gallons of varnish. he made a pulley system with a crank handle to raise and lower his blanks.

Dip tank and use a finishing motor to pull the rod, stopping at each wrap to let the liquid pull off the wrap. Takes a long time, but it is the "correct" way most of the masters of old did it, and the way most makers still do it.

Gene;
While it's true that dipping has become the modern standard, the vast majority of bamboo rods made when they were the only thing around were either brushed or sprayed. The easiest and quickest way to get a rod varnished is to spray it, it will also be better than dipping if you color preserve the wraps. There are various brands of varnish and polyurethane available in spray cans, use one that is labeled as "spar", that means it is exterior rated and has UV inhibitors in it. I don't know anything about Perma Gloss, but it sounds like something that wouldn't strip easily if it ever needs refinishing again, neither will epoxy.
john