The bamboo rod and how to build it - by Claude M. Kreider 1951

Chapter 2 Methods of Rod Construction, page 11:

"...The five strip rod definitely has unusual merit, as I can testify after building very many of them to Robert Crompton's charts, and others of experimental tapers. Beautiful five-strip rods of various types are now being produced commercially by the Uslan Rod Company of Spring Valley, New York. Perhaps other rod builders supply them to order for a limited clientele; and certainly a great many amateur craftsmen are enjoying the novelty of five-strip construction, with the satisfaction of producing very fine, useful and unusual rods of the marvelous bamboo fiber.

Another definite advantage of five-strip construction is that the glue line is off center, the working strain being upon solid wood (note Fig. 2 in the illustration) rather than upon a continuous glue line in the six-strip, Fig. 1. Thus, the slipping, shearing tendency which must be present in the six-strip is entirely absent in the five-strip pentagon..."

Chapter 9 The Five-Strip Rod, page 57:

"This unique type of construction perhaps merits a fuller description than was undertaken in Chapter 2, since you may be undecided at the start whether to build this rod or the conventional six-strip.

Here we are departing from the traditional hexagonal design, which has served so well for three quarters of a century, so the merits of five-strip construction should be carefully examined. In addition to the bracing effect of the apex opposing the flat, arched surface and the off-center glue line, as mentioned in Chapter 2, there is the undeniable fact, easily noted in the tests of a five- and six-strip rod of the same type, and containing the same weight of bamboo, that the five-strip has more power or backbone.

The difference is particularly notable in fly rods, and is evident in rods of the bait casting type as well. I have not had the opportunity to compare heavier sticks in the two types, but feel sure that the five-strip construction such rods will prove unusually resistant to "set," which so often deforms such rods subjected to terrific strain in fighting large fish.

Robert Crompton, a fine craftsman of the old school, with the enquiring, analytical mind of a trained engineer, is credited with this radical change in construction from the time-tried hexogonal rod, and he pioneered in this field a grat many years ago, experimenting with various rod tapers which resulted in proved working charts..."