My local fly shop, International Angler, has interesting guests come in occasionally on weekends to give short, informal presentations on all things fly fishing. This previous Sunday Don Ward of the Keystone Fly Rod Company stopped in to take up the daunting task of explaining the split cane bamboo rod making process in just under 2 hours. Don did an excellent job explaining the steps…from splitting culms, to node staggering, flaming, planing, binding, heat treating, etc.
Start from the start…Don splitting a culm of bamboo.
One of the nice things about the demonstration was that Don brought a lot of the tooling required to make a rod. Everything from his Garrison-style binder to the almighty planing forms. I would describe Don’s approach to making as unpretentious and practical. He seems to take great pride in building high quality, beautiful fishing rods. Be sure to check out Keystone Fly Rod Co. online.
Binding ain’t easy…unless you have a Garrison-style binder.
I hope everyone has a great holiday and new year. Thanks for checking in.
Trout Purgatory 