This is a first for students taking my bamboo rod making class! My student for this week is from the other corner of the world, Australia! Tom, fresh into his retirement, has decided to try his hand at building bamboo fly rods. Monday he flamed his culm of bamboo, straightened, pressed and roughed out his strips. He is really taking like a duck to water with rod making. They have ducks in Australia? Gotta ask him!

This is a great video for those interested in taking a bamboo rod building class at Raine Hollowbuilt Fly Rods. The week is documented in detail, showing aspiring rod makers the intricacies involved in building the fine bamboo fly rod. You can see from the smile on Tom’s face while casting his new rod, that his week of rod building was well spent!

Chris,
I have returned to Melbourne, shown my rod to family and friends, and the waiting list is growing (though at no cost that is to be expected). We are all amazed at how well it turned out, including myself.

When I knew retirement was around the corner, I spent some time looking for the best rod building course for myself; so in choosing your course I had pretty high expectations. Well I have to say the week exceeded every expectation I had! Your clear, patient but direct teaching style coupled with the personal attention was just superb. And just when I think I have forgotten something important, I find it in your syllabus or in my notes. What is so obvious is that in every step of the way, you have thought through the best and most practical way to get it accomplished with the best result in mind. The system for node straightening and pressing all the way up to your brilliant glue binder really are worth the price of admission alone.

So Chris, thank you very much for the education, the most enjoyable experience, and for your openness along the way. I just can’t recommend your course any more highly to anyone interested in building bamboo fly rods.

And on a similar note, I would like to be placed on your waiting list for the 8’3″ Quad similar to the one I cast. A lovely, light and so accurate rod. If you need a deposit, please advise.

And finally, please also put me down for a glue binder when it is ready. I have a few months of gathering equipment to put my shop together, so no hurry on that one. Again, when you are ready please let me know and I will forward money and details for the shipping as well.

So thanks again Chris, and I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

And Merry Christmas,

Best Regards,

Tom

Bryan is spending the week after Thanksgiving building a bamboo fly rod!  Living in Montana, he chose Raine Hollowbuilt Bamboo Fly Rods as his class of choice.  As an experienced woodworker, Bryan has taken to crafting a bamboo fly rod like a duck to water.  Bryan was able to move right through the rod building process and not only did he complete his Payne 100, he was also able to finish up a 2nd tip and glued it up prior to leaving!

Here are some images from Friday and Saturday’s rod building classes. Both Bob and Jim came out with great bamboo fly rods! Jim’s rod came in as a 3 weight, and Bob’s was a true 4! Saturday morning, both were casting their rods, wondering about how fast the week went by, and how their work took a 6 pound culm of bamboo and transformed it to a 3 ounce bamboo fly rod!

Smooth. Very smooth. That is how I would describe this week’s rod building class. Bob and Jim have been building their bamboo fly rods with smoothness. And it is apparent that “smooth is fast”. Thursday is rod section clean up, ferrule prep, cork grip turning, assembling the afore-mentioned components, and dipping the rod sections. Both of their fly rods look just fantastic. These two guys are small-stream experts, and the Model 100 rods they are building will be just the ticket for the streams they fish!

“Rod making made simple” should be the name of the class with Jim and Bob participating! Both students had their rods glued up by mid afternoon. I think this must be a record. The glue up was for the most part uneventful, with little if any cussing at the machine by this instructor. The new binder was demoed after gluing with the Garrison style binder, and their were nods of approval from the students as well as the instructor. The images below represent the work done Wednesday:

Two fishing buddies from Southern California arrived at the shop this week to build bamboo fly rods. Jim and Bob have been fishing together for years. They both love small stream fishing. Each selected the Model 100 bamboo fly rod for their build. Again, they both chose to flame their culms, for a light/medium flamed look to their rods.

Cort finished up his rod making class with a beautiful bamboo fly rod, and got on his way to building a second tip! Here are some highlights of this September’s class. Cort had been a very serious student all week. Comes to find out, he was concerned over the outcome! Would his rod come even close to those he had seen in the shop? Of COURSE it would! And it did! Cort is now a rodmaker, and justifiably so.

By Thursday the physical part of rod making is in the rear view mirror!  The morning is kind of like Christmas, opening up that special gift under the tree:

Wednesday is always “humpday” during the class. It’s necessary to have the rod sections glued up before we leave for the day. Cort planed away diligently, and not one strip needed to be redone. Way to go Cort! For his Payne 100 taper, Cort chose a 3-up node stagger a-la Leonard. Here are a few photos of today’s highlights, including the rare photo of the gluing binder at work (usually we are ALL involved in this process!)

Stay tuned for more rod building action! Thursday we will put it all together and have a ferruled and corked blank!

Cort sailed through the planing form setup during his bamboo rod making class! Having only one or two students makes the learning process more complete, and more comprehensive. Here are some pictures of Cort going through his paces planing out the butt section of his Payne 100 fly rod: