Customer Reviews

Handcrafting Bamboo Fly Rods

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good reference book, but should not be your sole source of information. Too much is left out that is critical to building a first rod. For example, a lot of details are missing with regards to what you need to do with the blank once it comes out of the glue binder. WHat about scraping, filing, sanding and keeping those sharp edges? The book could also do with better organization.

This is a good book to get you started on the basics like sharpening, selecting bamboo, preparing and making equipment. What he says in the book is very much enhanced by his 3 DVD set, which I purchased off of ebay. If you can get the DVDs it will really help you the book should come with the DVDs in my opinion. It isnt a very glamorous book in terms of photos, but there are enough pictures to give you a good basic idea of what you need to do. There are many tapers for rods in the appendix, which is nice to have.

I have always loved the look of a fine bamboo rod and always wanted to make a rod from a blank. I recently
met a guy who orders bamboo blanks and then finishes them himself. I have no experience in rod building and he recommended I buy this book just to get an idea on how to finish a bamboo rod.
This book is well written and covers the WHOLE process, from splitting the bamboo to finishing it. It is very
detailed. Needless to say, now I'm not just interested in finishing a blank, but now I want to actually make one
from start to finish. The author states that there are two kinds of people, rod makers and rod builders, I started out wanting to be a rod builder now I want to be a maker.

Great book a must have for the rod builder.