Over 100 hours is involved in hand-crafting a split-bamboo fly rod

            A hand-crafted split-bamboo fly rod is a unique, precision casting tool whose underlying design is tailored to the delicate presentation of hand-tied flies to wary trout and other target species. The sequential steps involved in making a split-bamboo fly rod are based on traditional techniques developed over 120 years ago and for the most part these procedures (or their slightly modified versions) are still utilized by bamboo rod artisans today. The various steps include the use of seasoned Tonkin cane that is hand-split into individual strips, each individually and precisely hand-planed to tolerances in the range of 0.0005"-0.001". In the most common hexagonal design, each rod section is composed of six individual triangular strips (or splines) that are glued and bound, then eventually cleaned, polished and fitted with a hand-made cork grip, wooden reel seat spacer, nickel-silver ferrules and hardware. The finished rod is varnished and hand-buffed to a rich finish. It takes about 100 hours of work to hand-craft a fine split-bamboo fly rod such as the one pictured below.