Written by Cane Head

[fishnbanjo]

     Once again
welcome to the Bamboo Rod Forum or Crackerbarrel as it’s been named.

Last time we completed part 2 of a 2 part series on Building
a bamboo rod, which was presented by Mark Wendt.  Previous weeks were dedicated to historical
reference on the development of the bamboo rod and types of cane used in their
construction. We also looked into buying that first bamboo rod and gave you
some insight to the catalogs and the terminology used which, in some cases,
still applies to modern rods of all types of construction and in some cases,
only applies to bamboo rods. In the coming segments we will present the
differences and similarities of impregnated and varnished rod finishes and
we’ll also discuss rod tapers. This past week has been rather hectic for me
personally as I have had to deal with the upcoming holidays, work has been a
beast, my mother-in-law’s Alzheimer’s or the winter blahs is beginning to have
an effect, my wife has the flu and I’ve been busy selling off some of my
equipment to purchase a rather expensive bamboo rod so to say I’m a bit
disjointed would be an understatement. What I’d like to do this week is kind of
homogenize what has been discussed so far by giving you some places where you
can learn more about bamboo rods, these are places you can go via the Internet
and reference books available including the different catalogs. Why this is
important is that unlike graphite rods the many fly shops that we have do a
very good job of having a good supply of models available for the fly fisher
looking for a rod to try but that isn’t the case with bamboo. While it’s true
that you can find a bamboo rod here and there and there are fly shops that are
dedicated to the bamboo rod fisher they are few and far to be found. In truth
bamboo rods never really had the varieties of models available today nor the
amount of makers, as there are more makers in the US today then any period in the
history of the bamboo rod so when we talk about bamboo we have so much to
learn. The stove is about critical and the coffee pot is about to explode so
let’s kick back and while I pour a cup we’ll move ahead.

 

     Bamboo rod makers
of the past have always had one thing in common and that is they made rods for
the type of fishing found in the area their shop was in. H L Leonard was a good
example; he developed his rod based on rods that came from PA that he thought
he could improve upon. Tapers of the period were relatively slow as the whole
idea was to deliver a fly to the water and most rods were relatively long as
well. Leonard did make a vast improvement in his rod and developed rather
quickly and a lot of this had to do with he was an accomplished gunsmith so
bench work was in his blood. Leonard was also a woodsman and naturalist and he
guided hunters and fishers alike in the Maine
woods.

When the tackle house of Bradford & Anthony saw an
example of his rod work they wasted little time convincing Hiram he should sell
his rods through their shop and Leonard did this for several years. I explained
earlier this connection and how it eventually led to Leonard’s affiliation with
Wm Mills & Co. and the subsequent move to Central
Valley in NY and here the H L Leonard Rod Co. took hold and
developed tapers for the Catskill Streams not far from their manufactory. We
also discussed the makers who were employed by Leonard, i.e. Ed Payne, Loman
and Hiram Hawes, Fred Thomas,

Eustis Edwards, Thomas Chubb, George Varney and Fred Divine,
each who went on to become makers in their own right.  Thomas Chubb began the company that bore his
name in Post Mills VT and George Varney became the head maker for the Montague
City Rod Co. when they purchased Chubb’s company. Loman Hawes, Fred Thomas and
Eustis Edwards left Leonard to form the Thomas, Edwards & Hawes Rod Co. in
nearby NY,

and when Loman Hawes died suddenly Ed Payne had decided to
leave Leonard and the name quickly became Thomas, Edwards & Payne. The
company sold to the US Net & Twine Co. and continued offering the Kosmic
Rod that had been made by Thomas, Edwards & Hawes and later Thomas, Edwards
& Payne, Ed Payne purchased the beveler and formed the E F Payne Rod Co. in
Central Valley and made rods of his design in the Catskill tradition which was
in direct competition with Leonard. Thomas & Edwards returned to Brewer
Maine and set up shop for the short lived Thomas & Edwards Rod Co. and soon
realized the small income generated could barely support one person and Eustis
Edwards leaves his friend Fred Thomas and heads west to become a photographer and
Fred Thomas continues making rods under the F E Thomas Rod Co. name. Fred
Divine sets up shop in nearby NY as the Divine Rod Co. and only Hiram Hawes
remains with Leonard and is one of the key players in the development of the
modern Leonard tapers along with fellow tournament caster Reuben Leonard. Hawes
and Reuben Leonard would make history after Hiram Leonard’s death as record
breakers and tournament casting champions and the development of dry fly tapers
as well.  So where did all these rods get
sold? Glad you asked!

 

     Wm & Mills
offered a catalog and as sole distributors of the H L Leonard Rod they sold
them by catalog orders and the factory showroom in NYC and they had a line of
rods of their own called Wm & Mills which was made by Leonard, of course.
There were tackle houses like Bradford & Anthony in Boston,
von Lerke & Detmold
and like today there were Sportmans Shows and many makers debuted their rods at
the Worlds Fair.

Word of mouth helped spread the sales of rods as well as
anglers would meet streamside and get to cast a rod they’d either never heard
of or saw and got information from the owner how to obtain one. The various
sporting magazines would begin to take advertisements and a whole new industry
was born, as writers would write about their last fishing trip with the new rod
by one of the makers. What a time it would have been to live in but in all
honesty there was probably less known than there is today. Each of the makers I
have spoken about eventually put out their own catalogs and made alliances with
the various tackle houses that existed. All this started in Maine and spread to
NY but we haven’t even discussed the makers in the west like E C Powell and R L
Winston or Goodwin Granger, nor have we looked at makers in the mid-west like Paul
Young and L L Dickerson, nor Heddon and South Bend either.  The explosion of bamboo rod making

was about to happen by the 1920’s and many changes would
occur as outlets like Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Wards and Western Auto
would carry rods as would five and dime stores and making rods with customers
names became common place and the trade rod industry blossomed. These
happenings would end up confusing folks later as decals, handwritten
nomenclature and tags were lost due to damage or refinishing the rod with no
documentation of it following the rod. So when one owns a rod that has no
visible marking on the furniture or a tagged bag or tube how does one find out
what exactly one owns? Boy you folks ask some hard questions! J

 

     Thanks to the
efforts of Dick Spurr’s Publishing House and Michael Sinclair penning it, a
Restoration Guide to Bamboo Rods exists and is an ideal way to identify the
dizzying array of production rods the 1920’s ushered in.  This book won’t help you with Payne. Leonard,
Thomas and other bench maker rods but it is invaluable for the identification
of production and trade rod industries. The book gives very good information
which will assist you in the identification of the maker with very well
presented history, drawings and illustrations of furnishings, wrap color charts
and markings. It also assists you on how to journal your rod to help you
restore it to factory condition and several pages of references and companies
that either offer services or goods to assist you in a restoration as
well. 

 

      To identify the
bench maker rods, who generally marked their furniture with their name and
other things and in some cases the ferrules and tip tops may have
identifications as well like patent dates and maker’s marks (PF comes to mind
for Perfection tip tops). Makers like Dickerson, Winston, Edwards, Granger,
Heddon, Powell and others also wrote on the rod shaft and if this nomenclature
is missing it is difficult to identify the model of rod in most cases. There
are many little things the different maker did that made them unique to each
other and reference material is pretty near impossible to be without if you are
a serious aficionado as I am. So let’s start with the cheapest form of
references, the Internet itself.

 

     Dealers play an
important service by offering rods for sale and the description and pictures
they provide can be invaluable, especially on a rod that might be scarce. The
presence of dealers on the web is relatively new and some have already gone,
like Dick Spurr’s Cane Country and Cracker Barrel which were large repositories
of information and sadly missed. Here is a list of some folks you will find on
the web and it’s not all inclusive since I have my favorites and find places
every day.

 

http://www.rwsummers.com/

 

 

R.W. Summers Rod Co. in Traverse City MI (Bob Summers worked
with Paul Young for a good many years and with the company with Paul’s son Jack
after Paul’s death in 1960 and later left to form his own company and own line
of rods)

 

http://www.swiftriverflyfishing.com/

 

Swift River Fly Fishing owned and operated by Rick Taupier
(nightheron) New Salem MA. Rick has a short list of stuff that doesn’t get
updated enough to keep up with his inventory and is rather busy doing
restorations but always willing to pass on information and a list of stuff he
has.

 

http://www.thorntonfly.com/

 

Thornton River Fly Shop in Shenandoah VA
owned and operated by Paul Kearny (DT3F6X) I have had some wonderful
discussions with Paul and while his inventory isn’t large he has stuff for
every pocket book and is a great guy to boot.

 

http://www.housatonicrods.com/

 

 

Housatonic Rods owned and operated by Streamer in Warren CT.
Streamer officially launched his site a couple of weeks ago and without
embarrassing him too much makes some of the nicest casting and most delicious
eye candy Dickerson replications you could drool over. J Does restorations as
well and has some vintage rods on his list.

 

http://www.pope-lance.com/joe.html

 

 

Joe’s Back Room owned and operated by Joe Garman in Manchester CT. I
understand Joe is having some problems lately and hard to contact but his lists
are always large and hold many wonderful rods.

 

http://www.antiquetackle.net/

 



Richard's Classic Bamboo Fishing Rods, Antique Tackle
and Vintage Reels owned and operated by
Richard and Linda Collar in Crawford
CO. I have done some serious
business with Richard of late and he is a genuine pleasure to work and deal
with and his pages hold some very wonderful stuff that is absolutely a must
see.

 

 

http://www.codella.com

 

 Sporting Collectables

 2201 S Carngie Dr.


 Inverness, FL
34450

 (352) 637-5454

 

Len Codella operates out of Inverness FL and while I have
never dealt with him personally many of the others from the boards I frequent
have and he is one of the few that have both a website and a catalog which
consists of 3-4 catalogs/yr @ $10 and he has many links which include
rodmakers.

 

http://pub12.ezboard.com/bclarksclassicflyrodforum

 

Clark Davis does restorations and sells on his site which
has several wonderful forums for beginners and all levels of bamboo knowledge.
Its official name is Clarks Classic Fly Rod Forum but we all kind of refer to
it as Clarks or Clarks Bamboo Forum. It’s worth a drop in to take a look if
you’re more than curious and it’s fun.

 

 

    As I said not
inclusive of where I go but more of a sampling and checking their links will
keep you busy as well.

 

    Other sources are
the many catalogs that you can subscribe to and again here is a sampling.

 

Classic Rods & Tackle, INC

Martin J. Keane

P.O. Box
288

Ashley
Falls, MA 01222   Costs $10/yr for 3 catalogs unless you buy
something then you get a 3 year subscription.

 

Rods & Reels

Bob Corsetti

17 Massasoit
Road

Nashua,
NH  03063 
Costs $10/yr for 3 catalogs unless you buy something then you get a 3
year subscription.  Bob owns and operates
the Peerless Reel Co. also.

 

The Jordan-Mills Rod Co. Classic and Vintage Fishing Tackle

Carmine Lisella, Prop.

4 Kolka Lane

New City,
NY  10956 
No charge yet and 3 catalogs/yr.

 

Adams Angling

1170 Keeler Ave

Berkeley, CA  
94708  No charge and Jim has an
extensive book list as well 3-4 catalogs/yr

 

     Well that wraps
up this portion of the Crackerbarrel and we’ll continue on with building a
reference library next time to help you identify and understand more about
bamboo rods. As Bob Corsetti always states in his catalogs “the old coffee pot
is empty” and I’ve fired up a bowl of Escudo Flake this time as I ease into the
spirit of Christmas to come. Waiting for your questions and comments and I’d
like to take this opportunity to thank you all for stopping in and I wish the
best of the Holiday spirit to all of you.