What makes a good rod "Quality"?

[NewUtahCaneAngler]

So, I've read on this site before that Orvis is/was not a maker of blue collar rods, however, Orvis, Heddon, Montague Winchester and Granger were production rod companies and I've own(ed) or handled well made rods from all of these makers. IMHO, these companies built rods to a price point. Some were high priced - comparable to any of their peers - and deservedly so, while others were built to be disposable or only used occasionally, but definitely built to sell at a lower price point. If you are buying, for example, enough bamboo to build 10,000 rods in a year, simply taken as a percentage, you'll have enough great cane to build great rods provided that there is the ability to adequately sort the good culms from the mediocre. These companies DID THIS and built great rods and then many rods that many of us here would choose never to own, perhaps with Granger and Orvis being exceptions regarding the later.

Moreover, these high volume production companies have/had the financial resources to purchase tooling with tight tolerances to reproduce the same taper time and time again. Without disparaging any particular maker(s), perhaps their tapers varied from rod to rod not because they were on a continuous path to improvement, but maybe, just maybe, they were only building rods as good as their resources - tools or tooling - allowed them?

The point that I am attempting to make is that not only single rodmakers or small firms make very high quality rods - the bigger volume companies are also certainly caple of this and did this, while at the same time, small production does not always equal high quality. I've seen Leonard's that would Not have made it through Orvis' QC department.

They are fishing rods and that is what I do with them...no matter how beautiful or "plain Jane" any particular rod may be.

Tight lines,
Joe