Let's pretend you're a newbie hobbiest who loves the craft and is about to finish your first rod and start two more. Due to happy twist of fate involving an icy road, an insurance check, and an old pickup that really doesn't seem much worse off with one more dent, you might be able to invest a few "extra" bucks in your rinky-dink setup. As you look around your basement, you find:
- An 8' workbench (prefabricated steel frame with particle board shelves and top)
- 2 culms of bamboo
- The essential tools of the trade: hacksaw, torch, froe, block sander, Stanley plane with a stock blade, a cheap honing guide and Japanese water stone, Homemade wood planning forms, calipers, depth gauge, pip-e oven, wrapping station, dip tube and drying cabinet… pretty much just the essentials, and the CHEAP essentials at that.
- A ShopSmith (combination wood lathe, drill press, band saw, table saw, and jointer)
So given that inventory, would you spend the spare change on:
- Something unrelated to the hobby (you have everything you really need for now and it could be a year or two before you're out of cane with as long as it takes you to finish a rod)
- A bundle of bamboo
- Metal forms
- A supply of hardware for future rods (e.g. guides, butt caps, rings, tiptops, silk, etc.)
- Updated shop infrastructure (e.g. a decent bench, cabinets, etc.)
- A metal lathe
- Odds and ends (e.g. a better plane blade, a better oven, a better honing guide, better other stuff, etc.)
- Something else related to bamboo rod making that I haven't listed
..it's ok. Grease the wheels first. Then
buy metal forms...and the list goes on.
