The Past…

A rod builder who is well educated on the history of the craft, is a better rod builder. There are only advantages to knowing about the materials, products and techniques that have custom rod building to where it is today.  For this reason, RodMaker has always carried some amount of historical rod building information. Generally, about one such article per issue.

Early on, Andy Dear held numerous interviews with rod building persons of note and I published those in several issues of RodMaker.  Industry icons like Jimmy Green, Roger Seiders, Dick Kanter and Press Powell to name just a few, have been included.

Beginning with Volume 9, I commissioned Gene Bullard to write a series of articles detailing bits and pieces of custom rod building history. Gene’s involvement with the custom rod building industry had garnered him many friendships with folks who shaped the craft over the past 50 years.

More recently Boyd Pfeiffer has been handling this chore. Boyd is perhaps the most prolific writer of rod building and tackle making articles ever. His many years of research into the history of fishing and fishing tackle in general have given him a unique ability to bring the past history of our craft alive.

Of course, Volume 11 saw the advent of RodMaker’s final page being devoted to brief insights on various components – each one having changed the rod building craft at the time of their introduction.

The more you know about where the craft has been, the better you’ll be able to predict where it’s likely to go. RodMaker will continue to provide a measure of historical information in each and every issue. It’s important.

Tom Kirkman

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