Bamboo Tips - Contributors
Atchison, David

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I'm David Atchison. I've been hanging around here for 3 or 4 years, but I don't post often. I've been making rods since 2004, nearing 40 rods so far. I guess this affliction is all Harry Boyd's fault <g>. I met him on the Norfork River in Arkansas about 9 or 10 years ago. He was using the one of the first bamboo rods I ever saw in the flesh, and it kinda gave me an itch. So I bought a couple of books, read 'em and convinced myself that I couldn't make a rod if my life depended on it. Forgot about it for several months, then got the itch again. Read the books again. Chickened out again. The cycle repeated itself several times until the summer of  '04 when I finally made my first rod. Next thing I knew, I had a shop in the back yard and all sorts of tools that my wife has no idea what they cost. Where'd that come from?

Now I can't imagine NOT making rods.

The friends made along the way are very dear to me. October and SRG doesn't come around fast enough to suit me!

I sell a few rods to help with the expenses. Most are given away or traded for various things from knives to cabin rent, etc. For the last year or so, most of what I've done is play around with some of my own tapers, hollow building, bamboo ferrules, taped-splice ferrules and spinning rods. Just started restoring a few old saltwater bamboo trolling rods, so there's not much telling what tangent I'll take off on next year.

So many different ways you can turn bamboo into rods, so little time!

I'm tucked away in the northwestern corner of Arkansas. If you find yourself in this part of the world, feel free to track me down.