I grew up in a small town in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. Since my high school years, I have always enjoyed life in the wilderness areas and fishing for trout and bass on the numerous rivers and lakes of the Adirondack Park. At an early age, I also become skilled with cabinetry, drawing, and construction. As I got older and finished college, I knew that I would not make a living as a fisherman, and pursued my career in construction which took me to several different areas of the northeast and the southeastern USA.
Quite a while ago I grabbed the two old bamboo flyrods that were my grandfathers and decided that they needed to be restored. Not knowing where to start, I decided to take a class on constructing bamboo flyrods. Best thing I ever did... and I've been hooked ever since.
Now some of the tools are a little different, but the saws and block planes and principles are still basically the same. And I have to tell you, it's great to be able to be patient with a craft again, and I mean really patient. In my world, there is absolutely no hurrying when constructing a split cane rod by hand. Not when you take pride in the workmanship like I do.