Bamboo Fly Rod Class Day One...

After my first day in class making my first bamboo fly rod,  I have discovered the following:

Bill's job is so much better than mine.

Of course, we started with a raw stalk of Tonkin bamboo and 9 hours later ended up with something that kind of resembles some (12) strips of Tonkin bamboo.  Surprisingly, it was fun!  I especially enjoyed the flaming and scraping...so much better than paperwork.



And so it begins...

Each step was a bit of an out of body experience considering I finally have a "dog in the fight" when it comes to using these tools and manipulating the bamboo.  In fact, the bamboo takes on a life of it's own.

I'll introduce the "players" tomorrow...or not...Bill keeps us busy.

Of course, the kids are getting along fine without me.  No blue paint...yet.  My parents are staying with us to help out, my Aunt from Seattle flew in for the class and our friend Kathy is here at the house/class as well.  The unexpected added benefit of this week is that we are all together for the second evening in a row and my parents cooked for us like we were little kids.  Nice.



Flaming...surprisingly fun!

Scraping...fun as well!

 So, tomorrow is another day.  Me and the bamboo.