Rod Services
The primary services I offer at East Slope Rod Works include vintage and contemporary bamboo rod restoration, rod refinishing, re-varnishing and repair. These services are offered for complete rods or on individual rod sections as needed. Click below for more details of my rod services.
Rod Restoration - service is about refreshing (and repair if needed) a vintage cane rod back to its ORIGINAL glory. This may involve partial to complete removal of all components, rod straightening, ferrule resetting, cork grip cleaning and repair, reel seat repair and resetting, guide re-wrapping and bamboo re-varnishing and polishing. The goal of restoration is to maintain the rod's ORIGINALITY. So in the end, the newly restored rod should look as close as possible to the day it was first constructed.
Rod Refinishing - is also about refreshing of a cane rod, however, attention to maintaining a rod's ORIGINAL characteristics is not the primary goal. In fact, refinishing may include purposeful alterations that could improve upon a rod's performance or appearance. For instance, changing the reel seat or grip style, adding more line guides, or simply re-wrapping with different color silk thread may be part of the process. Refinishing may involve partial to complete removal of all components, rod straightening, ferrule resetting, cork grip cleaning and repair, reel seat repair and resetting, guide re-wrapping and bamboo re-varnishing and polishing.
Rod Re-varnishing - this is refinishing in the most basic sense in that it includes stripping of the old finish and re-varnishing, while leaving all else intact.
Rod Repair - I will tackle most minor to moderate repairs to bamboo rods. These typically involve rod straightening, ferrule resetting and re-wrapping, cork grip cleaning and repair, reel seat repair and resetting, guide replacement. I will also perform major repairs involving broken or cracked rod sections. However, I do not produce sections or scarf new flats to broken rods myself. For this work, I rely on several expert rod makers in the U.S. to provide a portion of the repair work.
Click on picture below to see scarf tip repair of vintage Horrocks - Ibbottson Tonka Queen
New Bamboo Rods - I also offer custom finishing of new rods from blanks. For more details see the New Rods page for more details.