I hope everyone is having a great holiday. We will be working hard the next few weeks to get the cane ready for our spring and summer orders. One thing that rod builders spend time on is nodes. There are some builders that spend a lot of time on these and are experts with making them very small. There is an importance with these and so much that some builders cut them out then glue the pieces of the cane back together. As a consumer you realize that every thing a builder does to their rods USUALLY is reflected in their prices. Nodeless rods usually cost more because of the the time that goes into cutting all the nodes out.
The medium in which we use to make our rods is not perfect. So we take the cane, which is all different, and try to make it how we want it. I buy my cane from the Bamboo Broker, as do most all other builders. We place an order and take what is given to us, somewhat like the diamond market. I believe Sweetgrass still goes to China and picks out their own cane, but not sure.
To make nodes micro small it takes a lot of time. Again, this would be reflected in the price. I am someone that wants to make rods that are for people to fish. I know I have told this story before, but I owned several Mario Wojnicki rods. I had the 7'7" 4 weight and caught a 9 lb brown on it one day. It scared me that I was going to break it and I would be out the $3200 I spent on the rod. So I sold my rods and began to build. I also want my rods affordable. Sure I would love to sell my rods for $2500 each, but thats not the person I am. Maybe someday through inflation I will be at that price, but I enjoy making affordable rods, if $1400 is affordable.
Attached are some pics of nodes that I am working on now. I have put a penny next to it to give some size perspective. I wish all of the nodes were this size, but with a natural product some will just be a little bigger and there is not much you can do about it and keep the price reasonable. Again I hope everyone has a great Holiday season and I appreciate your business!
