Bamboo Fly Rod Hardware & Custom cadence

Above and below photos: I make a custom-fit tiered butt cap for a double-slide band seat. 

Both rings feature an internal taper that prevents the band from slipping off the reel foot.

All my cork checks and winding checks are custom-made by hand to fit the specific rod with exact precision. Cadence in the hardware is simply a prerequisite.

If you were to line my cane rods up with other cane rods around the world, you would immediately be able to pick them out in a lineup. As visual designers, both my wife and I understand the concept of visual cadence and the maker's fingerprint. She graduated from Pratt Institute with a Master's degree in industrial design in NYC. I graduated from ACCD (Art Center College of Design) in Los Angeles with a degree in illustration and graphic design. My father was an engineer from MIT. My grandfather, from Bellefontaine, Ohio (the old Iron City), was a fabricator. It runs in our blood. There isn't a day that goes by that we aren't creating something with our hands, using what we have learned our entire lives. We did not suddenly discover what computers could make in the last decade and call ourselves designers; we trudged through decades of hard work, dedication, failure, financial hardship, and discovery. The process is always difficult but well worth it on a daily basis.

Being a craftsman is a lifestyle, and a very long journey that pays very little but rewards you with something more valuable than money itself, satisfaction fed by passion.

Above photo: A custom ferrule plug on a 7' 3wt.

In a world that is changing hourly by AI and its ability to give individuals a false sense of accomplishment, we simply forge ahead and dig deeper. My community, among other craftsmen, is tiny, but we all believe in our abilities, past achievements, and our dreams for the future. We are not shaken by current trends, technology, or marketing. It's simple: create our best work every day, and evolve with our brains and our hands. That's what we are paid for, that's what we live for. In the end, I am not creating a white paper deliverable that is slid across a boardroom table; what I make is a living, breathing artifact used as a tool. If you are afraid of AI, don't be, because every craftsman who's worth his weight can tell what has come out of a CNC machine. Wabi-Sabi is a traditional Japanese philosophy focused on finding beauty in imperfection and in the human fingerprint left on a natural material. It embraces nature's imperfections that make it meaningful and so very special.  

Above photo: A winding check for a custom fit on a swelled butt section. This is done on a traditional lathe, using wheels driven by my own hands, and is entirely done by eye, with no computer input. The tool lathe originated around 1300 BC, when it was used for woodworking in ancient Egypt; the Romans later advanced it to fashion iron shafts.

“The hand of a craftsman engaged in his craft is always pure.” ~Manu

~Clint Bova                    www.cjbovarods.com