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John Bokstrom - Rodmaker (Page 7)

Almost suffice to talk about the quality of his rods. They are of absolutely outstanding quality and beauty and are among the very best rods I have ever seen in my life. The quality of workmanship is perfect, starting with the choice of bamboo, every step of the manufacturing process, the dipped and hand polished polyurethane varnish finish, the choice and placement of the guides, the wrappings, the handles made of finest selected cork rings, the reel seats. He pays attention to even the most minute details.

A hallmark of his rods are his special designed reel seats made of finest hard woods with hand rubbed varnish finish and finest aircraft quality aluminum alloy hardware. A specialty is the thread he uses, not the usual 55 or 60 deg. angle cut, but square cut made on the lathe and polished to a high luster. Ferrules are made of nickel silver and blackened. The rod socks are self made as well and his rods all came in aluminum rod tubes, most of them with 2 rod tip sections.

I guess that is what truly custom made rods are. They stand well above almost all factory made split bamboo rods. Commercial rodmakers simply don't have the time and often are not willing to invest the attention to detail that goes into a rod like those of John's production.

There still is much to say about John Bokstrom, but space for this article is limited. He has published a lot in the Planing Form newsletter and a few of his articles are available on my web site as well.

During the years I am in touch with him, I met so many nice and interesting people, I can hardly believe it. Although I have the pleasure to write this article I thought that it might be a good idea to sprinkle in a few comments of a number of close friends of John's. So you see comments of Richard Sherman, John Zimny, Don Andersen, Dr. Jorge Carcao, Ron Grantham, Bob Milward, and Ron Barch.

Thank you very much again for your support, guys! They all added to tell the story of John Bokstrom, a Canadian bamboo rodmaker.

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