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(More customer reviews)I myself am a maker of bamboo rods, so I may be somewhat prejudiced, but Casting a Spell cast a spell over me. Black has caught the spirit of our craft in his telling of the story of the development of the fine bamboo fly rod and the people involved in making them from the late 19th century until the present. He begins at the beginning-- that is, with H. L. Leonard and the group of marvelous rod makers who worked with him in the late 19th century. This core group of rod makers served as the wellspring of all bamboo rod making in the United States. Eustace Edwards, Fred Thomas, Edward Payne and the Hawes Brothers, and of course, Hiram Leonard himself.-- though each of them had distinct personalities, they all had one thing held in common; a drive for perfection.
It was not Black's intention to write a complete history of American bamboo fly rod making. Rather, it was his intention to trace the quest for perfection shown by lives and work of the original Leonard crew as they dispersed and established their own shops and their own versions of perfection in fly rod making. Black believes that Eustace Edwards, with his restless quest for the perfect fly rod, epitomizes all that is best in craftsmanship. Therefore, his book focuses primarily on Eustace and his offspring, their contributions to the art of rod making and the personal and professional interconnections among the great rod makers.
Black does not attempt to explain how the bamboo fly rod is made, but it is really unnecessary to know much about that to understand the book. There is really very little new in the book in terms of the history of the bamboo fly rod and its construction. What Black has accomplished here is to bring life to these remarkable men and put the history of bamboo fly rod making into the context of changes in the social and economic climate of the United States in the last century. Industrial mechanization changed the way in which many products are manufactured, marketed and consumed. Originally, bamboo fly rods were a luxury item, but mass production in the machine age, and the creation of the middle class changed all that. Then, almost anyone could afford a bamboo fly rod, but only the very rich could afford a rod hand-made by a fine craftsman driven toward perfection. And even then, a rod maker could only earn a pittance to keep the price of a rod competitive with the finest machine- made rods. These pressures relentlessly forced craftsmen to compromise their ideals to make a living. One can only describe this as agony and ecstasy. With these economic and social changes, the embargo on Chinese bamboo and the introduction of fiberglass and graphite, one would expect that the craft of fine bamboo rod making would be extinct -- not so. Black finishes his work with a whirlwind tour through rod shops of many of the modern makers who are carrying on the craft, portraying each as a distinct personality having a distinct approach to perfection in rod making.
For some bamboo rod history enthusiasts, there will be disappointment in that many of the large rod manufacturers -- Heddon, Granger, Chubb, Montague etc. -- are left out of the story. The book is an easy read, is well-written and the style is novelistic. Black's enthusiasm for the subject is obvious -- and quite contagious. However, the reader must have some appreciation for the useful beauty inherent in a fine bamboo fly rod in order to appreciate this book. The book should be all on the shelf of any bamboo fly rod enthusiast.
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