Low-Tech Rod Production...And Proud of It!!

Cork and Wood Grips

My name is Jim Kirby. My wife, Dee Ann, is a native Texan (at least 5 generations in this little town). I'm, unfortunately, only a naturalized one (born in Illinois and raised on the East Coast). To borrow the words of some wag (also obviously not a native Texan), wasn born here but I got here as quick as I could We've raised three fine sons and finally retired to a comfortable home on a little private lake in Texas, about 50 miles east of Dallas.

It wasn long after I moved to Texas that I had the fortune (or possibly misfortune) to fall under the influence of a couple of rabid Bass fishermen in my office. I was hooked! I had always enjoyed fishing but this was entirely different. What once was a pleasant pastime in which I indulged myself several times a year became a passion that took me out on the neighboring lakes at least a couple of times a week.

There was a problem, though. In the early 1970s there wasn the variety in fishing tackle that is available to the fisherman today. There was the cheap stuff that could be bought in the local discount stores and there was the really fine stuff that was available in the upscale sporting goods stores and outfitters. The former didn meet my requirements and the latter was just plain too expensive.

Again, one of my co-workers came to the rescue. He was one of the early custom rod builders. He built all of his own rods and supplied several of his buddies. I only needed to try one of his rods once and I knew that I had to figure out how to do it myself.

My first few attempts were nothing that I am proud to look at today (Ie kept a couple just to remind myself what a beginner rod can look like). They weren very pretty but they fished a lot better than the stuff I had been buying locally.

The other thing I discovered as I built more rods was that I really enjoyed the building process. Though it was important to be very careful with selecting and fitting components, dressing and wrapping guides, and matching guide placement and spacing with the natural flex of the rod blank, none of this was particularly difficult or required heavy concentration. I found that I could pretty much let my fingers do the work and let my mind relax. This was a pleasant change of pace from my ealjob as a systems engineer with a defense contractor (a job from which I retired a few years ago). A couple of hours at my workbench could really relieve the tension caused by the technical and schedule challenges of my ealjob. I found myself really looking forward to getting to that workbench on days that I couldn go fishing. Aside from an evening on the lake it is hard for me to think of a more relaxing pastime.

Decorating rods back then was pretty much confined to flashes of metallic tape and spirals of threads. A few custom builders were experimenting with some basic cross-wraps (mainly diamonds and chevrons). The available selection of rod blanks, grip materials, and thread colors severely limited the variety that is one of the hallmarks of today custom rods.

As time went on I expanded my repertoire of rod types to match new fishing experiences which required different types of tackle. I also found myself building rods for friends and fishing partners. These I generally gave away as presents or as a hank youfor being taken on a fishing trip.

Word-of-mouth advertising can be a powerful tool and I discovered that more and more fishermen whom I didn know were calling and asking me to build rods for them. Though I continued to give away the bulk of my rod production I found myself with the beginnings of a usinessbuilding rods for a small, local circle of dedicated customers who had heard of or seen my work.

As the years have passed the variety in blanks, handle materials, guides, and threads has absolutely exploded. Where once one had to search for a rod blank to meet a specific requirement, now he may choose from several, all of which will satisfy the requirement. The same is true for all the other components.

During this same period custom rod building has likewise increased in popularity. Building and decorating techniques are truly in a renaissance. Finished rods from some of the premier rod builders today are almost beyond being a craft. Many of them approach art. From this explosion of techniques Ie chosen those that appeal to me and have attempted to perfect them.

The most notable of the new techniques, the use of wood as a material for building rod handles, is really a revival of an old one. One can find rods 60 or 70 years old with wood handles but they seem to have given way to the standard cork used in most of today rods. Ie fallen in love with the look and feel of the wooden handle. Cork just can begin to compare to the beauty and sensitivity of wood (cork actually dampens sensitivity). With each passing year I use less and less cork and more wood. I hope to see the day when I will see an entire year in which I don build a single cork-handled rod. Though I doubt that weight considerations will ever allow wood to completely displace cork on fly rods I love to see the day when all of my spinning and casting rods and a large proportion of my fly rods have wood grips.

After I retired I found myself with more time for rod building and decided to expand my customer base a bit by advertising a few rods on ebay. The results were a complete surprise to me. What was once a small group of fishermen who lived within 100 miles of my home has become a much larger group spanning the United States, from Alaska to Florida, from New York to Southern California, and extending into Canada and Australia.

Once I occasionally sold a surplus rod to a fisherman who had managed to get my phone number from another fisherman who was using one of my rods. Now the bulk of my business consists of rods I build on direct commission to satisfy the specific requirements of fishermen who desire and appreciate that extra edge they get with a rod built to their specifications. I really prefer things this way. I love to wrok directly with the fisherman to design a rod specific to his application, his method of fishing, and his aesthetic preferences.

The rods that I produce for sale on ebay or at local trade shows are, in a way, a bit of a compromise. For those I build to my own preferences. I use components and colors that I like and carefully build rods that I would like to fish with. At that point I can only hope that others will share my own preferences.

Ie had a few customers use the word rtin reference to my rods. I don't consider what I do anything close to art. I say that with confidence because I have absolutely NO artistic capabilities. I have the greatest respect for anyone who can write a poem or a novel or who can do a painting......however good or bad it may be. They have abilities that I can't begin to understand. I don't even have any imagination with color combinations. I used to wrap black thread on black blanks, brown thread on brown blanks.....etc., etc., etc. Finally my wife stepped in and helped me on selecting different thread colors that would complement the colors of different blanks.

I'm an engineer (retired though I may be) and my mind is really suited toward pursuits where meticulous attention to detail and the integrity of the finished product are important. The craft of rod building really fits me well. I take great pride in carefully performing every single essential step of the build process on each rod I produce.

There is no mystery in producing a high quality rod. What is critical is repeated, meticulous performance of a number of rather mundane steps. Every section of every rod blank has a "spine" , a stiffer axis that is a result of the fibers in the blank and of the blank build process. That axis must be found and the guides, tip, reel seat, and hookkeeper must be aligned to that axis on each section. Components of the reel seat (hoods, wooden inserts, threaded barrels, and butt caps have to be carefully assembled to ensure correct alignment and the best presentation of the most beautiful part of the wood grains to the fisherman. Each guide must be properly ground for fit to the rod and smoothness so that no metal burrs can damage the rod and so that the thread can be wound smoothly up the guide foot. The guides also must be properly spaced so that their location is optimum for the flex of each blank. Finish is also important in the rod construction as it really spells the difference between a perfectly good rod and one that fishermen can admire.

One of the really fun aspects of rod building is the continual evaluation of new components, threads, cements, and finishes. The market changes every year and every rod builder has to determine what he feels are the ideal components for each type of rod he builds. As an example, I currently use at least 3 different epoxies on each rod I build because I judge each one to be the ideal for a specific application in the build process. The epoxy I use for gluing the cork rings has been on the market for more than 20 years. The epoxy I use for fitting reel seats is newer to the market, having been produced for a bit less than 10 years. And, finally, the epoxy I use on the guide wraps and the decorative wraps is a fairly new product, having been introduced early in 2005 (I changed to this epoxy because it is highly UV resistant and doesn't have the yellowing characteristics of the epoxy I used for this purpose previously).

As a result of the attention that goes into each custom rod many rod builders become a bit attached to their rods. I'm no exception. I have no doubts about the quality of the rods I produce and really don't worry about that at all. What really is a worry to me is the possibility that a rod I've produced for a fisherman might not be exactly what he needs or wants. I just can't bear to think that I might have spent that many hours of my life building a rod that the owner is anything less than thrilled to own. That is the reason for my no-questions-asked return policy. If you don't love your rod I'd truly prefer to have you send it back.

Many of my current customers are fishermen who bought their first Jim Kirby Custom Rod on an ebay auction and who now commission me directly to build their rods. Several of these have bought 8 or more rods for themselves and additional rods for friends. I still build a few rods for sale on ebay but find myself doing less of that as my base of direct commissions expands.

Aside from my occasional ebay auction the only advertising I have ever done is to have a box of business cards printed. Those I pass out to fishermen who request them.

My business is small and will remain small. I build rods primarily for the enjoyment of the craft and never want to lose that pleasure of seeing each set of components become a true one-of-a-kind rod. I take great pride in matching components to the needs of each fisherman. I individually shape and fit each handle and reel seat, grind and inspect each guide, match guide orientation to the spine of each section of each rod, and fit the guide spacing to she specific action of each individual rod blank.

I also don want this business to interfere with my ability to use my own products. With my boat and boathouse a few feet from the back door of my house there is just too much temptation there for me to resist. If the weather is good and the fish are active I out on the lake and the rods I working on are awaiting my return to my workbench.

Dee Ann and I spend our days doing pretty much whatever we want to. Our three little granddaughters (and at least two more on the way) are the happiest focus of our lives. They have their own room at our house and completely dominate our lives whenever they come to visit (which, fortunately, is often). Otherwise, we enjoy our leisurely life at the lake, occasional travel, and our involvement in a local charity.

I thank you for taking the time to read this and hope that it has given you a bit of the flavor of my little business. I hope you see one of my rods on auction and decide that you just can bear to live another day without owning it. But wherever you decide to buy your rods I wish all of you many clear, quiet days on your favorite lake or stream with all the fishing action you can bear.

Tight Lines,

Jim