Antique Fly Rods

          Recently, I cleaned out all the excess bee equipment I managed to accumulate, cleaned it all up and traded it for some antique bamboo fly rods.

          Bamboo fly rods have a long – and controversial – history. Most surviving antique fly rods were either made by Montague or of Japanese origin. There are others, of course, but they are relatively rare and very expensive. I’m pretty sure my rods are or Japanese origin. Shortly after WWII, returning GIs brought back rods and pretty much flooded the market with them.

          As a guess, I would say these rods were 80-90 years old. They were in less than mint condition; with cracked finishes, missing guides, rotten thread wraps, dulled metal ferrules, etc. Just what I was looking for. With some effort, these can be restored.

          So, I set about listening to soft jazz with a dull pocketknife in hand and began the task. First, I removed all the guides and thread wraps. Then, I began the slow and tedious task of scraping off all the old finish – one rod had paint over the bamboo, another had a coat of cheap varnish.

          The combination of soft jazz and tedious work led to thinking about “restoration.” Underneath the years of neglect, there appeared the honey-colored bamboo. As bright as the day it was first split and glued together to make a rod. You would hardly believe the “before” and “after” pictures. I can’t wait to put guides on them, re-wrap them and fish with them.

          It reminded me of what God can do for those who are willing to submit to restoration. As humans, we hold onto grudges and mistrust of those with shady pasts. With God, all those pasts are “scraped” away, and we are fully restored to what we were created to be. If that sounds too good to be true, I promise you it is exactly as I described – fully restored.

          It sounds too good to be true. Surely such a thing cannot be free. Indeed, it is not. Oh, it doesn’t cost us much more than a changed life. But it cost God the life of Jesus; a price none of us could pay.

          In the end, we will end up just like these fly rods – I hope. Restored, reconditioned, and ready for a full life.

          May God bless us all!