 |
|
|||||
Bill Oyster, maker of bamboo fly rods
Job: Maker of custom bamboo fly rods, Gainesville
What I do: Comparing Bill Oyster's custom-made bamboo fly rods to bamboo fishing poles is like comparing the masterpieces of the Louvre to your kids' drawings stuck on the refrigerator. A stick of bamboo with a line tied to the end might bring back childhood memories, but it lacks the art and craftsmanship that Oyster, 36, puts into each of his creations.
"I make the best rod possible" for both performance and aesthetics, said Oyster, who spends 100 hours or more on each fly rod. The fly rods can cost as much as $8,000. If you want one, the waiting list is more than a year long.
Everything is customized, including the color of the bamboo and the rod's action. The process takes hundreds of steps, starting with cutting thin strips from a specific type of bamboo that comes from a single area of China. Oyster splits the 3-inch-diameter stalk into quarter-inch strips, then planes them down even further.
He builds each section of the rod from six beveled and tapered triangular-shaped strips of bamboo. What looks like a round rod really is a hexagon, sometimes with wood inlaid between the bamboo strips. He then glues the strips together lengthwise and binds them with silk thread.
The reel end includes a cork or rattan grip, custom-made for the owner's hand. Three sections and 7 feet later, it tapers to a tiny fraction of an inch in diameter. The whole rod is dip-varnished.
In addition, for the highest-end rods, Oyster hand-engraves the metal rings that hold the reel to the rod and other metalwork. Such metalwork "is rarely seen, except on high-end, presentation rods. That's what I make," Oyster said.
He's working on one of those for a client he would identify only as a former U.S. president. Oyster's wife, Shannen, who runs the business side of Oyster Fine Bamboo Fly Rods, said client information is kept confidential, because sometimes the buyers want to hide the purchases from their spouses.
The end result of Oyster's work is a fly rod that can be used for 100 years, he said.
"You can fish with this for 30 years, revarnish it, and it will look like new," he said. "You can fish the rest of your life and hand it down."
Oyster said his buyers "are not looking for a nicer rod; they're looking for perfect."
What got me interested in this: Oyster, a self-taught fly fisherman, said he wanted a bamboo rod, because they were "the top of the food chain." Finding them too expensive, he tried making one. He said it took him six months to make "the most ugly, awful rod," but he still fishes with it.
He used books to learn how to make them, because there were no teachers, he said. That's why he also holds weeklong classes on how to build rods.
What started as a hobby bloomed into a business after he sold a rod at a fishing show about 10 years ago. "I've sold every rod I've made, except the first one," he said.
Best part of my job: "Being home every day with my wife and 2-year-old son," Oyster said. "I'm in total control of my own destiny."
While he builds rods in one part of their basement, his wife runs the business and her real estate business on the other side.
Most challenging part: "Keeping up with demand," he said, as well as keeping an eye on the business side of the operation. "It's melding your art with business," he said.
What people don't know about my job: The amount of time and work it takes to make a fishing rod. There's a big difference between a simple bamboo pole with a string tied to it and a bamboo rod, Oyster said. "With a rod, you tear down the bamboo and put it back together better."
What keeps me going: "I do what I love," Oyster said.
Preparation needed for this job: "I read all the books [on building bamboo rods] front to back before I got up enough nerve to order the bamboo. Then I read them again," Oyster said.
He said he benefited from the renewed interest in fly fishing generated by the book and movie "A River Runs Through It."
Oyster grew up as the son of a cowboy in Wyoming; attended Georgia Tech, the University of Florida and the University of Georgia's art school; and is a former champion professional bicycle racer.
"I've always had weird jobs," he said.
- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.
