There is a great article on and by Bernie Cohen in the new Rodmaker issue. Very interesting read and then I went a couple pages deeper and found the fold out section on exactly how to execute those EVA grip inlays. Great stuff and a very inspirational article. The photos and how-to were extremely well done. Even a clutz like me can get it right with these directions. Thanks to Bernie for sharing!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2009 01:37PM by Ken Finch.

Bernie's an absolute gem of a human being, and an innovative and creative rodbuilder. I havent' received my magazine, but I did see the article BC sent into Tom, great read. As of rightnow he is leaning towards attending High Point in 2010, hopefully he'll be able to get down there.

Bernie was going to try and attend the 2009 event but other things in his life took priority. He has told me that barring any sort of difficulty, he'll be at the Expo in 2010. It might be nice to get him on the program.

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Bernie is one of the OLD TIME Rodcrafter guys. So many of them come to the expo each year it could be good to have them all get together. I had heard that Joy Dunlap was there last year but did not see him. Has Dale said he would come?? I look forward to the new issue when the mailman gets done with it..

It’s a funny thing but due to the sheer size and large attendance of the Expo, you’ll find more former RodCrafter members here than ever attended any of the official RodCrafter seminars of the 1970’s, 80’s or 90’s. I’d guess between 250 to 300 former members of that organization are at the Expo each year. Maybe more.

Dale has a standing invitation to attend - he’s only an hour and half away. But that’s up to him. As a rule, Dale has generally not involved himself in any rod building activities since his retirement from the craft/business.

You aren’t the first person to suggest it and due to the large number of former RodCrafter members that will be attending the Expo anyway, there is probably an opportunity here for them to do something extra if they wish. But somebody else will have to set it up - I have too much else to do. Of course, I’d be happy to steer them in whatever direction is needed for information or facilities. We moved the RodMaker Reception to Friday night so the ballroom at the hotel is open on Saturday night.


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I had the pleasure of meeting Bernie at one of the Long Island NERB gatherings a couple of years ago and he gave me some one on one on the inlays and he is one very talented young man. He also had a display of some grips that he made and all I can say it's all first class and wonderful to look at, one I hope to be some where as good as he is some day. I'll keep tryig my hand at this and hopefully I can show him a grip at one of the furture NERB gathering and finally display a piece of my own work.


Fernando Torres-NERB

Bernie is an orginal thinker and developer of rod art. After seeing his inlay presentation a few times I realized that I could apply his concept to feather inlays. After many attempts I finally achieved a resonable image of fish with a feather inlay. I will be ever grateful to him as an artist who shares his talents with fellow rod builders.

Pat Vinzant, Wetumpka AL

A dinner or gathering would b e nice. And others at the Expo might want to join in to see what its about.

Something may be in the works. We'll see. I have no details yet.

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A couple years before his all too soon passing, Rodcrafter Lee Ackart had loaned me the national Rodcrafter mailing list for a project I was working on. I still have it. There are something like 2200 names and addresses on it. It\'s a good ten years old now but might be of some use to anyone that wanted to pursue doing something for the former RC people at the Expo. Ask and ye shall receive. I have no use for it and would be happy to pass it on to anyone that can make use of it.

At this point I would say there is a 90% chance of some sort of RodCrafter event taking place on Saturday evening of the Expo. More details to follow.

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Tom, I will mail you the old Rodcrafter mailing list and you can forward it to any appropriate party that you like. It may or may not be helpful but I have no use for it. Not sure why I continued to keep it but maybe Karma dictated that it remain around for this sort of thing!

Thanks - I suspect RodMaker Magazine already reaches any of them that are still active, along with many thousands more. But send it along and we'll have it for reference anyway.

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