Custom Rod Builders Guild - Member Spotlight

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Bernie Cohen

- Bernie Cohen -

WE ARE ALL ARTISTS

The dictionary defines Art as a creative skill in painting, sculpture, music, poetry, etc to produce works of beauty. I have always considered cross wraps, weaves, and inlays, (foam and feather) as works of art. I also include the art of making a bamboo rod in the same category.

There was a time not long ago when some people referred to this work as cosmetics, a term I strongly objected to and with the help of Cam Clark we got the word eliminated from use at seminars. As rod builders, we want to make the best rod possible, a rod that is sound and functional and technologically superior to any factory or store bought rod. This is our prlmary goal, but we also want to make the rod as as attractive as our creative ability will allow. This is where wraps, weaves, and inlays became important to help us produce not only a great rod, but a great Iooking rod.

I came to recognize the beauty of fishing rods when I saw my first decorative rod years ago. I can still recall the very first rod I made and that it had a wooden handle. Not content with a plain looking handle, I burned sections of the wood on the kitchen stove to give it an antique look. Very soon after that I moved on to work with cork. I continued with cork for a while, but when fine cork became scarce I switched over to foam grip materials.

In the early eighties I came across a picture of a saw tooth grip on the cover of a Rod Crafter Journal created by Charles Alexander. I thought at the time it was the most beautiful grip I had ever seen and knew that I had to make that grip. However, to my great disappointment there was no explanation or instructions in that article about the grip. Little did I know at the time that they had done me a great favor because I had to rely on my own initiative to figure out the "how to". This lesson served me well later on with other projects. After making my first saw tooth grip, I wrote the instructions and with diagrams, sent it out to the Rod Crafter Journal. A few months later another rod builder from Chicago sent an article describing his method of doing the same grip. We became good friends because the two of us shared the same enthusiasm for the artistic side of our craft. That person was the late and great Emil Baggetto.

After making many more grips with the saw tooth I knew it was time to move on and I became interested in working with split rings to make all kinds of new designs. After a long time working with this technique I got to the point of exhausting all the ideas I had and once again I knew it was time to look for a new outlet.

Looking at the Clemens catalog, I found a thin black foam sheet in the back of the book. I never learned what use this had for anyone, but decided to order it and that was the beginning of my work with inlays. I cut the sheet up in different shapes and then glued them into the grip. To my great joy the thing worked. The sheet though was much to thin, but Dick French made a thicker sheet for me and that proved to be perfect for my needs and that became the Bernie sheet in the Clemens catalog. I began to make pictorials of fish, fisherman, boats, and many other things and could not wait to show off my new creation to the rod builders at the seminar. Emil Baggetto was also working on the very same thing and we both showed up at the seminar and each one of us was surprised that we both had thought of the same thing. I never learned his technique, but I suspect that he may have been working with squares, a method that I cannot do because I do not have a shop . I do all my work in my apartment, where I do not want to make any unnecessary dust and dirt.

What intrigues me the most about pictorial inlay is that it is eclectic. The ideas can come from many sources like newspapers, magazines, book covers, sports insignias, and even cartoon characters. Any thing you can imagine that may look good on a grip can be done within the confines of the diameter of the grip.

When you combine the inlay grip with a complimentary cross wrap or weave you have a true work of art.

Bernie Cohen