Bamboo Tips - Contributors
Wendt, Mark

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I guess I ought to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Mark Wendt. I'm a shy, quiet, unassuming fella, full of humility, and I hate grits. I can see Bob Nunley and Harry Boyd rolling their eyes. But I digress. I first stumbled onto bamboo rod making back in the late 70's when I was living on the banks of the West Branch of the Delaware in the Catskills, playing at being a college student, and working part time in a sporting goods store to pay for my fishing and hunting supplies. The owner and I were pretty good buddies, and we pretty much liked the same things. He let me fish an older Orvis rod a few times, and I was hooked. But, being a college student, I didn't have the extra cash to buy a cane rod. About the same time, if I remember right, Nick Lyons started a book of the month club, featuring outdoor sporting books, where you could get 5 for a buck, then paid full price there after. Hoagy and Everett's book was the first book on my list. I got it, and must have read it through 5 or 6 times in a month. Life intervened, and I ended up going into the military, because I wanted to fly in the worst way. I ended up in the US Air Force, first as an enlisted guy, eventually earning my commission and my wings. I flew a few versions of the F-4 Phantom, spending most of my time in the RF-4C, the Reconnaissance version. After getting out of the service and ending up on the east coast, my Mom called me up one afternoon and asked me when i was going to stop using her attic as "temporary" storage. Went up, cleaned out all the boxes that were mine, and lo and behold, the "Bible" was sitting on top inside one of the boxes. That was around 1999, and I started collecting and making my own tools, oven, forms, drying cabinet, drip tube and any other toyl I could make or come up with, I got on the list either in late 2000 or early 2001 (my memory sucks - I have to write all the important stuff down...) or maybe it was last year? Anyway, I had tons of help from what are now some very good friends - Tony Spezio, Harry Boyd, Bob Nunley, M-D, Rick Crenshaw (don't believe what he sez, he ain't got the ugliest rod on the rack) who got me my first set of calipers and DG, and a whole host of others. Poor old Bob, I called him up one day out of the blue with some silly arsed question and ended up talking with him for about 3 hours. We've been buds ever since. Tony Spezio, what else can I say that the other folks haven't said already. Thank you for all your help Tony, and I hope I'm living up to the passing it forward philosophy. M-D and I exchanged lengthy emails on almost a daily basis for a number of years, on topics ranging from rod making to meta physics. Complicated man, that M-D. And those are only a few of the folks that helped me when I started out. I've managed to form some very lasting and close friendships with folks that I've met through this list that carry forward to today. Tony, Harry, Bob, Rick, Todd Talsma, Larry Blan, Brian Creek, Rich Jezioro, our "Wildcat Shoals" gang, the Catskill crew, The Michigan Mil... uh, gang... ;-) As many of you know, I'm a toyl and a machine nut. I'm currently in the process of finishing up a CNC saw beveler that will cut finished strips. Once the current difficulties pass, I'll continue on with finishing the assembly of it, and post more pics.