Owning a quality leather fishing accessory that has been made completely by hand is a joy. Every time you use it you'll admire the fine craftsmanship that went into making it. One special point of interest in hand made leather goods is the stitching. When you see a hand stitched leather item you'll note that it is a cut above anything that was made by machine. You know that a lot of time, attention, skill, & work went into making your accessory - that it was made individually & not mass produced on a machine in a factory. 

One example of hand stitching leather would be a round case of any kind - a reel case, a rod tube, etc. There are different styles of stitches traditional to leathercraft, & a round leather item typically uses two different stitches to make. Recently, I was in my shop making up some cases for the gift certificates I offer. These are a perfect example as they are a simplified version of the leather covered rod tubes that I make. Let's use this as an example to show you what goes into making round leather cases by hand. ​The finished cases are a great way to present a gift certificate:

To begin making a round case, a piece of leather the necessary size for the job is cut from a large hide. It's chosen for its grain (if any) & for its aesthetic qualities & strength, so it must be cut from the best place of the hide. Once the working piece of leather is cut, the stitching marks are laid out on the leather. In this instance the holes for the thread & needles are punched before the leather is wrapped around the tube. You'll see why in a minute. ​

In leather work, a diamond shaped awl is always used to punch the holes for the thread. This diamond shape is key to giving the stitches the proper shape, so each stitch lays down at an angle. In addition to looking good, this also gives the stitches more strength. 

Once the holes are punched, I can then wrap the leather around the tube I'm covering. Some rubber bands hold the leather in place while I work.

Now that the leather is secure & the edges have been dyed & burnished, the stitching can begin. A long piece of very heavy thread is used to do this. It has two large leather needles attached at either end & both needles will pass though each hole in a certain & specific order. This is called a double butt stitch.

You might recognize this butt stitch: it's been used through the ages by shoemakers. You'll see this stitch on a traditional pair of shoes or boots on the back of the heel. Go ahead, take a look at some boots - you'll see what I mean. 

Okay, now that the tube has been covered with the leather, it's going to need a cap. Leather rounds of the proper size are laid out on a larger piece of hide:

Once these rounds are cut out, the thread holes are marked out on them, indicating where each stitch will go. This ensures that I get even stitches all the way around the case. Since this is all work done by hand, I don't have the luxury of a machine marking out the stitches for me. 

Attaching the round top & bottoms to the case is done using a box stitch. Again, this is a very traditional leather stitch that you will see on leather items that are stitched at their corners (where they might have corners). To see an example of a box stitch, look at any leather box, such as a tissue box cover or a covered jewelry box. Again, two needles & a long thread are used to make this stitch.

To finish this gift certificate case, all that's needed is to make a cap. The cap is made the same way as the body of the case we just discussed, though the tightness of the leather & the fit of it are much more crucial in the cap. Otherwise, the cap is made exactly the same way. Once the edges of the top & bottom caps are dyed & burnished, the case is complete.

​Could all this stitching be done much faster & easier by machine? Sure, it could & there are some folks who make these cases (some quite renowned I'm sure you've heard of) that do just that. They don't take the time to make each stitch by hand, they just run it through a heavy-duty leather sewing machine & are done in no time. I don't do it that way. I take the time to stitch it by hand because it's worth it. Once glance will show you that these cases were made by hand, with traditional methods & painstaking attention to detail. I think that if you're going to purchase a quality leather fishing accessory, you want the best & the best, as they say, 'don't come easy'. In the end, it's the attention given to all the details - including each individual stitch - that makes owning a leather case truly special & something to cherish. That's why I do it this way.

One of the things that got me through the dark, grey winter this year, was being able to see some of the art work that Lew Wilson has been making lately.

Lew is a very talented artist who works in mixed media. For example he'll take a photo of a special river (a work of art on it's own) & then enhance that photo by painting on it. Normally, I would say that the photo of a beautiful river would be enough, but Lew's work on the photo enhances it even more. I don't know how he does it, but his artist's eye pulls me into a scene more than any photo can do - & that's saying something.

Take a look at the photo below, by Lew. To a non-artist like me, it looks like a regular photo. But upon closer inspection, Lew has painted on this photo & really made this picture radiate an emotion of peace. The grandeur of the Rio Grande is really brought out. Just look closely at those brush strokes!! Wow, I could look at this all day!

If you'd like to own some of Lew's art work & help him to establish a phyiscal gallery for his work that has spanned decades, check out his work HERE.

Lew has worked documenting the rivers of America in an attempt to bring attention to their importance & to raise concerns for those waterways - that we keep them clean & as Nature intended them to be.  As Lew says, "rivers have a message." That message is worth listening to.

One of the coolest things about being a rod maker is all the interesting people I meet & get to know. My friend, artist Lew Wilson, is no exception. To say that Lew is a dedicated artist would be a huge understatement. You see, for the last 36 years, Lew has been on a mission  that has taken him all over the country - & that mission has been to raise people's awareness of our rivers & waterways, to encourage them to protect them & keep them as Nature intended. That's a cause I think all fly fishers can get behind, don't you?

​From a recent press release:

Now, after more than three decades of documenting & living with our nation's rivers, Lew is attempting to establish a physical gallery for his artwork. That would be quite a gallery!! Over 30 years of work (& still going), Lew has created quite a large body of work.

You can help Lew establish this gallery, so that his message of the importance of clean rivers can carry on for generations to come, by purchasing prints of some of his work. These would make excellent gifts for not only anglers who would enjoy a gorgeous view of a favorite fishing river, but anyone who wants to see nature's beauty everyday.

Through the website imagekind, you can purchase a Lew Wilson print. There are different sizes available at all different price levels, making this a great opportunity for folks on every kind of budget to purchase Lew's work & help his message carry on well into the future.

​Please take a look at Lew's prints by clicking HERE.

You can learn more about Lew & his art, by clicking HERE.

I can honestly say that Lew is one of the most dedicated people I've met in the mission to keep America's rivers & waterways clean & pure. As a fly angler, dependent on clean, cold water for my passion, I can't thank him enough for all his efforts. Please help Lew carry his message on to the generations that will follow us. As Lew says, "rivers have a message". That message is one worth listening to.

This past year, my good friends & fellow rod makers Jeff Wagner & Casimira Orlowski were featured on the television program, "A Craftsmen's Legacy". Together, Jeff & Casimira make up J.D. Wagner Rodmakers. This episode featured them, their story, their rods & walks us through the basic steps of making a bamboo fly rod. It is a very well made show featuring two extremely talented rod makers.

Now, I'm biased because their friends, but Jeff & Casimira are two of the finest people you will encounter in the fly fishing business. In addition to making some of the finest rods, they also make a host of tools & sell rod building supplies. If that weren't enough, they also offer classes throughout the summer months, where they will teach you the in's & out's of making a bamboo rod from scratch.

I was very happy to see bamboo fly rods getting the spotlight on a national TV show & I was even happier to see Jeff & Casimira get some well deserved attention for their work. As ambassadors for hand-made bamboo fly rods, you can't get any better than those two!!

Below is a short preview of the episode. To watch the entire show, check out the website for A Craftsmen's Legacy.

Today's fly fishing quote comes from John Gay, a British poet who lived from 1685 to 1732. He was a self-made man, growing up in an impoverished family, eventually coming to be a contemporary of famous British writers like Swift & Pope. This quote comes from a poem he wrote titled "Rural Sports", which was published in 1713 in two small volumes - one about fishing, the other about hunting.

As spring gets closer to arriving we start to anticipate another season of trout fishing. Quotes like this one make me anxious to wet a line.
(Note: this stanza was the inspiration for the name of this blog many years ago)

"Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey."

-Jon Gay, Rural Sports, 1713

One of the things that always amazes me is how talented many fly anglers are in ways that are related to fly fishing. What I mean by that is so many of you have picked up other skills along with your fishing abilities. Some of you are fantastic fly tiers. Others are excellent writers. Some are very good photographers, while others are good with their hands making fishing accessories, & some even dabble in rod building!! The point here is that most of you take your talents & abilities & apply them in some way to the sport of fly fishing.

My good friend & fellow local fly angler Mike, is no exception. Mike is a traditional angler, to say the least. He likes old rods, old fly patterns, & I've even known him to mess with gut leaders!! Being that Mike likes the traditional aspects of our sport it comes as no surprise that he likes greenheart (wood) fly rods. Yes, that's right Mike enjoys those rods most of you have probably only read about - & he catches fish, too folks. In fact, he's very good at it.

I was blown away the other day when Mike showed me his latest project. It's an old 9 ft, 3 pc fly rod made from wooden blanks!! Yup, he went out, a few years ago, & got himself some old wooden rod blanks from the Partridge of Redditch Company (I think), back when those things were still being offered. He turned those plain wooden sticks into a beautiful, gorgeous fly rod.

As you can see, the rod features a reverse-Welles wood grip, all metal cap & ring style reel seat, & gorgeous yellow/gold silk wraps throughout. I also like the bent-wire traditional tip tops as well.

The hallmark of a skilled rod builder is in the fit & finish of all the parts & you can tell that Mike has done an excellent job with this rod. I particularly like the ever so thin winding check he made himself to fit this rod....

Wow!! Great work, Mike!!

I'm always so excited to see the things that you folks come up with related to fly fishing. I'm blown away by your talent. All of you are so creative & skilled in so many ways that it really inspires me as a rod maker to do the best work that I can.

To that end, you folks should always feel free to show me your 'extra curricular' fly fishing items with me. I'd love to see them along with your fishing photos & your stories of angling adventure. I'm often awed & inspired by the things you folks do & create - as I was when Mike showed me that fly rod!!!

I like looking at old prints, or advertising that features fly fishing as a theme. Whenever you see an old painting on a vintage magazine cover or ad, you think of Norman Rockwell. He was probably the most famous, but there were other artists working in the same style as him who were very good in their own right.

One of those artists was J.F. Kernan (1878 - 1958). Just like Rockwell, Kernan's work focused on middle-class life in America, or as he described it "the human side of outdoor sports, hunting, fishing, and dogs." He was born in Massachusetts & would attend the Eric Pape School of Art in Boston & even teach there for a while, too. His work would appear on the covers of most major magazines between the 1910's to the 1940's. His art was seen on the covers of such periodicals as The Saturday Evening Post, The Country Gentleman, Outdoor Life, & many others including different calendars & advertisements of the time.

Below are a few of his works that I really like. His sense of humor & artistic abilities really make these works enjoyable. You can almost step into these scenes yourself.   

(click on the photo for a larger image)