Alberto, where do you live?
I was born, live and work in Bovisio Masciago, a village in the Brianza region of Milan, in Northern Italy, an area which has a long tradition in woodworking. My father and grand-father were furniture makers and carpenters.

Are you a professional bamboo rodmaker or an amateur?
I am not a professional rodmaker, I am a "amateur" or lover of this wonderful wood which is called bamboo. Bamboo rodmaking will be always a passion for my free time for me. However, I admit that every so often it can take some time from my job.

I know in fact that you are an architect. Does your profession help you some way in your rodmaking? I am thinking of the attention to detail (in the material you use as well), of the final look, of the functionality and the general make of your beautiful bamboo fly fishing rods which I know have been already warmly accepted in Italy and abroad by fly fishing experts and lovers. In one word, a rod by Alberto Poratelli carries certainly the Made-in-Italy features, I think...
I am convinced that my profession of architect, which I have been doing for 30 years now, plays a major role in my rodmaking. In this hobby I inevitably transfer my architectural knowledge which I gathered from my work experiences. I am thinking in particular of my feeling for beauty in general and especially of my search for perfection that I strive to in the proportions and colours combination that I aim at.

When did you built your first cane rod?
I made my "number 1" between 1999 and 2001. Yes, it took me one and a half year to make it because in the very beginning there was nobody to help me and I was completely alone. I had nobody to ask for advice and I had to scratch my head to built the right tools, from the oven to the planing form. I think I could have never made it if I didn't meet Radivoj Savli, a bamboo rodmaker and friend from Slovenia who gave me many advices. Today, my first rod is inside a proper bag and I keep it like a relic. Whenever I look at it I can see its many defects but for me it's still so beautiful!

How many bamboo rods did you build so far?
About 50, completed, I think. But if I count the wrong-ended experiments about 70 I believe.

Which problems did you have in the beginning?
The real problem was, as I said, that I did not have anybody to help me. Secondly, the fact that the bibliography is (and certainly was at the time) nearly exclusively in English and so I had many obstacles. Exactly for this reason, the Italian Bamboo Rodmaker Association (IBRA) was created (we will talk abouth this later). Imagine that it took me nearly a week to figure out how to make and above all how to use the preliminary (also called "parallel") planing form, the one with different angles the preliminary (also called "parallel") planing form, the one with different angles ; and my first 12 bamboo strips, I tempered them so long in the oven that they...caught fire!

Which is the moment in the process of making a bamboo fly rods that you like most?
Without doubt the cleaning of the blank after glueing the strips. The more you remove the glue, the more you get the impression of the blank coming out of a cocoon. You pass from the roughness of the hardened glue and binding thread to the smoothness of the bamboo, and consequently from the dark of the glue to the amber colour of the tempered bamboo. For me this is a very beautiful moment.

And which one do you like the less?
The most boring part, undoubtely the flattening of the nodes and the straightening of the bamboo splits. But it's probably the most important part because if they are not perfect before the planing phase you know that you will not get excellent strips.

Which rod building error do you remember?
Errors can be of many types and with every new rod you realize you made some again and try to put a remedy to it. But if you mean casual errors I think that any rodmaker must have realized soon or later to have glued the strips in the wrong order!

Do you make your rod completely by hand or do you use any special "industrial" tool, I am thinking of the strips in particular.
For me, bamboo rodmaking is above all a hobby and so it must be a relaxing experience. I try to avoid mechanical tools as much as possible so that I only use manual tools for 95% of my work. I think that bamboo is a natural material and is "alive" and as such it can't be "ill-treated". The untapered strips are thus prepared by hand, I don't use any milling machine.

Can I ask you how do you temper the bamboo, at which temperature?
For the purpose I use a self-built hot-air oven. I think a hot-air oven is ideal because the air flow keeps the wood constantly dry. As for the timing and temperature, I put the bounded strips in the cold oven and I start heating it to reach the right temperature: 180 degrees Celsius. It takes me about 20 minutes to reach that and then I keep the strips at that temperature for another 15 minutes.Once removed the strips from the oven, I keep them in a soft bag and I let them cool down gently so that they don't get a thermic shock or an an abrupt cooling down.

Which colours do you prefer for your thread wrapping and how do you like to do it?
I think I found the right colours for my rods only after I made more than 30. I now use a dark green thread to wich I add an additional red cardinal thread at the edges. In my opinion, dark green is the colour which matches the most with the bamboo colour.But on very dark rods I like transparent wrapping very much. I like to wrap at nearly the very beginning of the guides/snakes, the shortest the wrapping the better I like.

Which snakes guides and guides do you normally use?
I like the Snake Brand snakes guides, they are among the best on the market.

Do you use hook-keepers?
I initially used hook-keepers on all my rods until I met Roberto Pragliola who convinced me that this is an useless accessory and even disturbing at times. So I only use it on a precise request.

Which material do you prefer for your handles? Wood, cork...?
I like and use cork wood and I make my handles myself by glueing the round cork rings on the rod directly and then sanding them down. This way, the handles are perfectly aligned with the rod. I also developed my own design, a conical shape, which distinguishes my rods, I would say.

What about the reel-seats?
I make them myself. I have a small lathe that I use for both the wood and metal parts.

The finishing of the rod is a very delicate moment. How do you proceed?
I varnish my rods by immersion and I use a very diluted, transparent, special varnish: 1/3 varnish and 2/3 turpentine. With that kind of dilution I need 5 to 6 coats of varnish but this way I avoid drops and defects.I also varnished by hand with a parquet-flooring varnish and I got good results.But the best rod finishes, in my opinion, are those without any varnish at all, just a coat of wax which give a phantastic satin finish to the rod.

How do you sign your own rods? Do you use a specific numbering system? I am thiking of the collecting value of your rods here...
I give my rods a progressive number and the construction year. So, for instance, a rod with numbers 31/06 is my 36th rod and I made it in 2006; the "43/07" is rod number 43 made in 2007 and so forth. Then, for each rod I keep a file with all their carachteristics: taper design, snakes position, colours, tempering details, etc. I do this because it could happen that I will need to repair them and so I am able to rebuild the parts with the identical original criterias. And finally I note down the owner of the rod.Now and then I read through these files and I get lost in memories. It's a bit like reading in a diary.

I noticed that you make your own bamboo ferrules and that you talk about it in rodmaking gatherings. I think that maybe you had the idea when you met Bjarne Fries, the professional Danish rodmaker, who has been making bamboo ferrules for many years...
No, I had the idea before meeting him, but I read everything about his ferrules and Marcelo Calviello's ferrules, too. I was fascinated by those ferrules but I didn't like the final look. So I started studying for a better, lighter and more beautiful solution in line with the necessary resistance. My dream is to realize the perfect bamboo ferrule: the invisible ferrule.

Rolf Baginski is another German rodmaker whom you know well. What did you learn from Rolf during the latest gathering in Waischenfeld?
I learned a lot from Rolf, even though I don't necessary agree on some of his methods. But I think I improved a lot the straightening of the culm nodes by looking at his way of doing it. I also would like to bind the rods like him. At the moment I can't make it but I don't despair.

Who are the past and present teacher you get inspiration from?
Well, I think that we are all Garrisons's and his theories' descendants although I think that everybody tries to get what is useful to them from the great masters of the past . It's important in my opinion to not just copy them but to try to add something new and original to the rods that we make.After all, they became masters because they explored new roads. I am convinced that every rodmaker must find his way, his style, to improve it little by litlle but eventually making his rodsunmistakably unique.

What do you think of bamboo rods coming from China?
I tried some of these rods and I got a bad impression of them, both in term of their action and the finishing. They are rods without personality. I think you can fish with them but they are not worth the money, even though they are cheaper than a European, American or Japanese bamboo rod. I think it's better to spend 300 Euro for an excellent graphite rod than for a bad bamboo rod.

You were recentyl at the Somerset Flyfishing Show, NJ, USA together with Gabriele Gori. What impressions did you gather from our American friends, how do they see us and our bamboo rods?
Up to two years ago, in the US nobody would have imagined that there could be an Italian making rods at their level. Now they changed their mind, they respect us and above all they understood that we make research which is not necessarily done in the USA. I think that in Italy we have two or three rodmakers among the best in the world. I understood that at the same show there was a certain interest for hand-made fishing reels. What kind of reels in particular?
The Giorgio Dallari briar reels undoubtely. These reels are a great success and are really sought after.

Together with Gabriele Gori you founded the Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association (IBRA). When and how did it happened? How is IBRA going, how many members are there?
It happened in January 2005. Gabriele and I met at a show in Salsomaggiore, Italy and we were also in touch with Marco Giardina ("MOG" for friends, he lives in Naples, Italy). So we had the idea to have a bamboo rodmakers gathering. To be honest, we did not think it would be a success because it was only advertized on a local fly fishing bulletin board (www.pipam.org). But there were over 30 partecipants and so in July we thought to make this non-profit association which has in bamboo rodmaking teaching and in its diffusion its primary goal. And we have seen many good rodmakers coming out from our school already. This is for Gabriele, Marco,

Walter Rumi and myself a very big satisfaction. All the rest is but secondary.

In May there will be the first European Bamboo Rodmakers Gathering. Can you tell us something about it, how many people will attend and who will be the special guests, any of our American friends?
To organize the first European gathering is an idea of Gabriele Gori, Marco Giardina and myself just immediately after the end of the 2007 Gathering. We asked for the collaboration of the Swiss and German rodmakers and we finalized everything in Waischenfeld.We are expecting a hundred people staying in Hotels at Sansepolcro, about 150 people during lunch and dinners and probably at least 250 partecipants as a whole. We think it will be a great event.The organizing staff has been working for a long time and we will have partecipants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Danemark, France, The Netherland, Polony, USA and of course Italy, There will be a TV crew from Spain reporting the event for the Spanish Channel "Hunting and Fishing". In particular, we will have three important guests: Hoagy Carmichael the co-author of the famous book by Everett Garrison; Andy Royer, today the major importer of bamboo from Quantong, China; Larry Tusoni the creator of the the RodDNA software which is the programm used by rodmakers all over the world.But there will also other important partecipants such as Bill Harm and Rolf Baginski to name two of the latest authors of bamboo rodmaking books.

What about the English rodmakers?
We still aren't sure but we are trying to involve some of the british rodmakers. We still have some time and we hope to succeed.

Let's talk again about your rods. Do you make the rods more for yourself or do you have orders that come in?
I make bamboo fly-fishinh rods out of passion and interest for study. I like to experiment new solutions and each new rod gives me a great pleasure. I don't make them to sell them, maybe through a shop dealer, but I like to build some of my rods for those who ask me for it. In this case I try to understand the personality of the person in front of me, where and how he fishes. Because I think that each rod is different and should be tailor-made on the individual person who will use it. For instance when our friend Simone phoned to me and asked for a 6' I realized while talking to him that ne needed a 6'6'' instead because it was certainly more adequate for his kind of fishing.

Do you have any preferences about fishing style and kind of rod action?
I like fly fishing in moderate large river and above all I like fishing with dry flies. So I like a slow action and not so fast like with many graphite rods. Fly fishing should be relaxing.

Who are your clients? How did they learn about you?My clients are mainly in Italy, but I also made rods for Swiss and UK friends. I think they know me through word-of-mouth which is so important in the flyfishing community.

What would you say to a person who would like to buy his first bamboo rod?
I would tell him not to buy a chinese rod, or an already finished bamboo rod (unless it's a collection piece) but to contact a rodmaker, to speak with him about his desires and to ask for a quote for a custom made rod. It can cost less than a top-range brand graphite rod.If you don't know anybody you can contact the IBRA who will provide a list of rodmakers in the area (in Italy).

Thank you very much Alberto for this interview. It has been a pleasure to talk with you and I think we got a better insight of the bamboo rodmaking community as well. Would you like to end our discussion with a word from you, perhaps?
I think I would like to point out that a rodmaker doesn't work with his hands only, but also with his soul. It's not rare to happen noticing of being speaking to the bamboo while working with a plane on it!