(October 2009)

"Scandinavian Split Cane" is a beautiful website of hand crafted bamboo fly rods from Sweden. Mats Öberg and Stefan Broms are the expert cane rods makers I am talking about today.

Mats Öberg is also the mind behind the website AND the Forum: there is a also a growing demand of people learning about the craft in Sweden as I had the opportunity to learn from a short conversation with Mr Öberg who was also attending the 2008 Sansepolcro gathering.

The website is also a focal point for other craftsmen like Lars Anderson (fine hardwood fly boxes), Greger Forselius and Lars Herik Hagström (hand-made knives)

Mats Öberg told me that

Bamboo rod making is quite rooted in Scandinavia. "It´s a spread over Scandinavia with a large and steadily increasing number of  Swedish makers although I find there also are quite a few Finns, Norwegians and Danes (e.g. we all know of  Mr. Fries and his beautiful rods)."



I asked Mats about his "used gear" section. "The vintage tackle and used gear section of the Scandinavian Split Cane website is something I wanted to have on the site as it really belongs on a website like this. Not all items are sold by me, but I´ve also listed a few rods and reels for close friends who have decided to move gear, rerouting the inquirements I get through the site directly to the seller."

Mats continues: "The interest/market/demand for bamboo fly rods has been sky-rocketing in Sweden lately. Especially for making them. Starting a split cane section on Scandinavia´s largest flyfishing forum in 2005 I got indications that people still would appreciate the handcrafting and the beauty of a fine made bamboo rod. Therefore, I set up the forum on the Swedish section on my Scandinavian Split Cane site about a year ago. Starting my bamboo rodmaking on a hobbyist basis, I now have a three year long waiting list and I have been forced to stop taking new orders. It has come to be more of of a part time occupation than a hobby."

"The forum on the Swedish section of the Scandinavian split cane website has been up for a year now and it has quite some traffic, especially from new makers who are starting making rods and seeking information from the more experienced people in the trade. Uniting rodmakers can only be a good thing the way I see it. We are also in progress of the foundation of a Swedish Bamboo Rodmakers Association with it´s first initial board meeting this very weekend, October 22-23.

Regarding the English speaking forum, I have quite some contact with friends in the bamboo fly rod community that do not know a word of Swedish and I wanted to let them into the Scandinavian side of bamboo fly rods/rodmaking also, so I recently set up the English speaking version on the English section of the site, the one I understand you have registered on. I hope it will bring some good thoughts and communication over the borders in the future."

Then Mats and Stefan told a nice story about themselves.

I´m Mats Öberg. I live in Stockholm, Sweden and I´ve been making bamboo rods for a few years. The first one was done with alot of help from my mentor Stefan Broms. There´s a lot to say about Stefan and his rods, but let´s just leave it to the fact that he´s been making rods since the mid -70´s. I´m proud to share the shop with him and to be able to call him my friend.

I´ve been fishing split bamboo fly rods for about 30 years. Bamboo rods have been the primary tools for almost all my fly fishing and the step to making my own rods came pretty natural when the opportunity came along. Especially when I´ve been building/making stuff since I was a kid.

Here´s our story, if you care to listen:

Stefan was selling all the rodmaking eqipment due to the lack of space and changes in life and I bought the whole shop. When we loaded the stuff on my truck, he had a strange expression on his face and said; "- You know, this is pretty tricky when you haven´t got the hang of it. I´ll help you out with the first one. Ok?"
-"Oh yeah" I said, and there I was with the best support I could ever ask for and I set the shop up at my place..

Well the first one was a wonderful journey with all the tricks and secrets that would have taken me years of trail and error to find out for myself. When the rod was done, dipped and cured and then lawn cast, Stefan had that strange expression on his face again and I knew what it meant this time. This was it. After 30 years of rodmaking he was done with it. The shop, bamboo and all was mine now.
So, I heard myself say: -"Hey, you have lots of space here, there´s plenty of bamboo on the shelf and you have already got paid for all the tools and you still get to use them. Just come by next Wedensday again and I´ll have a new bench ready for you...."

So, we are two makers in the shop now and I think this is what we usually would refer to as a win-win situation.



Thanks Mats!

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