Jim Payne

At the early age of 10 , father, Edward Payne acquainted young  Jim Payne with rodbuilding chores at the E. F. Payne Rod Company located at Highland Mills, NY, a few miles north of the Leonard plant. Jim Payne’s innovations and improvements in rod design and actions came after his father’s death in 1914. Jim worked tonkin cane and  treated the cane with flame for a more resilient and powerful rod that untreated rods; also resulting in a distinctive deep brown color. As many as 700 rods per year were built during the high production years of the mid-20s to the early 1940′s.  Production was curtailed during the war.  Resuming after, Jim Payne continued bamboo rodbuilding to his last year, closing his shop a month before his death on June 12, 1968. A half century of rodbuilding… building as many as 25,000 bamboo rods with meticulous craftsmanship, perfect in finish and performance, created by a devoted craftsman, Jim Payne.

Source: Classic Rods and Rodmakers by Martin J Keane, Classic Publishing Company, 1976