Although I can appreciate greatly what he has done, including curing the rod blanks under heat and vacuum, the acoustic inspection of the rod blanks, the inspection methodology, culm classification, etc., - one has to ponder all the capital expenditures a rod maker would have to invest - which would significantly increase the costs of their rods.
Already it takes roughly 70 hours to produce a bamboo rod. I see no reduction in time here, solely reduction in failures. Most bamboo rod makers' first few rods are 'by gosh and by golly' there is a rationale, and makers learn from their mistakes. By about the 7th or 8th rod (most times) rod makers are producing a quality product that meets the requirements it was made for with little to no waste. After that, refinements are made to their workmanship and an asthetically pleasing product is made time after time.
The main item here, is that with his patent, he has documented precisely how the exact same rod can be made repeatedly (within some minor tolerance variation).
Appreciated - heck yes. Costly to the consumer - most definately.


darrell,
(I won't even get into the part of his calling a fly "... essentially a lure ...". What fly fisher in their right mind referes to feathers and fur as a lure ...... )