Quote Originally Posted by Photojoe4 View Post
I can't imagine that access to tapers will make any difference in the quality of rods being produced in Asia. Even if they do use well established tapers, the people making the blanks have no idea what they're supposed to feel like when they're finished. Not to mention they probably won't be tempering the cane very well (if at all), they won't take care to avoid worm holes/grey nodes/weak cane, won't see a problem with glue lines/gaps, probably won't use any sort of node staggering, etc...
That's a big assumption. The average fly angler that has never held a bamboo fly rod could probably not tell the difference of where the blank came from. Not saying there wont be visible differences in quality and appearance, just saying they look pretty darn close to the untrained eye. If they have no idea what they are doing, why are they made to at least look like a $1000 domestic blank?

Quote Originally Posted by Photojoe4 View Post
What is it that's stopping them right now from making the same quality of rod that any competent U.S./European/Australian maker is currently producing? They've got acess to the exact same materials, there are plenty of books on the subject (plus the internet sites), and there are a number of tool/equipment suppliers. So, what is it?
What's stopping them is machine-made/mass-production processes, profit margin and the fact that the workers are just factory employees and not owner-operator craftsman.