You will notice Wesley D. Jordan’s name associated with a few companies that produced Bamboo fishing rods. He deserves a place in history as one of the truly inventive bamboo rod makers who had a major influence on the bamboo fly rods that we know of today. Jordan was involved with producing bamboo rods for more than 50 years, first with the Cross Rod Co. of Lynn, Massachusetts, then with South Bend in Indiana and finally with Orvis in Manchester, Vermont.
Wes Jordan was on a fishing trip in Maine with his friend William Forsyth. Mr. Forsyth broke his fly rod and talked Wes into making him a new one. From all accounts Jordan was a skillful fisherman and was familiar with good bamboo rods. He spent almost a year studying the construction of bamboo rods and reading all the literature he could find. He finally succeeded in making several hand-planed rods of Calcutta cane. Mr. Forsyth was so enthralled with the results of Jordan’s efforts that he proposed a rod making venture. In 1920 they formed the Cross Rod Co., named for Bill Cross, a friend of Forsyth’s who bought stock in the new company and also joined in learning the rod making trade.
With the help of his brother Bill, Jordan had designed and built a milling machine so rods could be produced faster and efficiently in order to compete with companies such as F. E. Thomas and H. L. Leonard.
Unfortunately Mr. Forsyth died suddenly in 1925 and his heirs sold the Cross Rod Co. to the South Bend Tackle Co. in South Bend, Indiana. Jordan moved to South Bend to set up the machinery, organize a rod production facility and train the employees. This arrangement lasted almost 15 years. During this period Wes Jordan designed methods and equipment to aid in making rods with low production costs in order to compete with
other bamboo rod makers such as Montague, Union Hardware, Horrocks-Ibbotson and Wright & McGill. One device was a power-driven ram for splitting bamboo culms to be used for mass-market rods.
South Bend also made rods for other companies, such as Sears Roebuck for as little as 83 cents wholesale. Cane for the higher quality rods built by South Bend and all the South Bend-Cross rods were split by hand or sawed. Rods and blanks of higher quality were also marketed to other companies, most notably to the Paul Young Co., for several years prior to 1930.
