One of my closest friends and favorite fishing partners, Dennis Vander Houwen from Tenkara Path paid me a visit to show me some his latest wooden tenkara line spool designs. Dennis is a magician by trade, but he’s also a magician at the lathe–creating some of the most innovative and gorgeous spools I’ve ever seen. He hand-crafts each one from a variety of woods (often re-purposed) and each one is absolutely unique. So if you get one from him, you will be the only person in the world to have one like that. In addition to being highly functional, they’re heirloom quality. They could sit behind a glass case in a museum just as much as they can get a workout in the field. Here’s a quick video we did at my house showing some of his recent designs …
Dennis is such a thoughtful and generous person and as always, he brought me some gifts from his garden. He gave a HUGE zucchini, some tomatoes, and some Kirby cucumbers so I can make pickles. Kirby cucumbers are kind of hard to find around here, but thanks to him, I’ve got a good supply. I have all the ingredients I need, I just have to find my Mason jars. Once you’ve made your own pickles, you’ll never eat a store-bought one again. There’s no comparison. Plus, you can make them just the way you like them. You’re probably wondering why the hell I’m talking about pickles on a tenkara blog. Well, I see a correlation. In tenkara, you keep it simple and create your own experience according to your own tastes. Same with pickles. 🙂
These are awesome! Makes me want to add a lathe to my shop! Great gifts to share with fishing buddies!
I absolutely love these. I have several and use them all the time! They are works off art!
Great information and I will be purchasing a couple of spools from Dennis. Have a great day Jason.
Jason, I am a fan of your blog and am also an avid backpacking/Tenkara fanatic. I enjoy all of your posts, which end up leading me to new stuff and ideas, but this post on Dennis’s work was great info. I ordered a spool immediately after I watched the video and I was fishing with it less than a week later. Awesome product. My favorite spool. Keep up the good work.
Awesome looking spools…before turning you could always have the wood stabilized and that would alleviate the varnished finish, make the wood pretty much waterproof, and it would prevent warping, cracking, or swelling.
Cheers