sounds like a great fishing rod. But 120 hours?! Even at $1200, he's only making $10 per hour. I can swear I've seen online tutorials on how to make these rods. You should look aound, practice it, and then you can always ask him questions.

try this webpage out here, if you want to try to make one.
http://www.thomaspenrose.com/tonkin.htm

He makes multiple rods at one time. Lots of curing time for glue & laquer, etc. so he can do hands on stuff during cure. He's making good bucks, lot's better than 10 bucks an hour. I was frankly surprised at the thick walls of the Tonkin Cane bamboo. I grow a lot of varieties (close to 100) and I have not seen any bamboo so thick. Rgds

I have a couple of cane rods myself, they are great rods, very durable, and forgiving to casters. The process to make them is quite detail oriented. If you look at rod close, it's a hex...made of 6 strips of bamboo, hand planed to .001 of an inch...pretty hard core craftsmanship. Also note...800-1200 is a cheap cane rod, i've seen them go for $10,000