Both Lee Orr and Philip Smith are part time rodmakers. We both have day jobs to pay the bills, insurance and get our daily dose of rat race. Both are married with children...very young children at that.

Lee began building rods back when Powell rods were the rage. Once upon a time (early 2000's) he came to work at the same employer as Phil. Lee taught Phil how to build graphite rods and they both began fixing up/rebuilding old junk bamboo rods. Together they discovered through books, the internet and by beating heads on hard objects how to construct split cane rods. Lee finished his first set of planing forms before Phil and developed much of the personalized processes and equipment design used by both rodmakers.

Lee is married to wife Asley and has one daughter, Avery. Lee works for ClearOn Corporation.

Phil decided several times to give up on this idea of making rods during the 14 months it took him to build planing forms. Lee continued to needle and the rest is history. Unlike Lee, Phil's shop is not located in close proximity to family quarters and he does not put in nearly as much shop time as Lee does. Phil produces fewer rods than Lee.

Philip is married to wife Kelley and has two children; Adam and Audrey. He works for the WV Dept. Agriculture as a Pesticide Specialist and is currently seeking career advancement (tip: should you desire an incredible company asset drop Phil an email, he'd be glad to send you a resume). ---Shameless, I know.