[3] Initially, Garrison was interested in bamboo construction as a way to improve the shafts on his golf clubs and began to visit Holden at his house in Yonkers.
[2] In 1927, when expecting his second child, Garrison suffered from a neurological malady coupled with a debilitating depression, during which time he turned to designing a new type of bamboo fly rod.
[2] From a hospital bed, Garrison used an understanding of casting mechanics and the physical properties of bamboo to derive a stress analysis formula to use as a basis for plotting the final dimensions of a fly rod.
[1] He also designed the tools needed to hand-split and hand-plane the bamboo used in his rods, including an adjustable planing form and a glue binding machine that were capable of holding tolerances to .001" which are in common usage to this day.
[2] He worked at his craft nights and weekends until he retired from a structural engineering firm in 1972, after which he built rods and perfected his equipment full-time until his health began to fail in 1974.
[2] When published in 1977, A Master's Guide to Building a Bamboo Fly Rod made accessible to hobbyists and enthusiasts the methods of a craft that had previously been shrouded in secrecy.