# carbon fiber rods



## LowHydrogen (Dec 31, 2015)

I handled a 6 wt lamiglass blank the other night, felt really light and pretty fast. Of course I couldn't give a really honest opinion until it was finished and I had a chance to cast it. Overall the finish looked really nice, kind of a aqua color....... Pretty cool


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## jonrconner (May 20, 2015)

Graphite is really a colloquial term for carbon fiber, all "graphite" rods are made from carbon fiber.
JC


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

jonrconner said:


> Graphite is really a colloquial term for carbon fiber, all "graphite" rods are made from carbon fiber.
> JC


JC, ya beat me to the punch!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

As usual -just an advertising gimmick..... The Brits called graphite "carbon fiber" so outfits wanting to charge a bit more for their rods - began calling it by the fancier name ....


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

Taken from another site:


Both start out as pure carbon. When it is heated to a certain temp you get graphite. The molecules are situated like blocks in a straight line with slight gaps in them. This is why graphite can be torn. When carbon fiber is made it is heated to a different temp and the molecules are aligned in the block fashion but with much tighter/packed configuration. Not as easily torn or ripped. Being tougher than the graphite and with much tighter molecules it is more sensitive and responsive. You can get greater strength with less material making a lighter, more sensative rod.

Man that hurt trying to explain that. That is my take on it as it was explained to me a few weeks ago.

The possibilities are endless in carbon fiber rods and I am sure we will begin to see things in the next few years that will blow our minds. With lighter, more powerful rods in extremly small diameters just on the horizon.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

And along with the fancy explanation - maybe just a bit higher price tag....
If you ever saw how blanks are built (impregnated cloth wrapped on a steel mandrel, then counter wrapped with cellophane tape, then baked in a vertical oven (chain drive slowly moving the wrapped mandrels through the oven.... tip down). You might wonder a bit about the "fancy explanation".

Once the blank has been cured properly, then the mandrel is pulled by a carefully designed machine leaving the blank - but it's still not completed. At that point you choose whether you want the blank sanded smooth or just to allow the ridges to remain (after the tape is removed). If it's sanded out each blank is run through a center-less sanding process (the blank is spun as it enters the sanding process in a water bath) that leaves it nice and smooth. Now comes the part that no blank manufacturer wants to see become "not so secret" as they use one process or other to apply either a clear finish or a colored finish (ever note how some brown or other colored blanks show gray underneath if you scratch one?) and now you have a finished blank. The toughest part of that is coming up with a finish that sun exposure won't cause to eventually peel....

I was lucky enough to hook up with a local blank manufacturer here in south Florida -back when graphite was in its infancy - but they were still using all the same techniques that had been used to create fiberglass blanks. They were proud to show off each step in the process and how you could custom tailor any blank by the amount and type of impregnated cloth that was being power-wound onto a mild steel mandrel. He even showed me how you created new mandrels by turning down a solid steel bar in a lathe to create different tapers... I suppose that these days by playing with the type of cloth and the heat in that oven you can greatly refine the process to achieve different characteristics - but the Brits were calling graphite "carbon fiber" for years and years - long before enterprising outfits started calling their graphite blanks "carbon fiber" - and of course boosting the price....


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

lemaymiami said:


> And along with the fancy explanation - maybe just a bit higher price tag....
> If you ever saw how blanks are built (impregnated cloth wrapped on a steel mandrel, then counter wrapped with cellophane tape, then baked in a vertical oven (chain drive slowly moving the wrapped mandrels through the oven.... tip down). You might wonder a bit about the "fancy explanation".
> 
> Once the blank has been cured properly, then the mandrel is pulled by a carefully designed machine leaving the blank - but it's still not completed. At that point you choose whether you want the blank sanded smooth or just to allow the ridges to remain (after the tape is removed). If it's sanded out each blank is run through a center-less sanding process (the blank is spun as it enters the sanding process in a water bath) that leaves it nice and smooth. Now comes the part that no blank manufacturer wants to see become "not so secret" as they use one process or other to apply either a clear finish or a colored finish (ever note how some brown or other colored blanks show gray underneath if you scratch one?) and now you have a finished blank. The toughest part of that is coming up with a finish that sun exposure won't cause to eventually peel....
> ...


Baking cookies!


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