Kevlar rods

[Dick Dastardly]

Shakespeare played around a bit with Boron in the late 70's/early 80's (?) with t5heir top end match rods.Not entirely sure of how it was used as I believe Boron is a gas and therefore must have been used in the manufacturing process rather than it being a materiel as such.I remember rods made like this were very brittle (this is normally down to the resin so assume that Boron gas was used either in the resin or the curing process).

 

I had a fishing friend who worked at Dormabile and specialised in laminated plastics/fibreglassing.He gave me samples of many materials. It seemed to me though that most were pretty much the same thing just using different mixtures of the commonly used materials and different "weaving patterns" (for the cloth/mats). These were given "names" and as such were really just "trademarks" for these variations and not new "materials" as such.

 

I had a bit to do with Brian Potter from Bruce & Walker back in the 90's when we were developing our rods for Catting in Europe. Allthough making some of the best fishing rods available in this country he knew very little about fishing itself.What he was though was an expert in tubular composites. If you knew how you wanted a blank to perform he could usually make it for you.Due to the extremely high cost of the manderals (the steel rods that the glass/carbon etc material is wrapped on to form hollow blanks) he would often choose a quite standard one with a suitable taper then "fine tune" by varying the materials/numbers or wraps put on this.Very clever stuff. If anyone could answer your questions with a level of expertise it would be him. Will check see I still have contact details for him.

[Dick Dastardly]

Best I have are- sales@bruceandwalker.co.uk

[Anderoo]

Nice one budgie, I might just drop them a line.

[gozzer]

This link might be of interest Andrew.

It isn't about kevlar itself, but more about how, where, and when different types of fibre are used to make a rod, depending on the action required.

Ok, it's from Harrison, and promotes their gear, but I found it interesting.

 

http://www.harrisonrods.co.uk/production.htm

 

John.

[Steve Walker]

Shakespeare played around a bit with Boron in the late 70's/early 80's (?) with t5heir top end match rods.Not entirely sure of how it was used as I believe Boron is a gas and therefore must have been used in the manufacturing process rather than it being a materiel as such.

Elemental boron is a solid at room temperature, but it doesn't have obviously interesting structural characteristics. Nor does graphite, I suppose! Boron fibre is made by chemically depositing boron onto the surface of fine tungsten wires. It's still made and sold for use in composites, but it seems to have fallen out of favour in rod blanks. I do remember handling boron/carbon composite rods and thinking they were very slim but not impressively light. Information on the process and products here:

 

http://specmaterials.com/boronfiber.htm

http://specmaterials.com/productapplicationsmatrix.htm

 

I do wonder how much the use of these materials is driven by the need to have some new wonder-product to market - surely if Kevlar or boron fibres achieved something that you couldn't achieve with straight carbon, they would be standard for rods and all sorts of other applications. Silica nano-spheres in the resin are the new imperial dress code - we will have to see if they catch on!

Edited August 28, 2013 by Steve Walker

[gozzer]

. Silica nano-spheres in the resin are the new imperial dress code - we will have to see if they catch on!

 

This thread as had me looking on the net, for various rod making materials. The thing I've noticed on many of the sites is that nowadays, the resin is deemed as important as, (if not more than), the fibre being used.

 

John.

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks for clearing that up Steve.Yes I agree that its quite probably the search for a new "marketing name" thats more behind it than the search for better properties!

 

John the resin and bonding process is certainly (or so it seems) just as if not more important than the materials. Re "Nanocarbon" Im afraid the only things Ive heard so far are bad! Nic Buss tried some blanks made using this process and told me that one just exploded when a fish pulled the rod down hard on to the gunwhale of the boat! Not just shattered but tottally exploded into fine particles!

[lutra]

Pretty sure the the Kevlar in my diawa rods is just the crisscross wrap around the carbon blank. What I think is often just done with carbon these days.

[Anderoo]

Interesting stuff. Perhaps these were just fads, and modern top-end rods are equally good or even better with just good carbon and good resin.

 

One thing I've noticed on the kevlar barbel rods is that they have what looks like a quite thick clear varnish on them, unlike any straight carbon rods I've owned. Don't know if that's a coincidence or not. I might try to take a pic, although it might not show it very clearly.

[Dick Dastardly]

Thats probably the thickness of the resin Andrew. As Brian says Kevlar was used as an "overwrap" on most blanks. The Daiwa Amorphous (sp?) being a good example