Rod Making in the 21st century
By Roger McCourtney
Chapter two - ROD ACTION
In my introduction I inferred that carbon fibre had similarities to Bamboo. Why is this you may ask? Well, it might have been pure chance rather than some boffin deliberately trying to mimic a natural product, but that is how it has turned out! You may be wondering what the blazes this has to do with rod action and I suppose in truth I need not write about this at all, but surely, the purpose of writing is to educate and inform and besides which I find it quite fascinating myself.
Bamboo is a type of grass! There are over 1000 species of the stuff but there is only ONE suitable for rod making. If you look at a piece of bamboo, a garden cane for example, you will see that nature has arranged things so that itcan bend considerably. Just what we want our rods to do! The structure of bamboo is as follows, an outer "shell" of hard weather resistant "enamel" This equates roughly with the cellophane on our carbon blank! Then the majority of the remaining cells are made up of "Unidirectional" fibres. Wow! Now can you see the connection? The inner "pith" acts in the same way as the "scrim" in our blank. OK there are a few things in the natural make up of bamboo such as knots or nodes as we call them , which are irrelevant for comparison purposes.
You can see now the amazing similarities between the two finest rod making materials ever discovered. One natural the other man made. I wonder if it was merely coincidence, somehow I suspect not!
Now on to rod actions proper.
It is generally accepted in the trade that rods are designed with four types of action. These are extra-fast, fast, medium and slow. What does this mean then? Well we can immediately disregard the extra-fast action. Quite simply this type of rod has no place in Barbel fishing and is very specialised. Fast action means that the top 33% bends, medium action means the top 50% bends, and slow means that the whole rod bend in a progressive curve all the way down. Read that again and understand. These are the basic definitions that I will refer to from now on.
For a blank to be of the fast taper type it requires that the carbon tape is cut into what is called a "compound taper". You will for sure, have heard of that expression! So what does it mean?. Simply put, it means that instead of a straight taper of material that I wrote about earlier, the blank maker cuts the tape wider to start with thereby introducing more material, to stiffen the blank, he will then make a gradual "step down" more in line with the original triangular shape. I have to say that I have found it very difficult to put into words a description, which one simple sketch would reveal all! Another way of describing a compound taper in simple terms, hopefully, is that a compound taper is one in which there is at least one change in the overall angle along the triangle of tape. If you can understand that you can then appreciate that wherever along the tape that the change is built in will affect and determine the action of the rod. For example, a fast action blank/rod will have comparatively less material in the top 33% of the total length than the remainder.
For a blank to be made with a slow action it requires that the carbon is cut using the elongated triangle, to which I have previously referred. This is often a slow taper, but could be a fast taper, in any case it will be a straight taper. This will allow the blank to bend in a progressive arc from tip to butt. In fact a "progressive action"
As with all things in blank making there are so many variables. If one were to use carbon fibre of the high modulus type the resulting blank will end up being of a stiff progressive action, actually quite a useful Barbel blank! Use an intermediate modulus carbon and the blank will be much softer, possibly even "floppy"! Please note that these comments are as I have said before generalizations to try to illustrate the overall picture.
The amount of carbon tape used has an enormous effect on the blank. For example, if we were to wrap the tape for say, two and a half turns around the mandrel and go through the whole process and then do exactly the same but using say, three and a half turns, the resulting blank will be heavier and stiffer or to put it another way, requiring a heavier weight to load the blank. In other words it will have higher "test curve". The blank will also be stronger.
An excellent example of a stiff progressive action blank is one made by Harrison. He calls it his 11 foot 1lb. 6 oz. Avon. I have written before that I use this rod a lot. As a general purpose Barbel rod I have to say that in my opinion it has few equals. You would not believe some of the things I have done with this rod!
To enable the angler to choose the most suitable rod, he should carefully consider the three jobs that he will require the rod to perform. These are, casting, striking and playing fish. If distance is not your main criteria, then any rod action will suffice. We all want a nice positive strike, regardless of the distance we are fishing, so perhaps a medium action rod is the tool. We also need to play a hard fighting fish, so a soft rod isn’t a lot of good unless we are fishing big snag-free water and are happy to play the fish to a standstill. If we were to use a fast action heavy test curve rod we will surely suffer more hook pulls and breakages and will also inflict more damage to the fish’s mouth. So beware.
How can the action of the rod be tested in a shop environment you ask? Well, it is possible, get the shop assistant or friend to hold the very tip of the rod and you gently lift against his or her hand. Watch the top third of the rod, is it flexing easily long before the rest of the rod starts to bend? If it does the rod is a tip action. Does it require a real heave to make the whole rod bend long after the tip has been pulled around beyond 90 degrees to the butt? If it does it is a tip action rod.
Look at another rod. Never mind the test curve at this stage we will deal with that next. Do the same thing again. If the rod flexes relatively easily up to the joint on a two piece, and needs a bit more of a heave to make it bend to the butt, the rod is a medium action.
Look at another, God they will be getting fed up with you by now! If again the tip is held and the rod starts to flex immediately all the way to the butt, it is a through action rod. We are not evaluating sheer power here; we are trying to ascertain the action.
There is an enormous amount that I could write about blanks and action but as I said from the start, this will be a resumee not a work of science. I have deliberately not gone into the types of carbon available nor have I written about many of the highly technical facets of making carbon fibre. This will involve the examination of molecular structure etc. and do you really want to know anyway? Will it help you choose the right rod, I think not!
Next time I will write about "test curves"