Found this on the large auction site.  Light action boron casting rod.  Boron is sort of a dead evolutionary path for rod materials but not sure why.  Anyway, interesting and functional historical artifact.  If anyone can share any historical or engineering perspective, that would be much appreciated.

 

At the time, boron rods that launched were “brittle”.  I think the scrim and epoxy made them easier to break relative to the market rods. There were a lot of problems with early ones. Given that, I think the marketing killed them.  

I've always heard brittleness was the reason they quit making them as well. I had a Fenwick boron 5.5' M spinning rod in the early 90's.  I loved it for wading, chasing river smallies. Broke it trying to poke a snag loose. I've broken several rods this way. I'm not a smart man.?

9 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I've always heard brittleness was the reason they quit making them as well. I had a Fenwick boron 5.5' M spinning rod in the early 90's.  I loved it for wading, chasing river smallies. Broke it trying to poke a snag loose. I've broken several rods this way. I'm not a smart man.?

my dad and uncle each bought the same fenwick 5’6” pistol grip casting rod when they came out. My uncles shattered and splintered the top third somehow. My dad stopped using his. I fished it a little growing up but it was a broomstick.  I might ask him if he still has it and see if I can come up with a use for it. 

15 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

my dad and uncle each bought the same fenwick 5’6” pistol grip casting rod when they came out. My uncles shattered and splintered the top third somehow. My dad stopped using his. I fished it a little growing up but it was a broomstick.

[stuff deleted]

 

The interesting thing about this particular Shimano boron rod specimen is that it is light action and designed for 1/16-3/8 oz lures, which is why I picked it up.  I suppose I'll find out if it is brittle after hooking up my first decent sized fish!

That's a cool old rod QED. Enjoy. One of those little Abu's all hotrodded like @bulldog1935 has would be sweet on that thing.

@T-Billy is exactly right - the reel seat already has the right offset. 

I think it would work best on a round reel. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@T-Billy is exactly right - the reel seat already has the right offset. 

I think it would work best on a round reel. 

 

Excellent point. It's a bit weird - I have some different style Shimano colfor aluminum reel seat rods from approximately the same era and they work fine with modern low profile reels.

 

PX Type R seems a much better fit to this rod than the Lew's Custom Lite:

 

The red boron rod blanks were original Phenix blanks made in SoCal and good rods. 

Tom

I recall Ray Scott had a signature B.A.S.S. Pistol handle Casting rod that shattered mid rod and put the kibosh on boron rods.

Tom