I don’t know what I think of a rod that has a rough texture where they didn’t coat the blank with epoxy to smooth it out. I assume this is some kind of spiral wrap on the blank that they’re just leaving exposed. Last year I bought one of the last of the old green Bass Pro Shops Fish Eagle rods over the newer blue and gray model because the old one was smooth and the new one was not. Now a year later I bought a Crappie Maxx rod for panfishing and didn’t realize until after I got it home that about 2’ of the blank right in the middle has this rough texture. The handle end and the tip are smooth. It looks to me like this would rough up the line. Why do manufacturers do this? 

Another rod yall might be more familiar with that has almost the entire blank made this way is the 13 Fishing Defy Black. I really like that rod but I don’t know if I can get used to that textured blank or not. Besides possibly being rough on the line it also seems like it would be harder to keep clean.

When rod blanks are laid up, they are first sheets of graphite and sheets of scrim that are alternated in some way.  The sheets are wrapped around a mandrel (think a carpet wrapped around a cardboard tube).  Much like carpet wrapped around a tube, rod blanks are then wrapped with a ‘plastic’ wrap that spirals up the blank.  After the blank is baked, the plastic wrap is taken off leaving the spiral ridges you see on the blank.  In the past it was common to sand that down and apply a lacquer coating similar to a thin urethane coating.  Then manufacturers started sanding them down and not applying anything, leaving a matte black blank. Now they just aren’t sanding them at all to save a step in the process (and associated cost).

 

My preference is a sanded and uncoated or matte coated blank.  But, if the rod does what I want then I don’t much care.

I like the look and feel of an unsanded raw blank.  The catch is that raw blanks are vulnerable to scratches and dings without any coating to protect the blank.  

Coatings can be omitted for a couple reasons.  Leaving the blank raw will save a little bit of time, money and weight. 

The texture of the raw blank isn't going to damage line if they contact each other.   

The traditional lay-up that gives you enough epoxy resin to have a sanded finish more than doubles the weight compared to the latest rods using carbon cloth, helical fiber layers and nano-resins - even the scrim wrap is structural carbon tape.  Epoxy only adds weight to the structure.  

Even the new rods will have extra sanded epoxy in the grip areas so you grab smooth.  That extra epoxy weight is a balance bonus, also making the bulk rod tip feel lighter.  

So it sounds like I should learn to like the unfinished rods, cause I do love a light weight rod. It does seem that sanding the blank would reduce weight further though, if only minimally. Also the Fish Eagle rod I have that is fully finished is not heavy at all. Very light in hand. I remember comparing it to the newer version but I wasn’t looking for weight differences, I assumed both rods were identical except in appearance and given a choice I wanted the smooth finished rod. It’s also difficult to tell much about weight and balance in the store with the multiple tags and cardboard papers stapled around a rod blank. Since I was recently shopping for a crappie rod and wanted a very light rod, I ripped all that off in the store before I bought it to see how it felt. Somehow I missed that this rod has a section of blank left unfinished though. Have to say it doesn’t bother me too bad since I had already decided I really like this rod. By the time I noticed it, it was too late for it to be a dealbreaker. 

The smooth glossy finishes used on rods is not epoxy, as others have said, but is a very thin coat of a paint which likely  is a lot like automotive paint.  It is so thin that I doubt if one could detect a difference in performance due to it, but theoretically its weight will slow the recovery from deflection speed.  It does not affect power or action.  If you really want to see the difference in numbers, take a sanded blank and check its True Natural Frequency, then send it to a pro rod painter and have it painted.  Then recheck it.  TNF is easy to check with an Android device like a Kindle or cell phone.  If one were to actually use epoxy to coat an entire rod, unless it was a heavy duty rod like a boat rod or similar, it would significantly affect its performance, making it feel sloppy and not crisp.  

 

Similarly, the sanding off of the processing ridges should theoretically speed the recovery from deflection speed since it will make the blank a little lighter.  Again, can one detect it?  I don't know. I refuse to build rods that still have the ridges on them-they complicate the wrapping process for me.  Many build them without issues, but I prefer not to deal with them.

If urethane is used for covering labels and markings toward the rod butt, it's still a 2-part crosslinking resin (ala Emron).  

This is sanded, polished epoxy

If I dug for it, could show you several rods where the scrim fiber makes a pattern on the surface, where the scrim wrap was sanded-through.  

Fisher used to sell un-sanded blanks as Fisher "Natural"

Part of what made Harnell rods famous, John Harrington added carbon black to his epoxy which also added modulus to the resin itself, increasing bulk modulus over the glass prepreg.  

I have several rods like this (ALX) and personally like them. I thought the reason was to reduce weight? But I guess I’m not sure. They don’t stay as nice or clean as a shiny finish rod, but no concern to me.

its a product of the manufacturing process.  They wrap the blank blank before curing it.  You can see it done in the video at 5:29.  They sand it off afterwards but it became a trend to leave the textured appearance on the blank in the 2010s. 

 

The 1st rods I remember doing it were the 1st gen Orochi xx rods.  They had a cool appearance and texture where a portion of the carbon wrap was under a thick epoxy that gave it an ocean deep appearance then went to a super thin epoxy after a thread work transition that let you feel the carbon wrap and see it raised off the blank and finally, the rest of the rod blank was finished in that unfinished scrim wrap textured.  It really seemed to work with that rod and was kind of a new thing to do at the time.  I don't know why modern rods still do it other than it became an acceptable trend and as a cost saving feature rod manufacturers will continue to do it until told otherwise.

 

https://www.tackletour.com/previewmegabassorochixx.html

 

You can kind of see the textured carbon wrap treatment on the gen 1 xx rods in this pic.  It worked with the unsanded blank treatment or may have even been the reason for it.

its all good.  i have both, and sitting at my work desk i couldnt tell you which one is treated how.  i do know my Kaden is rough, since it was my first with that "feel".

 

never thought about the reasoning.