I read this over on Tackle Tour:

Link below,

Loomis Leaves Blank Making

Later,

No BIG Deal!

I never received a first quality blank from them anyway, always had a dogleg in them..

It will only help St.Croix®, and Batson®........

I hate to see that for a few reasons. Mainly that we've been using the IMX blanks for the Soldier rods.

No BIG Deal!

...lol   this only stands to help your rod business.  

I like St. Croix, Batson and several other just fine, but as much as anything, I like having blank choices... and this limits them some.

My own experience with Loomis blanks has been very good. (no crooked blanks yet)

The bright side is that they said they will keep producing through the end of 09' so anyone that wants them should be able to stock up.

The bright side is that they said they will keep producing through the end of 09' so anyone that wants them should be able to stock up.

I don't know about "stocking up".  G Loomis has only been producing minimal quantities of rods/blanks for the last 6 months.  They were having serious QA issues that they are trying to work through.

I guess you'd have to define stocking up...   I was meaning for individuals...  to me stocking up would be buying maybe 4-6 blanks for future builds.  

This has only been coming now for a couple of years, I first heard about it from my blank distributor (Bingham Ent.) in late 07...

No BIG Deal!

...lol   this only stands to help your rod business.  

Believe me flechero, it is no big deal.. and will not hurt or help my "rod" business one bit, or, IMPO the custom rod industry at all..The same way when All Star quit building blanks for the custom rod industry....

The only blank manufacturer that was really missed was Shikäri (out of Kelly OK), when Loomis' brother and friends bought the company and then couldn't build the blanks the same way the original company did, lost their share of the rod building market and the whole thing went under..

There are more and better blank manufacturers out there, this will not hurt anyone's business...

Tight Lines All!!!  

I only meant that your rod business, since you build on mostly (only?) St. Croix blanks, stands to p/u a few extra people since the loomis option will be no longer available.

Any market change for customs will be VERY minor. (although I've built a few for people that wouldn't considered anything other blank)

Nope not really, the guys it will hurt are the ones here (in my area) that are members of the Guild, those builders were Loomis pushers for sure, they would never consider any other blank either.  

My tourney anglers weren't interested in the name of a blank, as much as a rod that was built to their specs, that would hold up to abusive tourney fishing, and fit the cash stash in the wallet...

But that was back when I was building, now I build mostly for me when I need it, get to busy with reels to push rods

Tight Lines!!!!  

This has only been coming now for a couple of years, I first heard about it from my blank distributor (Bingham Ent.) in late 07...

No BIG Deal!

...lol this only stands to help your rod business.

Believe me flechero, it is no big deal.. and will not hurt or help my "rod" business one bit, or, IMPO the custom rod industry at all..The same way when All Star quit building blanks for the custom rod industry....

The only blank manufacturer that was really missed was Shikäri (out of Kelly OK), when Loomis' brother and friends bought the company and then couldn't build the blanks the same way the original company did, lost their share of the rod building market and the whole thing went under..

There are more and better blank manufacturers out there, this will not hurt anyone's business...

Tight Lines All!!!

Contrary, it will hurt George Roth's, one of the more recongnized and respected builders.  He almost exclusively uses Loomis blanks.  There aren't a lot of blanks out their with a pure carbon scrim.  Croix LE, Batson RX8+, Loomis IMX, Loomis GLX, and ?.  Those are the only ones I know of.

What about the warranty on their blanks people have or ones people may acquire further down the road?  Are they just out of luck and end up having a $400 custom broken rod?

Later,

What about the warranty on their blanks people have or ones people may acquire further down the road? Are they just out of luck and end up having a $400 custom broken rod?

Later,

Well, I could guess but I'm not sure about how one goes about claiming a warranty on a blank made into a custom rod. Do you send your broken custom rod in? Do you strip it down to the blank and send it? Maybe Loomis will just give you a factory rod for replacement. Regardless; Loomis invented the 'no-hassle' lifetime warranty, and I can't imagine they would do you wrong.

Most of griping about Loomis on Rodbuilding.org isn't questioning Loomis's place in the blank market or the quality of their product, but rather the fact the custom rod builders feel 'betrayed' by a company that started out selling only blanks. No sweat though....I'm sure a company will soon build a blank that will surprass the GLX and finally eclipse Loomis's 20yr old graphite technology .

Contrary, it will hurt George Roth's, one of the more recongnized and respected builders. He almost exclusively uses Loomis blanks. There aren't a lot of blanks out their with a pure carbon scrim. Croix LE, Batson RX8+, Loomis IMX, Loomis GLX, and ?. Those are the only ones I know of.

How will it hurt him? If he's well known for his building skill, they will still come for that alone. He won't be the only one without Loomis blanks. When they are gone they are gone for everyone. If the guy is really good, he'll be good with whatever blank his client chooses and they will come to him because of his skill....right?

It'd be a different deal if selective ethics were employed and "some" could no longer get the blanks, but when everybody gets shut out then nobody loses more than any other.

Contrary, it will hurt George Roth's, one of the more recongnized and respected builders. He almost exclusively uses Loomis blanks. There aren't a lot of blanks out their with a pure carbon scrim. Croix LE, Batson RX8+, Loomis IMX, Loomis GLX, and ?. Those are the only ones I know of.

How will it hurt him? If he's well known for his building skill, they will still come for that alone. He won't be the only one without Loomis blanks. When they are gone they are gone for everyone. If the guy is really good, he'll be good with whatever blank his client chooses and they will come to him because of his skill....right?

It'd be a different deal if selective ethics were employed and "some" could no longer get the blanks, but when everybody gets shut out then nobody loses more than any other.

I see your point. I guess he will only lose the factory Loomis users that end up wanting a custom rod made with their favorite blank.  

This falls into the "live and learn" category.

About fifty years ago, I bought a custom rod, from a local tackle shop in Fall River.

The tackle shop was Buckos, and one of the brothers who is now in his 80s still goes to work every day.  Good shop, prices as good as they get, good service and good advice.

It was that way in the 1950s and 60s, and is so today.

The rod was built on a Harnell blank by Charlie Murat.  Charlie was a striper fisherman and rod builder of note in RI.

His shop was just off 146 in the shadow of a drive-in theater.  I believe it was in Smithfield or No. Smithfield.

Harnell had the rep of being among the best rods in that era, among the locals I spoke with.

Shortly after I bought it, the tip broke while fighting a fish, right at the tip eye.

Brought it to Buckos, and no big deal, they replaced the tip with a better one.  No charge.

It broke again.  Back to Buckos.  Apparently there was a flaw in the blank.  Send it to Harnell via Railway Express.  Two or three weeks later, a new blank along with the hardware from the old rod was delivered to me.

Off to Murat.  Charlie was a man of impeccable reputation, but he wanted to examine the original blank.  I understand his reasoning.  Perhaps I had damaged the rod in some way, and that would void the warranty.

So, back to Buckos, since they sold me the rod, and had seen it.  A phone call from them to Murat (they sold a lot of his rods), resolved the problem, but necessitated another trip back to RI.  They would have gotten it to Murat, but I wanted it back in operation ASAP.

A couple of days later, and I picked up my new rod.  It cost me nothing out of pocket for the rod, and gas was under twenty cents per gallon.

The aggravation, and downtime was an entirely different matter.

That experience soured me on buying anything from a third party supplier.  

Older, and hopefully wiser, Bucko should have taken the rod from me, returned it to Harnell, who then could have dealt with Murat.

Ideally, Bucko would have had the same rod in stock.  But alas they didn't.

Fishing rods are like golf clubs.  The pros, and very low handicap golfers "fine tune" their clubs to get the feel they want.

Ninety-nine percent of golfers wouldn't be able to detect the difference, nor would those clubs shave a fraction of a stroke from their handicap.

IMO, the same is true of rods.  I probably spend more than my ability requires to catch fish.  But, if I have a problem with a rod under warranty, I am able to get a replacement anytime the vendor is open for business, usually the same day.

Roadwarrior....you better hurry up with that custom rod!  You are a good example of why this will affect the custom rod builders.

Contrary, it will hurt George Roth's, one of the more recongnized and respected builders.

Some of my favorite rods he did them using Rogue and Seeker blanks

AHHHHHHH!!! You have got to be kidding me. I only build for myself but now I'm going to have to use St. Croix. I'm gonna be doing some serious stockpiling in the next few months.  :'( :'( :'(

Well, I could guess but I'm not sure about how one goes about claiming a warranty on a blank made into a custom rod.  Do you send your broken custom rod in?  Do you strip it down to the blank and send it?  

They will still make blanks for production, the only difference will be that you can't buy a new blank... and they will still honor the warranty.  Yes, you send in the rod (or sometimes they ask you to cut out the break and just send that) and they will either send the old back with the new or send the stripped components back with the blank.  Sometime you can strip it first and just send back the stripped blank.

Each builder has a different policy on the warranty rebuild.

Maybe some new, innovative company will rise out of the muck and start off by selling blanks, just like Loomis did??