Fred, I think the rings that you describe as being filled were actually bleached. I had some like that, they looked incredible, nice and light coloured, I hand picked a bunch of nice rings. When I turned them, the light exterior quickly disappeared to reveal an average grade of cork with much darker colour. The bleaching seems to give them an overall attractive look until you sand them.

Like Tom, I've never seen a filled ring either. But bleaching is another story.

Mark Janeck
Custom Rods, Campbellville, Ontario

Most commercially made rods employed filled cork. Most rod companies buy preformed handles - they don't have time to shape and sand their own.

If you look at the face of any cork ring, you can get a pretty good idea of what the cork will like when worked. Sure, you can always uncover a flaw that isn't where you thought it was or that might be a little different than what you expected, but generally the clarity of the ring face will tell you a great deal about the quality of the cork.

One thing that should be remembered, is that most cork (even that sold decades ago) has blemishes. That's the nature of cork. The perfect blemish free cork ring is and has always been a rarity. I've been buying cork rings for 25 years and although I tend to believe that the very best today is maybe a tad less than it was 25 years ago, I haven't found the overall level of quality to have dropped very much. The price has definitely gone up but at least some of that has to do with the tariff on cork switching from weight to number of pieces. This happened back in the early to mid-1990's.

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Bleaching is done for two reasons - after the cork is stripped (it's bark and comes off the tree curled) it's soaked to help flatten it. Bleaching not only makes it appear nicer for the buyers, but tends to remove any of the fungus or mold that would otherwise be left from the soaking operation and could then ruin the cork.

Nearly all cork gets the bleach treatment to some extent. Slight bleaching leaves the cork sort of a reddish/tan color. Subsequent bleaching leaves it closer to white/tan or cream colored.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2005 11:55AM by Tom Kirkman.

You are a wealth of information Tom, Thanks.

Mark Janeck
Custom Rods, Campbellville, Ontario

Mark,

You wrote for any other type of rod, I would agree, however, fly rods are held to a very different standard. Fly rods are supposed to be pretty.

I guess you are going to have to explain to this old rod builder why I would hold a fly rod to a different standard than I would a popping rod, spin rod, casting rod, flipping rod, surf rod, stand up rod, and so on and so on and so on. To have any credibility in the rod building world you had better set the same high standard for any rod that you might build.

I'll be waiting patiently for your reply.

Later,
Gerald Mc

Mark,
The thing that sets a fly rod apart (in some minds) is that many fly anglers are more bound by "name", tradition and elitism that makes them willing to overpay for rods. I doubt that it costs any more to build a Winston than it does a "generic' but certain companies invest large sums to create that image so people will line up to give them their money. I don't claim to know much about fly rods but judging from what I see on this board, there are a lot of "lesser known" blanks that a equal to or better than any of those high end ones, at a fraction of the price.

I don't want to be the one to break the news to you, but wander through the photo page and compare the number of "pretty" fly rods to the "other" non-challenging ones (I don't know what you mean by "pretty" ) And yes, there a plenty of walleye, bass, crappie and whatever other species (even Carp) anglers that are more than willing to spend top dollar for a top quality rod!

I (and probably most who visit this board) would disagree strongly that a fly rod is, or should be, held to a higher standard than a quality perch rod.

A true craftsman would hold them ALL to a high standard!!! I think that you have done a disservice to every builder that visits this (or any) site by implying that somehow, what you do should be held to a "higher standard" than what the rest of us do. Can you spell "Elitist"

Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2005 08:43PM by Mike Barkley.

I think the point is that most fly fishermen expect, or think, that fly rods are superior in many ways. They have been brainwashed by the companies that created these images Mike speaks of, but that ends up affecting how they view rod builders.

I believe if you read Mark's post more closely, you'll see that this is what he's talking about. A rod builder who builds fly rods has a tougher market in some regards - he's not going up against Berkely or Falcon, he's going up against Sage, Winston, etc. As builders, we know that much of these companies' reputations were bought by marketing and advertising, but the custom fly rod builder is still having to compete with that "premium" image. In many ways, it's tougher to sell a fly rod than any other type rod. This is the reason why.

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"A true craftsman would hold them ALL to a high standard!!!"

amen brother mike, exactly what i've been thinking throughout this entire thread.

eric
fresno, ca.

I have to second that, Mike; fly fishing is compared to other fishing much as shooting a traditional bow is compared to a compound bow. And yes, some of those tradional bow hunters get a bit uppity about it, too. Other than that, I don't see two hoots in a holler difference, personally, if a fish is caught on a fly rod or a spin rod and a deer is harvested with a traditional bow or a compound bow. Result is the same, a person with a wide grin on their face!!

Putter
Williston, ND

Tom, the filler I speak of is real. You can remove it with a sharp instrument. Deep caverns in a brand new ring are well concealed by it. Obviously, it is not put there by hand. I suspect it is applied by a automated method of some sort. Deception is clearly the intent and I'm not saying the supplier is responsible for the application/prep of these rings. It probably is applied by the producer. After all, its the European way.... Do I need to send you one sir?