Hi, I have been wanting to build nothing but wood handles from now on on my fishing poles. I thought if I ordered the Fuji NPS seats and the Fuji IPS seats they would be a dark kind of shiny jet black plastic. Well I received them from two different companies and it seems they are dull lite gray. Is this how all NPS and IPS seats are. I have seen the same model seats on fishing rods at retailers and they are dark shiny jet black. Is this my imagination or is this the color they have always been. Thanks and looking forward to some incite, Rich.

All the Fuji graphite seats that I have used, including the NPS are the gray you described. I always sand off any casting marks, fix any imperfections and paint them black with a few coats of a gloss spar urethane as a top coat. I have some that are 10 + years old and still look good.

Hi Doug Cox, thank you for your advise, I think I may give that a try. I already took a black sharpy and colored a hidden part of the seat, then tried to rub it all off with a towel. I think it looks better even with a sharpy, but I may have to give your method a go if the sharpy wears of to fast. Thank you for your advise. I was just expecting the color and finish that retail rods have on their Fuji seats, jet black. I did go and pull a rod out of my garage that has a IPS seat gloss jet black. At least I know now they are workable as far as getting them to look better, thanks again for your advise, Rich.