There is NO UV protection in some of these pearl rods! Meaning: color changes WILL happen, from the sun, in the white pearl for sure, that was even expected by the makers with that color. The white pearl turns grey after being in the sun a while-not good for a fishing rod. I have two tone rod handles just from yesterdays sun.The lighter pastel colors may also change, no one knows for sure! I am geting a couple small peices of various colors to lay out and test, I'll post the results later. Other guys are doing the same.

They seem to think that all the darker colors of pearl rod would be "ok" and the lighter ones may be trouble, each color can react differently and we wont know until we try them.

To add...one company is going to test some UV stabilizers in the white pearl and see how it goes. IF they get it "right" he is suspose to send me a piece with the UV to try. But this may be a while in happening!

So for all the users of Acrylic/polyester rods for rod handles, you might want to stay away from the pearl white and pastel colors.

Many of these acrylics/polyesters and such are kinda new to rod building and they all deserve the chance to correct problems that may arise from the outdoors. Most everything in the past seems to be geared to INDOOR use and there was never a problem.

I'll get back when I know more.

DR




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2007 03:59PM by Duane Richards (DR).

Jim Rippe and I also have test pieces out in the sun right now. I don't think that naming the company/product would in any way be bashing as they never made ANY claims about the product and since they were not aware of the problem as they didn't use it outdoors were as surprised as we were.. The product in question is the POLYESTER Pearl Rods from Masecraft

This is a polyester product and different from the acrylics, celluloids, etc. I'm going to be putting various products out in the sun for testing and will keep you posted as I'm sure Duane and Jim will.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Thanks for the heads up.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Here is the SAME ROD, you can see the top side that the sun see's has turned grey, the bottom is still pearl white.

DR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2007 08:26PM by Duane Richards (DR).

I just posted two photos of a test I did. Last night after I was contacted, I placed a few pieces outside so the sun would hit them. They were outside just under 24 hours. Looks like the lead from a pencil was smeared on the un-turned piece.

Jim,
Any other colors affected yet?? I have 4 c colors outside now and will check on them tomorrow

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Jim,would this be the same material as the handle in Rodmaker???

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

I have some out also....we'll see how it goes.

My guess? is that ALL the colors will change, the darker the product, the less you'll notice the change, the lighter, the more drastic. I'll have a purple one out on the river all day tomorrow with a blue bird day in store....I hope it stays semi purple! LOL Like I told Jim in an email, I figure that the darker colors will just loose their "prettyness" and sheen that they once had.

DR

Fred, it sure is. This rod turned out so pretty it may never see the light of day. LOL. This is disappointing but I will figure something out. Mike, I only put out what I had. White and black pearl. No affect on the black pearl so far.

Thanks for the scoop, DR, but bummer on your grips. That was a sweet looking setup. The material really looks kind of cool after the sun hit it, but is @#$%& that your overall theme doesn't flow now. But with such a drastic change after just one outing, I'm more concerned with the material itself. Do you think it is a color change only, or do you think the material is actually deteriorating?

I'd be interested to know what you guys find out with this. Every so often while it's out in the weather, maybe do a "hardness" test to see if it is flaking or turning powdery, something like that? I've seen some nylon based material do this, where after exposure to sunlight, it quickly turned into something that could be "sanded" with fingertips. Hopefully it is only a color problem.

I looked at your pics. It's really too bad the handles changed so much, would have never thought anything could change that fast. Thanks for posting though... definitely won't try it myself anytime soon.

Holy Mackrel Andy!!!........Thanks for the heads up...I have several inserts partly turned of various colors. Guess they won't be put on any rods until we figure out how to UV protect this stuff. Wonder if a clearcoat w/ UV inhibitors would work. RP

Roger,

Are your inserts turned from the Masecraft polyester rods??? This problem is only encountered with them.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Mike...The partially turned inserts are from the 7/8 square stock from Craft Supplies. I have some stock from Masercraft that I haven't played with yet. EVERYTHING is out on the patio table getting a good dose of sunlight... I'll let you know what happens...Rodge

I've been using the 7/8" stock that you have for a couple years. No problems so far. Different material! It's only been a day and a half but so far the on;y color that I have out that has been affected is the White Pearl rod from Masecraft

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

DR that's to bad about the grips they looked great and to have something like that happen to it after one day is a shame. Thanks for the heads up though Mark.

Thanks for posting that DR, that was very thoughtful. You may have just saved a bunch of builders a lot of anguish.

I just posted another photo of a new test I did. It's not perfect but it's looking better.

Thats what this board if for guys, ALL OF US TO LEARN from one another, you are MOST welcome. I'm just glad it was my personal rod and not someone elses, ya know? I love the acrylic/polyester and there's no way I'm gonna stop using it, but I WILL test each acrylic/poly and let the sun do what it wants to do before it ever hits a rod blank.

My rod cant be saved, I hope Jim can save his as time pass's and we try and get this thing figured out.

I took my rod out again today and the grips are nearly BLACK now. I'm going to prop it out in the sun reel side UP and try and get both sides even and I may change my marbling on the split, forgrip and guides to make the overall rod more appealing. It hasn't harmed the CTS blank, so it can be saved :-)



DR

Man, what a bummer. If it's only the white pearl, hopefully they can come up with a solution. Those grips really popped, and it @#$%& that the colour scheme is broken up. However, from the pics, it now looks like black pearl, which also looks cool.