Anyone very looked at a Kistler rod? Saw my first one today. Do they use normal cork? The rods I saw looked like a solid piece but they had a very different feel than the cork handles I'm using. They almost felt a little spongy. Different.

They may be using a cork overlay to reduce cork with the substrait material being softer. Just a though as I have not handled one in a while

No cork on the Kistler - The cork overlay is presently on some of the high end "Faclons".

[www.rodbuilding.org]

My version - light - tough - functional - textured and "pretty too"!

Some cork and some "Sumpin Else"!

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Gon Fishn




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2007 12:51PM by Bill Stevens.

I was going to say not so fast, and ask if you were sure that the rod was a Falcon. But, I went down and checked my Falcons. They are all low end Falcons, with all but one coming from the original Silver Series, before the were upgraded to the "improved" Original Series.

My Silver series rods feature solid cork handles, as they have a few deep pits (1/4"), and no noticeable seams other than the cork rings.

The Original Series rod had seam that ran the length of the rear handle, where you could see the tape wraps coming together. I looked where some filler was coming out of the handle and picked it out. Sure enough there was a different material underneath, much like the picture.

I feel slightly taken, as I thought I was getting a product of better quality. Will I stop fishing with it? No, because I use that rod side by side with one of the older rods in the same length and action, and can tell no noticeable difference.

I did plan on wrapping on new guides, as the rods don't have enough guides, and I think I can improve their performance. Now it looks as though I may try a complete rebuild as a learning experience.

Joe

I would advise you to strip the grip and rebuild the thing with split rear grips. I do a lot of repairs in this manner and the rods come out quite nice.

I used a lot of the Falcons on charter service and at one point considered it as a top of the line product. Times and quality impact of lot of the things we all use.

Gon Fishn