I am fairly new to the rod building trade (5 years) and have just opened my own business. My question is do every rod builder use blanks that are readily available via Merrick, Mudhole, Batson, etc? In the past I have been either building G.Loomis or IM7 blanks from cabelas but I would like to sink my heels in on one good blank brand. I hear tails that there are blank marketers out there that are of the same quality as the blanks from popular rod building stores at half the cost? Any suggestions without giving up your secrets would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

It all depends on the requirements of your customers. One company may be well versed in say, bass rod blanks, but you have to go to another company to get what you want in stand-up tuna rod blank.

It's rare that one company fills every niche, although some come close.

............

Scott,

There aren't many rod building secrets here but lots of suppliers listed on the left very willing to help with a variety of products that should meet or most likely exceed your expectations.

Dave

Take a close look at the Rainshadow blanks from Batson and the Castaways from Swampland. Excellent blanks and wont break the bank.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

I don't use only one brand of blank, but I do try to keep it down to a few. I use the Batson RX8 models for a bulk of my builds. There are a few niche blanks that i use to fit a specific need from St. Croix, Seeker, and a few others....My suggestion would be to try different brands until you get used to their charictarisics and go from there.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

Scott Melancon please us the My Profile at the top of this page and unhide your email address.

Thanks

Thanks to all. I looked into the Batson blanks and I was please with what I saw on paper. However, from a earlier email correspondence with Batson, it looks like there is a sign up fee to get wholesale pricing and there is a minimum spending for the fiscal year. I will check into it a little deeper.

How about the Lamiglas blanks? I also heard good things about these blanks but have not built any as of yet.

Thanks again,
Scott

Batson, Lamiglas, St Croix, G Loomis, Seeker, Calstar, American Tackle, Pacific Bay, etc. are MANUFACTURERS. What you need is a distributor of those lines ... Mud Hole, Custom Tackle, Anglers Workshop, Bingham, etc.

The sponsor on the left are vetted by Tom and worn out by the rest of us. You can be assured of good business practices at each one. Click on a few and see which have products you are interested in. Most, but not all, have wholesale programs that allow for discounting for qualified rod building businesses. Just have your business license, tax certificate, etc. ready to fax AND be prepared for an account "startup" application as well.

Good luck with your new business.