...and tomorrow I will break 60 more.

In an effort to most closely portray what various types of breaks caused by fisherman abuse/misuse actually look like, I've spent the better part of the day breaking 1st quality rod blanks and recording the breakages on video and in photographs. The results will be published in the Volume 12 #6 issue of RodMaker due out in December. The idea is to better enable rod builders to spot the cause of various type breaks. This knowledge helps when dealing with customers who bring back a rod, damaged or broken and who are adamant that their rod simply snapped when they set the hook on a 10 inch bass (that can happen, and we'll show you how and why).

There are always telltale signs leading to what actually caused a rod to break. The article will explain and show what each looks like - surface fractures, high-sticking, limit failures, crush fracture breaks, impact, etc., etc., etc. They all look different.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2009 03:55PM by Tom Kirkman.

Good idea! I am sure all the fellows will be interested in the results.

I bet your stress level is low right now Tom, like breaking glass bottles, there is something calming about it.

Actually, I found it unnerving to purposely break good rod blanks. But in the interest of science...

A couple of months back one builder misindentified a shear break caused by a fracture as a “load limit failure.” It dawned on me that most rod builders might not have any idea what the different breakages actually looked like and that if they had that knowledge, they would be better able to deal with customers to who return a broken rod to them.

Because you rarely have the opportunity to do this sort of thing, we’re taking some other measurements as well - load, angles, on spine, on straightest axis, etc. The article will deal with providing rod builders a photographic reference for various types of breaks, but we’ll compile and have the other data on hand for future articles.

There is an article in the online library here about proper use of fishing rods and what causes rod failures - I think the upcoming article on how to identify various types of breakage will be a good companion to that one in helping builders educate their customers on how to get the best service out of any fishing rod.


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You just won a free beer at the upcoming ICRBE ...

This is the kind of information that ALL of us can benefit from. I have spent years trying my best NOT to see breakages ... so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to have reviewable material available when in doubt.

Make That TWO Free Beers!

By any chance does the article touch on things one might do (as a builder) to make a rod more rugged? I have never broke any but I have never had high end ones. Daughter will be done with college before too long so that may change. I'd hate to break a big dollar fly rod blank because the fly's hook nicked the blank when something as simple as a coat of permagloss would have prevented such an incident.

Perhaps I have gotten the wrong impression but it seems as one moves up the ladder (in blanks) breakage is more likely. Somewhat backwards to most products!

In the interest of Science , you just won another one !!
What a wealth of information this will be. To my knowledge this has never been done before and publicized. This information cataloged will be worth it's weight in golden rod blanks. Like Jim, I have spent a lot of time and done everything I can trying NOT to see broken blanks. I cringe at the thought of purposely breaking 120 perfectly good rod blanks.
Rod builders that don't subscribe to Rod Maker Magazine have no Idea what they are missing.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY

Can you get set up for multiple preorders via internet (Pay Pal) of this issue in advance - I would like 10!

Something I would like to know is whether or not a rod that is very heavily flexed but not fractured or impacted is actually harmed by an extreme flex. I wonder about rods that are pushed past their limits but do not break. Do they come back weaker and more prone to failure after a really really really extreme flex?

what you doing with the leftovers? I need some splicing material... ha ha ha

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Rob,

Without getting into a vast amount of detail I'll just say that it's possible but not extremely likely. Rod flex is a deformation of the structure. Within a certain range, that deformation is "elastic." This means that within that range of deformation, once the load is removed the structure will return to its original state. Beyond the elastic limit, however, and before you reach the point of actual failure, is a plastic range where the structure and/or material are changed/damaged and when the load is removed the structure does not return completely to its original state. It's not exactly broken, but it has been damaged.

Where most graphite rod blanks are concerned, the elastic range is pretty broad while the plastic range is pretty narrow. With most rod blanks it's a gnat's distance between the elastic limit and complete failure. It's not impossible, but you'd be hard pressed to damage/change a graphite blank with a single deep flex.You'll either remain within the elastic limit or quickly jump beyond and suffer complete failure.

There is another area which you might be referring to and that regards fatigue. All materials and related structures will weaken each time they endure a normal stress cycle - flex in this case. Generally, a graphite rod will endure hundreds of thousands of such "cycles" before it fatigues to the point where it will fail, or even be noticeably weaker to the human user. A deep flex causes more fatigue than a shallow flex, but as long as that flex remains within the elastic range you haven't actually changed the molecular make up of anything and thus there is no practical damage done.


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Alex,

In fact, I have already had 3 builders ask me for some scrap pieces. I have plenty. I won't be able to ship them around but I may bring a trash can full of the scraps to the Expo and interested parties can take what they want. I wasn't planning on throwing them out - I figured somebody can use them for something.


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Tom, Were each of the breaks done at oposeing extreame tempetures?

The scrap could be made into reamers. Could one assume that most of the breakage occurred near the tip?

No, fishermen don't fish at extreme temperatures as far as the rods are concerned. Nothing from 0F to 100F is extreme to a fishing rod and will not affect the breakage scenarios we duplicated.

We didn't break these to see where they would break, why or how - we already know all that.

The intent is to give rod builders a photographic reference of what various type breaks look like. When a fisherman comes to you with a broken rod you should be able to tell him why it broke. Most builders can't do that because they don't recognize the telltale signs left behind when a rod breaks. The purpose of the article is to help you identify the different types of failures and their related causes.


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Few of us have the money or the means to start breaking a bunch of rod blanks so this is going to be very helpful for a lot of us. As it is now, when a customer returns a broken rod to me I have to take his word for how the rod broke. I would have no idea how to look at the break and tell what might have caused it to break.

I thought this was very good [www.rodbuilding.org]

Not exactly showing the breaks but good info on how to keep from breaking a rod in the first place!

Another builder stopped by today while I was busting some multi-piece fly rod blanks. I thought he was going to cry as each one met its end. "You're not going to save even a few?" No, they all volunteered and each one knew what they were getting into when they signed on for this.

The purpose of breaking so many is so that the photograph we show will be entirely representative of that particular type of break. I would never just pop a single blank and then pretend that particular break is a perfect representative sample for that type of abuse or misuse. But if we break 10 blanks due to the same cause, and each break looks about the same, then we have obtained a good sample for the photographic evidence.


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Wow. All I can say is....thanks! That information will be invaluable. I would pay for several copies of the research and results in leaflet form were it to be available. Otherwise I'll throw my name in the hat for extra copies of that issue.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2009 12:14AM by Ron Asker.

I have made arrangements for 24 additional copies. I intend to use this Proof Source to change my present "Three Strike and You Are Out" warranty policy to "One and Done". The price of my rods to a first time customer was just increased to include the cost of a Rodmaker Magazine!