Richard, your point is well taken. How many fingernail clippings and layers of paint would it take to equal a one ounce weight added to the butt of a rod? Are we talking a difference of 10X, 100X, 1,000X? I'm guessing it's closer to 1,000X, which makes me suspect it would be about 1,000 times more productive to leave off that screw-in weight than to go through all that clipping and scrapeing. Of course, you could always pay three or four times as much for a rod blank with a weight reduction equal to that of one thorough session of paint scrapeing and fingernail clipping.

Strange thought: Even when a blank is painted, the paint is on the outside only. In terms of sensitivity, wouldn't the sensitivity remain high if the paint were only removed from where the guide foot contacts the blank?
Sensations are transmitted to the blank through the guides via the line.
If you removed the paint from under the grip and real seat, it would seem that a good deal of sensitivity could be retained, even if the blank is painted. Sensations travel through the blank, not just across the exterior surface.

Gary,
I have to respectfully dissagree. I believe that the paint would still cause at least some degree of loss in sensitivity due to the inherent mass of it. In other words a painted blank is going to be heavier vs. nonpainted.
Having said that, I still think we are talking about a matter of diminishing gains here.

Just my .02

Victor,
You are correct. Coatings are pretty dense so they drive up the mass density and that is the main affect they have on sensitivity. The density and the thickness of the coatings will vary but can be more significant than you might guess. I measured the weight of a Steelhead blank with and without a finish coating a few years ago and if my memory serves me correctly the difference was about 5%.

Some things are of no consequence. Paint is not one of them. Particularly the lighter colors which have to be applied more thickly to create an opaque coating. They run from 3% to 7% of the total blank weight which is no small difference. Paint affects a blank's performance enough that on many rods you can indeed tell the difference in the hand between a painted model and the same model in unpainted form.

Blanks are painted for one reason and one reason only - to make them pretty. Painted blanks sell better because at the end of the day, the consumer still prefers "pretty."

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

I guess I was wrong. When we are talking about a 3%-7% increase in total weight on something as light as a rod blank then we are deffinitely not talking a matter of diminishing gains. I had never tried to strip the finish off one and weigh it. I will in the near future.

I've always conjectured that paint also offers a tiny bit of protection to the bare blank when it comes to those tiny little knocks on long rods. I think they absorb a bit of shock that would go directly to the graphite fibers. Tom, do you think this is possible?

As to weight, for me personally, it is not just about sensitivity but also the pleasure of feeling a rig that just seem 'effortless'. Just played around with a rig that's 7.0 oz and one that is 7.6 oz. You would not think half a ounce makes much difference but I could really tell a difference. Both are balanced exactly the same. That lighter rig just felt a lot more 'WOW!!' when in hand.

Mo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2010 07:16PM by Mo Yang.

I want to build a 6' casting rod to fish worms with no more than 1/16oz. of weight on #15 nylon monofilament, and this rod will be used with the lightest reel of the proper size available. I want to build this rod with the lightest blank, the lightest guides, and the lightest reelseat I can buy. About how much weight should I add to the butt of this rod to make it balance?

Phil
That is something you cannot tell until you've built the rod. Even if you went with the lightest of every thing your build style ( how many wraps, how much or what type of epoxy or finish you use on your guides ECT.) would determine the final weight and therefore the amount of weight needed to balance the rod