Is anyone famiiliar with the new handle that St. Croix is putting on their high end rods?
They claim that it takes about 4 days for the factory to make the handles. It appears to be a one piece split grip handle that looks very very nice and very comfortable.

Roger

They do look good Roger they look like they are built up resin or something like that.

Rubbery and heavy. I do not like them.

looks like a split grip that is coated completely maybe made on the rod ??
Should not be hard to do
Shape the for and aft grips
Glue on the blank
put it on a lath and sand ( Nice) A couple of coats of Whatever Sand and finish coat
Could probably paint with different colors and then cleared

Bill - willierods.com

with carbon sleeve and foam we can imitate it..
just add few layer coat of black doff paint spray on it ;)

Looks like the shape is very good ergonomically for the casting rod. The bulb behind the reel on spinning rods is purely styling, in my opinion. I really don't like the looks of either, and if they are in fact heavy, I see no sense at all for them. The tapered St Croix casting grips of the past were very good ergonomically, and weren't ugly. Just a personal opinion on the style.

I suspect that the reason that St. Croix as other rod manufacturers are doing similar things is the real difficulty in obtaining a quality cork.
In recent years, I have looked at some cork handles on some very high end commercial rods and I would be ashamed to have them on any of my custom rods.

Again, just getting really tough to get quality cork at a reasonable price for a nice rod.

Sure you can buy good cork if you want to pay $5 per ring. But if the rod sells for $250 - the builder doesn't want to burn up potential profit by spending $100 on cork for a handle.

By the same time, the builder also does not want to burn up $100 in labor to build a synthetic handle.

Roger

It's a poly foam under a heat shrink urethane covering. They have a unique way to install the heat shrink as installing the heat shrink on the foam core will cause distortion. They actually install the foam on the rod install the heat shrink and put the rod back in the oven to shrink the urethane covering to size with out distortion.

where can i see pictures of these "handles"?

Ridge,
On the St Croix rods catalog pages:

[stcroixrods.com]

Roger

Ick!

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane

I am trying to look at them to see if I like them or not ???

Bill - willierods.com

They have had a similar handle on their Rage series for a while now. It is pretty nice the urethane is pretty soft and grippy, but the rigid foam underneath gives a better feel than soft EVA foam in my opinion. It should be very durable

To my eyes, they are not very appealing. Maybe my stylings tend toward the more classic lines. That just seems like marketing-driven product differentiation gone bad.

"product differentiation gone bad."

When I got done laughing my head off, you sent me to the dictionary on that one... Well, if they are trying to stick out and be different I give em an A+.... Personally, I wouldn't want to be caught dead with that thing in my trunk.

Chuck

Out of curiosity - for all of the folks who have negative comments about the handle, have any of you actually held one of these rods in your hand to see how it feels?


Just because the handle looks like something different from what we normally see or build does not necessarily make it bad or uncomfortable - only different.

Change happens because someone is willing to try something different.

Roger

it would look a lot nicer in cork and a thread wrap in the middle of it

Don't you think ??

Bill - willierods.com

Bill,
You never know unless you try it.

Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

As the quality of cork goes down the tubes, we as rod builders need to be innovative and come up with other solutions for handles and grips.

Be safe
Roger

Roger, I've toured the St Croix factory and I've held the rods. I like the bait caster and it feels as good if not better than cork, I'm not sure of the spinning rod, but I think that's a cosmetic issue.

The handles on the new Legend Xtremes are not the same ones that are on the much lower priced Rage rods. I recently ordered a Legend Tournament Bass rod; they were on a long backorder, so the dealer upgraded me (for the same price) to the same model in the Xtreme. I sent it back. The handle is hard; it has no give when you squeeze it. I'm not saying that's bad; i'm saying i didn't like it. I much prefer cork.