I bought a couple of rod blanks from NFC and they have parallel ridges running all the way up the blank. It is as it the blanks were not finished completely. My other blanks from then have all been smooth. Has any one else encountered this on their blanks?

Sam

What blank? Delta's and X-Ray's have the ridges. Look at the descriptions on their page.

All of the X-ray blanks are unsanded, thus showing the resin ridges resulting from the cellophane wrapping. To remove the ridges just wet sand them with 320 to 1500 grit wet/dry paper. If worried about the 320 grit start with a 800 grit. It only takes a few minutes to smooth them down. You will be mostly removing the excess epoxy resin. Or you can leave them as is.
Norm
PS - This is also true for the Deltas.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2019 01:31PM by Norman Miller.

If you check out some of the off the rack rods now, the same thing, they explain how lucky you are to now have a better, lighter, more sensitive product.

Before you sand them, check with North Fork as sanding the blank may void the warranty. There is very little margin for error on hi-performance blanks and it is not at all hard to sand into the outer fibers and weaken the blank.

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

There are some previous posts on this topic also.

The blanks are Mag Bass and Delta. What got me is my previous blanks from them have a smooth finish as have all the rest of blanks I have ever bought from other suppliers. It just seems odd to me that they come this way.

Sam

Many of the Deltas are the same blanks as their IM line but unsanded. That is why they are much cheaper, less labor cost and surely less blemished blanks. The difference in weight between sanded and unsanded is not much and supposedly the ridges increase durability but I think that is minuscule.

My 15+ year old Dan Craft Sig V 10 wt. came unsanded, it's been a great stick, wasn't any harder to wrap, or finish.

Sanding will have a noticeable impact on power as well. We pay close attention to this on POINT Blank. If you want a Medium to become a Medium sorta Light...just sand. Although I would recommend a professional.

One of the rods is a Delta (SJ-705) and the other is an IM ( MB-709), I was expecting a smooth finished rod blank and that is what threw me. Sanding is an option I guess but as others have indicated, maybe not something I really want to try if I can avoid it.

i would think the blank maker has a very good reason to not sand them much more than they do..

I lightly sanded both of the MB 736 X ray blanks that I got. And when I say lightly, I mean you can still see evidence of where some of the ridges were on the blanks. As far as sanding the blanks causing a noticeable loss in power goes ......I played with the blanks quite extensively before sanding them. Any power that may have been lost by doing the amount of sanding that I did, certainly wasn't noticeable. At least not to me.

Personally I'm very glad that I decided to sand the blanks. I never could have gotten used to the feel of the blanks as they were fresh from the factory. That and I much prefer the looks of the sanded blank as well. Just a personal preference kind of thing.

If I wanted a smooth finish on the blanks but did not want to sand them, is there a coating that I could use on the blank to smooth out the finish without doing much damage to the performance of the rod?

Adding a finish will add to the weight, and it may take a number of coats to get a smooth finish. In my opinion, the best finish would be Permagloss. All unsanded blanks I have seen have these ridges due to the cellophane wrapping process. These ridges are not graphite but rather the resin that seeps out. The resin is not very hard and sands very easily even with very fine grit paper. If you want to see what I’m talking about, gently sand the very butt end of the blank, you will notice that the residue left on the paper is of a whitish color indicating resin, carbon is grey black. It does not take much sanding to knock the ridges down, and most rod manufacturers will sand their blanks to make them smooth.
I remember when David posted about sanding his X-ray blanks. The Intrinsic power numbers he got after sanding were almost identical to the numbers I got from an unsanded blank. The slight difference we saw were well within blank to blank variability, and experimental error between the individuals doing the measuring. So sand or not to sand that is the question!
Norm

Thanks everyone for their response. I think I will try David's s suggestion with Norm's idea about sanding a small section to start and see what happens. I will attempt it very carefully. It is just a curious thing that NFC sands some blanks and not others from what they told me. Because I like the smoother look with out the hassle of having to sand the rods myself, I will stick to already sanded blanks from now on.

Sam

send it back and get what you want..you shouldn,t have to remake a rod blank and risk damaging it..

Norman, when I posted my opinion on power loss in this thread, the thread you mentioned was exactly what I was thinking about. I just checked that thread and we had a 16 gram difference in IP numbers. That's not losing much power at all.

Sam, as Norman mentioned, try sanding some of the blank yourself. When I was deciding whether to sand my blanks or not, I sanded the area that would be hidden by the rear grip. As Norman mentioned, the resin comes off very easily. In my particular case I chucked the blanks up in my power wrapper and used 320 and 400 grit sand paper. I had the blank spinning at probably around 200 - 250 RPM. It took me 30 - 40 minutes to do each blank, and I was stopping to check it frequently. As I said, you can still see evidence of where the ridges were. Some more than others. but it is smooth to the touch.

On one of the blanks I sanded I used a grey 3M scotch brite pad as a finishing touch.Basically using the 3M pad added a little sheen to the finish.

And Ben, I get what you're saying, but personally I find it fun doing those kind of things. I look at it the same as purposefully trimming a blank to change the characteristics to fit your wants, or needs. It's what custom is all about in my book.

I purchased a couple of the Deltas when they had their 65% off sale during the Holidays. I was also surprised by the ridges. I researched a couple of forums with sanding being suggested in several places. I also saw some comment that said the ridges add extra strength, which has already been reported above. I contacted one of the NFC "approved rod builders" listed on their website. He said that any rod that comes from NFC is finished and does not need sanded.

Jason, the NFC approved rod builder that you contacted is absolutely correct ..... the Delta and X ray blanks don't need to be sanded. But they can be sanded if you want to do so. For me personally, sanding the X ray blanks was a personal need. I had thoughts of sanding them before I even held one in my hand. Once I had one in hand, I knew deep down in my primal being that I wasn't going to be able to accept the blank not being smooth. I'm old school I guess.

But yeah, you don't need to sand them. But you can if you want to :o)