This is not an optical illusion. There are three blanks in this picture. The one in the middle is our experiment with Musou Black - a paint that absorbs 99.4% of visible light.
Alex our CEO came across this paint mentioned in an art gallery. It’s sold in Japan, and after importing it, he enlisted the help of his friend, Ivan H. After a few trial and error runs, an airbrush did the trick! The result? Something that looks like a rift in the time/space continuum. Un-natural almost. Up close, it looks just like on the picture - like a void, a deep dark shadow, with some velvet like overtones. Coming to a blank soon? Who knows...many of our experiments are dead ends - but oh are they enjoyable!



Thanks for reading!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2022 06:23PM by Aleks Maslov.

I'll take two!! Looks like vantablack. Hope this actually becomes available.

Whoa! Art Bell would say the shadow people are now fishing...

Cool stuff.

I like it!

That's dark, man. Really dark. I'd pursue this one if I were you.

I love the Musou black...that with some color shift pearls is something to see...stunning.

Want one of those!

Stunning! I understand this paint rubs off quite easily. Were your guys able to figure out a way to protect the finish while preserving the paint's properties? Innovations like these keeps rod building interesting - keep it up guys.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2022 01:54PM by Daniel Grundvig.

Gotta agree with the others ..... that is major league cool. Guide wraps would pop on that blank. Interested to see what the answer to Daniel's question about the durability of the paint.

Definitely something I'd be interested in if it were offered in a blank of my liking.

The rod would be great with black guides and matt black thread along with a black carbon grip and reel seat.

Talk about stealth!!

As Henry Ford said, the item is available in any color as long as it is black.

Not need to ruin the stealth look of the rod by putting anything except black on the rod blank.

Best wishes.

Last year I tried to wrap a black rod with black guides with black size A thread. I couldn't get the thread not to overlap. The rod looks good in dark green with no CP.

Wow!! That's amazing. If it's naturally a gloss finish, this comment isn't relevant, but if you find the paint to be compatible with Perma Gloss, that would do a good job of protecting it.

Tyler - its "supposedly" darker than Vantablack...but I do have the latter on order to compare :)

Tyler Reinert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll take two!! Looks like vantablack. Hope this
> actually becomes available.

Jordan,

We are waiting on a few compounds to arrive to see if we can toughen it up a bit...but doing a forum wide "name this series" may not be a bad idea if it works out. There is definitely a lot of interest just from the one forum post/social media post.

So far some of the runner up are "void" "the expanse" "shadow cast" and "stealth"

Best Regards,
Aleks

Jordan Smith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Whoa! Art Bell would say the shadow people are
> now fishing...
>
> Cool stuff.

Thanks Tom! Me too!


Thomas Kaufmann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I like it!

Thank you...we will see where this R&D rabbit hole takes us :-)

Fred Zimmermann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's dark, man. Really dark. I'd pursue this one
> if I were you.

Thanks Daniel!

Yes, we are experimenting with a number of hardeners now...off to the lab for a salinity test next couple of weeks.

Best Regards,
Aleks


Daniel Grundvig Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Stunning! I understand this paint rubs off quite
> easily. Were your guys able to figure out a way
> to protect the finish while preserving the paint's
> properties? Innovations like these keeps rod
> building interesting - keep it up guys.

Good Idea!


Chris Catignani Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love the Musou black...that with some color
> shift pearls is something to see...stunning.

David,

It is not durable right out of the can...but we have dealt with that before and know what to add (at least from prior experience) we will see how the properties are retained after the addition of hardeners...and of course share any updates.

Best Regards,
Aleks

David Baylor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gotta agree with the others ..... that is major
> league cool. Guide wraps would pop on that blank.
> Interested to see what the answer to Daniel's
> question about the durability of the paint.
>
> Definitely something I'd be interested in if it
> were offered in a blank of my liking.

Roger,

"Stealth" is my favorite name for this blank so far...I'm letting you know right off the bat that if we decide to go with it...NO ROYALTIES... LOL...kidding kidding...in all honesty that name is probably taken by someone some years ago...

Best Regards,
Alex


roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The rod would be great with black guides and matt
> black thread along with a black carbon grip and
> reel seat.
>
> Talk about stealth!!
>
> As Henry Ford said, the item is available in any
> color as long as it is black.
>
> Not need to ruin the stealth look of the rod by
> putting anything except black on the rod blank.
>
> Best wishes.