New carbon fiber drags from Ebay.

[Rancanfish]

I recently purchased a small number of carbon fiber drags for my regular 3 stack drag reels, on Ebay.

The outside edges looked like wet feathers after greasing the drags. I don't believe these were originals from Penn for that reason.  I don't see or feel any problems after assembly.

My question is regarding the quality of the drag material itself.  I'm assuming people are punching them out of sheets. I don't think Penn serves up drags with shredded outside edges. 

I'm not the least bit concerned but want to make sure I'm installing good drags the first time around.  Thoughts?

[Shark Hunter]

They were probably punched out with a dull punch. I have also seen them like that that have been cut on a water jet.
There is no way to tell if it is quality unless you do your own from sheet that you know is good or buy from a member here. Bryan or Dawn. If I am buying replacements, like I used to. I would only buy penn that was in the original packaging.

[Tiddlerbasher]

I echo Daron's comment about dull punches. I now punch all of my own cf (and recently Kevlar) from sheets - much cheaper than ready mades. If I see frayed edges I sharpen the punch - simples.

[FatTuna]

I say use them and abuse them to test them out. After a few weeks and a few nice fish, take them out and inspect them. Ebay is hit or miss in my opinion. I've gotten some really great deals and stuff that went right in the trash can. I usually place small orders to test stuff out before investing any time or money into a product that I'm unsure about. A lot of stuff looks better in pictures than it does in real life.

[Rancanfish]

I just made the assumption, ( I know), that carbon fiber, labelled 6-60 drags would be same-same as a Penn product. Not true.

I have some that are stiffer and some that are softer. I just need to educate myself on the different products.  Someone said 'carbon fiber' is 'carbon fiber'.

I installed 3 sets of these in (2) squidders and (1) 'UrfMaster I made from old parts.

Of course they will be a major improvement over the soggy paper drags I found in them.