I love tobacco but the smoke has phenol and formaldehyde. Then again, so does a campfire and that liquid smoke stuff used for cooking. However, this post is about early tubular fiberglass fishing rods.
I thought I understood fiberglass rods but was way, way off. I was born in 1950 and as a teenager worked with fiberglass boat repair, surf boards, fish tanks, etc. Until about 1970 we just called the resin "fiberglass resin". Later it was called polyester resin to differentiate it from the new epoxy resins. I figured that making a tubular rod blank involved rolling the glass on a mandrel and coating it with polyester resin. Trouble is, this can not work. At the present moment, this is my understanding of how they were made. I'm hoping someone knowledgeable about such things will chime in and make corrections.
Rolled tubular rods were almost always impregnated with phenolic resin. Phenolic resin was one of the first plastics. Bakelite is a phenolic resin but not all phenolic resins are bakelite. Bakelite resin was usually thickened and strengthened by adding wood flour. Phenolic resin used for rods was reinforced with fiberglass strands. The technology for making fiberglass and an appropriate resin was developed in the 1930's but did not really come into practical use until the war years of the 1940's when it was used in lieu of metal to make things like plane parts and tubular antennas.
Dr. G.G. Havens developed a fiberglass and phenolic resin material he called Conolon in 1943. In 1944 he founded the National Research and Manufacturing Company (NARMCO). By 1946 the war was over and he was perfecting peacetime products like fishing rods at a facility in Corona del Mar. In 1947, NARMCO opened a full-on fishing rod production facility in Costa Mesa. By 1952, they were selling rods, blanks and fiberglass cloth pre-impregnated with phenolic resin. By 1956, they were making fishing rods for the new Garcia-Conolon company. By 1960 NARMCO was being sold and the sporting goods division was spun off to the Garcia Corporation.
But, NARMCO was only one of the rod rolling companies through the 1950's. There were a lot of trade secrets but also movement of the technicians between companies. For instance, former NARMCO employees founded Pacific Laminators Company which then became Sila-Flex before it was picked up by Browning. I believe the California Tackle Company (Cal Royal) began rolling rods in 1947 (the year their building went up) but had financial troubles within about five years and became the Sabre company. The Sabre name is now owned by Penn. Evidently, California Tackle Company was also making rods branded for other companies until and after their financial trouble. California Tackle Company people went on to form Calstar rods. Roddy was another early manufacturer of fiberglass and phenolic resin rods but Roddy was also one of the first companies to move their production offshore. Other early manufacturers were Phillipson and Heddon. By 1960, Fenwich and St. Croix were rolling fiberglass and phenolic resin rods. There were a lot of players, but also a lot of blanks being built by one company and branded by another. It is a lot to sort out.
Much of that sorting-out can be found in the book Fiberglass Fly Rods by Victor Johnson and his son. I do not have the book. Another great source of information is the Fiberglass Flyrodders forum. There you will find very learned collectors and others who were involved in the fiberglass rod industry.
The early rolled fiberglass rods were a translucent brown with the fiberglass weave showing through the resin. The brown color is inherent in phenolic resin and all the old tobacco colored rods have further darkened with age. These early brown rods with the weave showing were made with phenolic resin pre-impregnated (pre-preg) fiberglass cloth made by a NARMCO division called Hexcell. The Hexcell pre-preg cloth was originally sold as Trevano and the early rods are still called Trevano rods. The other common name is tobacco rods. But sometimes rods made with the next generation of pre-preg phenolc fiberglass are also brown and also called tobacco rods so Trevano is a more specific name. The characteristic exposed weave of the Hexell helps to identify fiberglass rods made in the late 1940's and 1950's. The weave is unidirectional with most of the fibers running longitudinally along the rod. The cross weave is minimal by comparison and there are only enough perpendicular fibers to allow the cloth to be handled. The pre-preg cloth is cut into triangular shapes (called flags). One edge is tacked to the steel mandrel so the cloth does not slip as it is being rolled. Once pre-preg is rolled onto the mandrel, the rod is wrapped in cellophane tape to squeeze out the air. It is then sanded and varnished. Once you've seen a few of these you will not mistake them for anything else.
(http://www.raingarden.us/snap/blue-conolon.jpg)I swiped this photo from somewhere and hope it's not yours.
By 1960 the manufacturers were painting the Hexcell blanks. Adding pigments to phenolic resin can only make a limited range of color (basically brown, reddish brown, dark brown and light honey brown). Painted rods can be any color but the paint is prone to chipping and scratching. It is said that the paint helped hide defects so that rejected rods could be used. I wish I knew the causes of rejection.
By the mid-1960's, there were new types of pre-preg cloth available and the original Trevano or tobacco rods were considered old fashioned. Their functionality was never disparaged, they were just old fashioned. Most of the new rods had an opaque finish that did not show the weave.
All composite resins are nasty stuff, but phenolic resin is probably the nastiest. Phenolic resin is made primarily of phenol and formaldehyde. The phenol molecule is a hexagonal ring of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Because it's a ring it is strong. Formaldehyde cross-links these rings together to form a three dimensional solid matrix. The amount of formaldehyde and temperature controls the rate of cross-linking. Thus, fiberglass pre-impregnated with phenolic resin can remain pliable until heat, more formaldehyde and/or other catalyzing agent is added.
Contact with phenol liquid or vapors will burn the skin, eyes, throat and lungs. It can damage the central nervous system, heart rhythm, lungs, liver and kidneys. But, formaldehyde is of greater concern than phenol. Again, either the liquid or vapors will burn the eyes, skin, throat and lungs and damage other organs. It is also a carcinogen. I think the biggest environmental and health concern was that heat curing the rod releases a lot of formaldehyde vapors that were vented out of the building. Use of phenolic resin has become more expensive due to the cost of compliance with air quality and worker safety regulations. For tubular rod manufacture, phenolic resin was largely replaced by less toxic epoxy resins in the early 1970's.
There were two other rod manufacturing processes that need to be mentioned. One is the Howald process, named after Dr. A.M. Howald. You can find his patent for making tubular impregnated fiberglass on line. The rods are not rolled. Basically, fibers (not cloth) are laid longitudinally on a balsa wood core or removable steel mandrel. After being impregnated, the resin and fibers are wrapped with celophane tape to squeeze out the air and make a nice finish. I do not know, but have a hunch that the process used polyester resin. The Howald process was bought by Shakespeare and used to make their Wonderod line. There are strong disagreements about whether Howald or Havens make the first tubular fiberglass fishing rods.
The final manufacturing process is for solid glass rods, again with the fibers running lengthwise. Solid glass rods were being made by at least 1948. I'm pretty sure that the solid glass rods of the 1950's and 60's used polyester resins. Maybe they still do.
-steve
Wow ! I'll need to read that again after I've slept a bit... Jeff
From top to bottom:
(http://www.raingarden.us/snap/phenolic.jpg)
1 - Stock Horrocks Ibbotson fly rod. I think this is probably second generation pre-preg
2 - Stock pre-Garcia NARMCO Conolon spinning rod. Trevano.
3 - Pre-Garcia NARMCO Conolon fly rod that was converted for baitcasting. Trevano. Langley Target reel with user modifications.
4 - California Tackle Company, Cal-Royal fly rod converted to a spinning rod. Trevano.
Late 1940's or early 1950's. DAM Quick 110. You've seen this one before.
5 - Wright McGill (Eagle Claw) fly rod converted to baitcasting. I think this is second generation pre-preg too. Note the light colored area where there used to be wrapping thread. That is closer to the original color but the exposed resin has darkened. ABU Record 2200 reel (circa 1953-1954) with Gudebrod IGFA-style green spot dacron line.
6 - Another Wright McGill fly rod converted to baitcasting. This one a Trevano. Shakespeare 1740 reel.
7 - Unmarked stock Trevano fly rod.
-steve
Thanks for posting that. I learned something interesting today and it's not even 6am yet. I love the look of that brown rod with blue wraps. Joe
Wow great info Steve thank you - Chris.
Steve,
Thanks for the write up! That was an interesting and informative read. Who else is going to dig through a few of their rods today and see what they can find??? ???
Brett
AWESOME!!! really delineates a bunch of vague notions floating around in my head
where does Fen/Lami "honey glass" come in -- is it later, lighter tobacco or just painted that distinctive deep, rich color?
also, bought a budget modern Zebco & discovered tobacco under the ugly silver paint; of course, the components are total crap, but I really love the blank... now, it makes sense -- it was probably so cheap, because Chinese manufacturers are less encumbered by safety regulations.
Same question as philaroman asked; is Fenwick's color unpainted tobacco?
Also, do cigars give off formaldehyde?
Thanks Steve.
Steve
Thanks for posting that Steve. I have some very early conolons and silaflex rods and blanks and still fish with a few. I'll see if I can get a few decent pictures of the glass.
I believe the yellow lamis are a pigment added to the resin and not painted. I've refinished a few.
I went to the seeker factory when they first opened and saw how they were made,pretty much the same process you discribed. A few more steps for the finish but the basics are the same.
Great post Steve! 8)
]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbKYRhNRbCk] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbKYRhNRbCk)
This YouTube video dealing with fiberglass rod production by Lamiglass should fill in some of the blanks on production
Early Fenwicks were translucent and you could see some of the weave. They were definitely phenolic resin but not the Hexcell/Trevano weave pattern. Something a little later. I'm not sure when the finish became opaque. Fenwick history and evolution is a story in itself. There's a book about it.
I think Lamiglass rods were pigmented resin too. My earliest recollection of seeing the bright yellow blanks was mid-60's. Too early to have been epoxy so they must have found a way to mask the brown in phenolic resin. Or maybe they removed the brown from phenolic resin. Don't know. There's a lot to learn.
There are several rod factory tour videos like the Lamiglass. Seeker, G.Loomis and probably others. All are insightful.
Tacking the pre-preg to the mandrel seems to be the most critical step. They use a hot iron to do it. I suspect that polyester resins could not be used to roll blanks because polyester resins could not be tacked to the mandrel. Perhaps the hot iron would char the resin before it would stick to the mandrel. We all know how fast polyester can "go off" once it is catalyzed but polyester can also harden without catalyst by heat curing. The catalyst is basically generating heat within the resin to make it harden/cure.
-steve
Phenolic resin is still used today. You may have some in the room with you. Notable to me are bonding abrasive belts/discs, bonding cut-off and grinding wheels and laminating plywood. The whole issue of formaldehyde fumes coming from plywood is because of the phenolic resin.
Trouble is, I can't buy some phenolic resin for love nor money. Well, maybe if more money than I have was thrown at it. It could be easier on the mainland where you can avoid the problem of sending phenol on an airplane.
Oh... and the Resourcinol waterproof wood glue that you used to use is sort of like phenolic resin. But, instead of a phenol ring structure it has a benzene ring structure cross linked by adding formaldehyde.
-steve
Great read Steve!
This is reportedly a Harnell that was custom wrapped with Fuji BNLG's and seat, cork taped grip. Not exactly sure, however it is a construction as you state. It was traded to me fifteen years ago by a kingfishing buddy, who has probably passed on now, in exchange for a Thorhammer-matched rewrap of his gold Fenwick anchor and fighting rods. Shown with it's motor.
I have some more of these rods somewhere.
aren't the fancy pens (MontBlanc, Pelikan, Pilot) similar resin?
Great information Steve.
Thanks Steve, very informative, & thanks Sid for the factory tour, I think the first silid fibre glass rods made in Australia were made by Butterworth. cheers Don
There came a time that rather than pitch the inferior quality brown natural blanks many manufacturers opted to paint them different colors. I've got an original white Shakespeare Howald and also a light, mint, green Shakespeare Howald. The light green one is clearly a less expensive model. The cork grip has cheap plastic caps on both ends rather than a regular quality cork handle. I also have an early Narmco Conlon, a mid '60s Heddon Mark I & a Heddon Mark IV fly rod and an Airex slip ring spinning rod, all which have quality brown natural finishes. Heddon's lower quality Pal lines were all painted rods. South Bend was one of the companies that pushed their painted rod lines as high quality. ??? Here's some examples, one of which is the first spinning rod I ever owned. I used it for years. Maybe the original finish was inferior so it required paint to hide that, but it really is a high quality fiberglass spinning rod.
What I have found interesting about this story for many years is how each individual engineer (represented by a company) came up with a piece of the puzzle and then the industry included that piece. Fenwick made the ferrules, Silaflex figured out that a much lighter and better handling rod could be produced by vacuum bagging (that one changed EVERYTHING), everyone wanted Cal Tackles mandrels. Of course I'm missing a few. Pick up a rod from the late 70s and you can see the child of many great minds.
Ron
Thanks for the info....very interesting !