Are you a tackle tart?

[Philip]

Fair enough. Out of interest, whats your (or anyones) opinion on the Hexagraph blanks ?

Did/do they offer a real advantage over a classic shaped bank or is it just marketing hype. At the very least they are trying to be different even if they are nicking an old cane idea.

 

[binka]

Out of interest, whats your (or anyones) opinion on the Hexagraph blanks ?

Did/do they offer a real advantage over a classic shaped bank or is it just marketing hype.

I've read the blurb about conventional carbon blanks 'ovalling' under load and why Hexagraphs supposedly maintain their shape but I'm not overly convinced if I'm honest.

I'm even less convinced that I would ever be able to tell the difference but it won't stop me lusting after a full armour of cane Hexagraphs

 

[barbelboi]

I've never used one but, as we know, they're only made by B & W and here's what they have to say...............

 

[sam vimes]

Out of interest, whats your (or anyones) opinion on the Hexagraph blanks ?

Did/do they offer a real advantage over a classic shaped bank or is it just marketing hype.

I've never laid eyes on one, let alone used one, so couldn't really comment. A Hexagraph is something I wouldn't mind trying, but they fall into the category of too expensive to just take a blind punt on. I can understand that the hexagonal construction may have some mechanical advantages over tubular construction. However, it's got to be a very expensive way of building a rod.I wouldn't write them off without trying them, and I know some love them, but I can't help thinking that there must be some concession to style.

One area of offshoot development I would have liked to have seen developed was Shimanos oval blanks. They only made three match rod range incarnations with oval blanks, Aerocast, Aerocast AX and an Alan Scotthorne special editions. If they were basically the same blanks with different cosmetics wouldn't be a big shock though. However, I have quite a few of these rods and the concept worked and was rather interesting. The downside was that they were relatively weighty. If they'd managed to trim the weight a little, and persuade a few more to try them, they may have had a real winner.

 

[tigger]

The market simply wouldn't bear retail prices exceeding £500 by significant margins.

Obviously that's why Hardy and drennan, among other companies started to have their rods manufactured abroad, if they'd had to cover the cost of the manufacturing over heads here in the UK the marksman rods (as an example) priced at 350 notes would have been double that cost and would have resulted in next to no sales at all. Even at their rrp they didn't exaclty fly off the rod racks and some bargains where had when they where sold off at reduced prices! They do seem to be holding their prices on the second hand market at the moment and no doubt will go up in value if looked after. Some of the new ones still available have been going for the original RRP.

I was told by a seemingly well informed tackle dealer that the best carbon is only available from a company in Japan and that is who Hardy deal with. How true this is I don't know but he had no reason to lie. Mikench was with me at the time and he may remember what the chap told us better than I do.

 

[sam vimes]

I was told a similar tale by a wistful Drennan rep. On someone mentioning the original IM9 match rods, his eyes glazed and he drifted off somewhere. Eventually, he said "if we produced those today they'd have to retail at around £500". Then, with furrowed brow, "No one would buy them".

 

[Philip]

One area of offshoot development I would have liked to have seen developed was Shimanos oval blanks. They only made three match rod range incarnations with oval blanks, Aerocast, Aerocast AX and an Alan Scotthorne special editions.

I thought the issue with the oval blank was something to do with an uneven spread of load across the cross section of the blank when it was flexed & the worry it would snap so they gave up on it....something like that anyway.

All things said and done "round" does have allot going for it.

 

[tigger]

I was told a similar tale by a wistful Drennan rep. On someone mentioning the original IM9 match rods, his eyes glazed and he drifted off somewhere. Eventually, he said "if we produced those today they'd have to retail at around £500". Then, with furrowed brow, "No one would buy them".

I've just sold two minters, a 13 and 14 footer mg:.

 

[sam vimes]

I thought the issue with the oval blank was something to do with an uneven spread of load across the cross section of the blank when it was flexed & the worry it would snap so they gave up on it....something like that anyway.

I'd not previously heard any particular technical reasons for its demise. However, Shimano culled every "match" type float rod of £200 or more from its range a few years back, then Alan Scotthorne left for Drennan.

I can happily report that I have Aerocast match, feeder, and carp rods. I've not had any issues with them. Despite them being a little heavier than ideal, they are still amongst my favourites. I don't suppose that the bulk of my PBs being caught on them hurts though.

All things said and done "round" does have allot going for it.

It does, but there are negatives too. It ovals under excess load and can twist too. Alternative shapes, if developed fully, could limit such issues further. The problem being the additional expense required to solve problems that may not be big enough issues to really necessitate solving.

 

[nottskev]

That was interesting. Bruce and Walker have a 12' Hexagraph carp rod with a 29" handle. For a quick comparison, a top end 13' distance feeder rod here has a 24' handle, and a decent 12' Avon, 22", both Daiwa.

I'm wondering what Hexagraph owners do with all that handle. By my reckoning, at the price quoted, they'll have just over £105 worth of handle sticking out behind their elbow.

Throws a fresh light on the tackle tart controversies

I once owned a Bruce and Walker CTM 13a match rod. But I was fitter and stronger in those days.

 

[binka]

I'm wondering what Hexagraph owners do with all that handle. By my reckoning, at the price quoted, they'll have just over £105 worth of handle sticking out behind their elbow.

It's somewhere to hang the tweed waistcoat

 

[mikench]

I really cannot remember what the shop owner told Tigger and I about Hardy blanks save that he raved about their quality and that the chinese could not replicate it! He must have been persuasive because i bought his last one!

 

[Mark Wintle]

It does, but there are negatives too. It ovals under excess load and can twist too. Alternative shapes, if developed fully, could limit such issues further. The problem being the additional expense required to solve problems that may not be big enough issues to really necessitate solving.

One of the two rod designers that ended up local to me, Tony Fordham and Derrick Davenport, did exhaustive tests many years ago to settle whether this actually happened with fibreglass rods as there were lots of rumours about this happening. Using their test rigs and micrometers they found no evidence whatsoever of ovality in tubular fishing rods.

 

[Philip]

It does, but there are negatives too. It ovals under excess load and can twist too. Alternative shapes, if developed fully, could limit such issues further. The problem being the additional expense required to solve problems that may not be big enough issues to really necessitate solving.

I seem to recall some tests also done on Carp rods under load when casting and although all the blanks do twist the issue was not so much about how much they twisted, it was more about the recovery time of the fibres back to the straight position. The better the blank the faster the recovery. Although of course if they could eliminate twist altogether then it would become a moot point. I cant really see it myself however. If you need a rod to flex in one direction i.e bend when you hook a fish then I think your going to be hard pressed to stop it bend/twisting in other directions as well.

 

[barbelboi]

Seven years onTHESE seem to be thin on the ground.........

 

[tigger]

Circular must be the best shape for optimum strength, you only have to look at trees and plants, most of their trunks or stems are circular.
If triangular was the best shape then trees and plants would be like tobularone chocolate bars .

 

[binka]

If triangular was the best shape then trees and plants would be like tobularone chocolate bars .

 

[tigger]

Now how did I know you would come up with something like that .

 

[flightliner]

Rhubarb !!! .

 

[sam vimes]

Circular must be the best shape for optimum strength, you only have to look at trees and plants, most of their trunks or stems are circular.
If triangular was the best shape then trees and plants would be like tobularone chocolate bars .

Cylindrical is undoubtedly strong, until you want the thing to flex in a controlled way and make it tubular rather than solid. Things get a little more complicated by those demands. I'm reasonably convinced that tapered tubes will always win out. However, at least an element of why that's the case will come down to the cost/benefit of making alternatives.