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Action vs. Flex and Modulus

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And I'm not talking about the basement as I sit in front of the tyin bench.

 

Many people confuse the words flex, action, among a few other names in terms of describing a rod. I think I should try to explain some of the differences in these terms.

 

Action-Fast, Slow, mod-fast, moderate..... all ways of desribing the loading characteristics of a rod. This term basically means the rods ability to load, and better yet unload from being loaded fully. Basically the damping ability of the rod from a vibration. There is NO industry standard for action naming, so a Fast action rod from one company can and guarrantee will be an X-tra Fast action from another.

 

Flex- Basically how the rod handles while under loading. Is the majority of the energy stored in the tip, through the middle area of the blank or down to the handle. This leads to the tip flex, mid flex, and full flex.

 

Modulus- This has got to be the most confusing, and often misunderstood areas of a rod. 43 Million Modulus, 48 Mill. Modulus, IM6, IM7, IM8, High modulus..... all industry standards in the graphite fabric that the rod is made out of. Heres some of the standards:

Standard Modulus 33 Million Modulus (Many manufacturers)

IM6 40 Million (Hercules)

IM7 42 Million (Hercules)

XIM8 45 Million (Hercules)

T1000 42 Million (Amoco)

Now, this almost doesn't mean much to a rods quality, action, or anything for that matter. Once the cloth is set up on a scrim with resin for a blank, the modulus lowers, and depending on the mixture, resin used, and wall thickness have more to deal with the action of the outcoming rod.

 

The more expensive rods usually use a mid-higher modulus, thin walls, and a resin that allows the blank to unload quickly. The combination and thin walls combination leads to inherent brittleness (i think thats a word) and thus the snapping of the tips when clipping tree branches, brush, etc. Or i see a lot of broken rods from people that chuck n duck when they hit the tip of their rod with the weight they are using and it shatters....

 

 

Ok, hope this helps more than confuses..... I just had to get this out of my head, i've been going round and round with people talking abuot this. Just had to get it out of my dang head. Just thinking about this makes me look like this blink.gif

 

steve

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