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Re: Translucent rods
Post 15 Jan 2022, 13:12 • #26 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/23/19
Posts: 371
Location: North Central Oregon


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 15 Jan 2022, 18:01 • #27 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/19/14
Posts: 3924
Location: USA - Illinois
Beautiful x3 !!! I think the correct marketing terminology is "glowstick", or is it "glow stick" :lol


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Jan 2022, 23:29 • #28 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/19/08
Posts: 1218
Location: Branson, Missouri
Orvis rods can do it too... using a strong flashlight... backlit -
The fiberglass material weave pattern allows only so much light to penetrate.
This one a Heddon era rod I believe.





I understand the translucence here is being manipulated by me - this is not live via the sun,
this exceptional condition late 1940's Granger Glass can glow a little as well...



The light really shines thru the S glass here too...



White bass rod...



The luminosity is striking - isn't it ?





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Re: Translucent rods
Post 01 Feb 2022, 19:02 • #29 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/09/05
Posts: 2524
Location: US-CO
Of course, as mentioned by a few above, there are always those mystic Fenwick-XX "Glowsticks" we see advertised (and way overpriced) on the auction site. ;-)


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 08 Apr 2022, 06:07 • #30 
New Member
Joined: 03/16/22
Posts: 21
Great looking rod!!


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 13 Apr 2022, 18:24 • #31 
Master Guide
Joined: 12/11/20
Posts: 378
Location: Dallas, TX
Fun thread, and it goes back 11 years! Interesting to note how many great rods are translucent now. Certainly a trend has built. Here is my Graywolf Blue Halo 6wt in action during last year’s white bass run (yes I caught a crappie too).

I think I could post a photo a day for a week and not run out of beautiful translucent fly rods.


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 13 Apr 2022, 19:51 • #32 
Guide
Joined: 04/18/20
Posts: 169
Location: Far Western 'burbs of Chicago
There is probably some sort of evolutionary hard wiring in us that loves the glow of the campfire that these translucent fly rods touch in our souls...it's hopeless why fight it?
:lol


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 14 Apr 2022, 07:44 • #33 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/10/09
Posts: 1651
Location: US-OH
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that there is a difference in the vintage translucent rods and many of those produced more recently. Most translucent vintage rods had some kind of clear coat over the glass that had some color to it. In other words, the color tint was in the glass itself. Many modern glass rods with translucent colors are done by overcoating with a tinted translucent paint. Many shades can be achieved this way - some very pretty, others less so. The drawback of the tinted overcoat is that if it chips, it reveals whatever color the base glass is and is virtually impossible to touch up or match. This becomes a big issue if major repairs need to be done because removal of guide wraps often leads to total loss of the color layer where the wraps were. If that happens a total stripping of the blank might be necessary.


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 14 Apr 2022, 10:06 • #34 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Well, you can't argue taste, but I wouldn't call it a trend. Much more a short-term fad relative to fiberglass rods, and the easily damaged finish coats of some today are more superficial, both in appearance and duration. Some of these colors look good on a rod rack, in a studio photo, or even on the stream, but they won't look better decades later as many of the classic translucent rods do


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Apr 2022, 06:51 • #35 
Master Guide
Joined: 12/11/20
Posts: 378
Location: Dallas, TX
Paramount51,

STELLAR shots of some gorgeous rods. Here’s a few shots of me with fish caught on another of my favorite translucent rods: the William Harms collaboration with Bill McFarland 7’2” 4wt.



It’s a unique and beautiful rod that fishes more like fine cane. As Bill said in his interview with TFM: “Mike's reputation in custom glass rods is second to none, and his willingness to design special projects is unique. I receive the blanks ferrules, but rough and without a finish. Using my own dye and varnish system, I create a translucent effect that highlights the glass weave. The rods are set off with an agate stripping guide, black snake guides and translucent silks wraps and tipping.

The rods are dyed a rich butterscotch color. The final coat of this finish is tough and heavily fortified with UV absorbers and filters, thus protecting against epoxy and color degradation.”


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Apr 2022, 11:12 • #36 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/23/19
Posts: 371
Location: North Central Oregon
Thanks DaveS,

Beautiful McFarland and nice fish too.

Bruce


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Apr 2022, 15:06 • #37 
Master Guide
Joined: 06/07/12
Posts: 865
Location: US-CA
Redington is featuring the translucent yellow color of their latest Buttersticks as a selling point...


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Apr 2022, 18:03 • #38 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
Somewhere on this forum is a post by a guy that worked for Fenwick & Sage (IIRC) and he said they tried lots of ways to get rid of the translucence, too easy to see minor flaws.


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 17 Apr 2022, 20:31 • #39 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/16/05
Posts: 2537
Location: Georgia
Since I wasn’t doing anything, a search produced this:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37755&p=122891&hilit=Translucent#p122891


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 18 Apr 2022, 08:08 • #40 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Thanks for searching out Trev's tip. Cosmetic trends come and go with consumer tastes. There are some slightly different finish processes today, some of necessity of small volume makers, but the range of opaque to translucent is as perennial as the flowers just peeking through the soil around here.

Be the weave, see the weave, show the weave, hide the weave--mostly marketing decisions once the technology enables any of them. As an analogy, take the performance automaker who decides whether to fit a car with an oil pressure gauge, which lets you "see" one condition of the "weave"/engine. If they do, people compare, notice small variations that may be well within tolerance, ask questions, complain, or praise depending on what they see. Or they wonder. Leave out the gauge and fit an idiot light. The vehicle runs just as well, so that may be the smarter sales/marketing decision, eliminating the apprehensions the gauge can cause. But after a few years, everyone wants a new performance vehicle with an oil pressure gauge, maybe because it looks cool in the gauge cluster, maybe because they want to look at it, or even know what to look for in reading it. Previous models with and without the oil pressure gauge run as well as ever, unless the owner never changed or checked the oil (put the rod away wet). Looking at the gauge too much, or looking for it, doesn't help either owner drive the car.


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 19 Apr 2022, 18:09 • #41 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/30/07
Posts: 2342
Location: Arlington, TX
nice


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 30 Jul 2022, 11:57 • #42 
Master Guide
Joined: 03/18/12
Posts: 461
Location: Troy Grove, IL.
CrustyBugger wrote:
Shakespeare glass Wonderods/WondOrods came in a number of different colors. I remember a Shakespeare WondOrod that was a beautiful Winston-like green. I can't remember whether it was translucent or not but it seems like it might have been slightly translucent.

yes they were at least slightly translucent......


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 30 Jul 2022, 12:35 • #43 
Master Guide
Joined: 07/21/21
Posts: 447
Location: Florida
Does rodmaker still have his shop? I found a Wades Rod Company but it is in Massachusetts? Had an FF80 and FG 837 out on the water today and besides being excellent rods they are translucent pieces of art. Just beautiful.


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Re: Translucent rods
Post 01 Aug 2022, 06:11 • #44 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/24/11
Posts: 1144
Location: Belgium
Some of the late Hardy Fibalite Perfections (mid 80's) were translucent. I suspect they switched from phenolic to epoxy matrix at some point. These are very rare rods.

Have also seen some ABU rods from the seventies built on translucent blanks.


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