dave,

I have a real good friend of mine ( Don ) here that is a Sage dealer and a fly rod builder and he uses whatever blanks his customers request. He is a Certified Casting Instructor and when I got the 5wt from David at rivertraditions, I took it to Don and asked him to evaluate it. He took it outside in his lawn and stripped a lot of line off the reel and made about 4 false casts and let it go and he cast the entire fly line. He really gave the rod a good work out and looked it over good. He said it was a good casting blank and one of the best roll casting rods he has ever cast. Like you, he said he would love to know what blank that rod is built on because it has a brownish color to it and he has never seen that blank in all the years he has been casting and building rods. I don't know if David knows what blank was used or not. All I know is that it is a good casting rod and is a fast action rod. If I hear what blank was used, I will post it here.