Graphite aging

[HopperDropper]

A recent discussion with a fishing buddy prompted me to ask this question to a wider audience.

Do graphite fly rods soften with age...does the graphite break down or weaken and change the characteristics of the action?

[Mike Thomas]

Hey HopperDropper, I am not sure but I would think that a Graphite rod would not soften with age, as far as I know there is no such thing as Graphite rot or indeed any fungus or bacteria that could cause graphite to soften. However it may be that the Resin used to bind the graphite could possibly suffer from Osmosis but I have never heard of such a thing.
Osmosis usualy happens in Glass boats and is made worse by the resin used in making the boats not being dried at a high enough temperature, this is not a problem in rod making as the rods are usualy baked in an oven to cure them.
I am sure someone on this board will know for sure.
All the best.
Mike.

[Flyrodde]

I have heared that leaving graphite in hot locations (car on a hot sunny day) will weaken the resin over time. Not sure if this is true but this may be softening your resin.

[Joe Billingsley]

I have been in the golf club business for a long time and I know that graphite shafts in golf clubs do not become softer over time (or more brittle, for that matter). If left in a very hot or very cold car trunk or garage the only problem that arises is the epoxy used to attach the heads to the shafts will weaken and the heads may come off. But as far as the graphite itself, at least in golf clubs (and I would assume the two would be similar), age, heat or cold shouldn't hurt them at all.
Joe

[brhoff]

Odd you asked, I was just thinking one of my rods was starting to slow down and thought to ask the same ?

I almost can't imagine the flexing...1000's of time a day would not eventually add up...no?

[Daniel J]

I have kept one of my 7wts in the car for well....years.
Sometimes I have ended up keeping it in the car for 16 months at a time. (sometimes Unkle Sam just needs me to do something other than fish...)
It still works great. It hauls in the kinds of fish it should.
I have never had problems with the other epoxy fittings yet.

I made the rod from a blank from DanCraft.
If I get two more years out of it I'll be just darn-tootin' happy.
Please be mindful that this thing has weather'd the elements of the PHX area of the great State of AZ. Your Sate may vary.

Best of luck to ya'
Dan

[Normand]

i too have kept rods (major name brands) in a hot car in the summer for years and have seen no adverse effects in the performance of the rods. nothing has ever come unglued.

[fritz]

I purchased a fly rod blank from a New York City store where the blank was displayed in the window back in 1970. The blank was made by Shakespear. I wrote to them at the time asking if there could be some material degradation as a result of being exposed to sunlight and heat. The reply was that UV light may affect the graphite. Since that reply, perhaps the technolgy has improved to address that possiblity. I still use that rod today.

[RoyC]

Since aerospace graphite is used in rods, if hot, cold and UV causes it to fail we will should be reading about a lot of airplanes loosing their wings. But we haven't so I guess this is a stable material.

RoyC

[shorthaul]

I have noticed a "slowing down" in fiberglass (we used at least 6 of the same lamiglas blanks for gills)---it was amazing to wrap a new one up and feel how crisp they were.

The slowing down would take a year or 2 of steady use---I have to believe that graphite slows down also but at a much slower rate.

Im still using the same Fenwick graphite (and boron) spinning rods that are 30 years old after 20 years of tournament fishing and still are among the best i own even after steady throwing up to1-1/4 oz lures.

I cant say that i've ever noticed a slowdown of a graphite flyrod.