Carpenter product questions!

[Mark Harris]

Hi Tak

Not so much a question but some constructive feedback which I hope makes its way back to Konishi-san.

Recently Carpenter have been building GT rods with exposed female ferrule tips. Is there actually a reason for this?

I ask as it is not especially nice aesthetically, but much more importantly it does leave the female ferrule prone to getting damaged if the butt section is knocked or dropped onto a hard surface. This happened to me recently with a brand new MH80H. The first fish on the rod, and a split opened up in the exposed top of the female ferrule. I believe that this was because the exposed female ferrule got a knock somewhere in transit and the split was not visible until the pressure of a fish opened it up.

This was quite easily fixed by a rod builder in couple of days, and at the same time I had a new EVA foregrip fitted to completely cover the female ferrule. I have now done the same on my only other Carpenter rod with an exposed female ferrule (a CV7940). Other older Carpenter rods with a full length foregrip did not (potentially) suffer from this.

As others will attest, I am a Carpenter junkie  , and this is not a complaint in any way.  I do though hope the feedback reaches Konishi-san.

[Brandon Khoo]

Mark, if I understand what you are saying, what you are effectively referring to is that the EVA does not extend fully over the butt section and that about an inch of tip is left exposed which Carpenter binds with thread and overlays with epoxy.

If this is what you are referring to, can I say, this is how Carpenter rods have been built for years. All custom rods are built this way and previously, nearly all RDX models came out this way as well. If you go back far enough, there was a time where the standard factory models came out this way too.

[Darren Cook]

I agree with Brandon and aren't Fisherman built the same way?

[Mark Harris]

Yep Brandon that is what I mean.

I have never owned a Carpenter custom rod so can't comment on that. But until recently, none of the Carpenter factory rods I have bought had that relatively fragile area exposed.  Now, at least some of the factory rods seem to come standard that way (for example looking recently at MH80H, DJMH83, EP82/38 and a couple of Blue Chasers, although the new MH79H seems to have the old style foregrip which fully covers the female ferrule.). 

I cannot think why it is desirable to have that part of the rod exposed rather than protected behind a cushioning layer of EVA? Certainly my experience with the split MH80H would back that up, and I know of one other similar occurrence.

[Brandon Khoo]

Mark, I can only say that Carpenter rods have been built that way for a very long time and I can't see that changing. Until you mentioned it, I have never thought of it that way nor have I ever had a problem in all the years I have used them but I do take your point that if you are unfortunate enough to take a knock at the wrong angle, you could damage the female ferrule.

[Mark Harris]

That's interesting, as the point of my post was that the exposed ferrule was a recent development, so I was really suggesting that the way Carpenter had been building their factory rods for the past several years (i.e fully covering the female ferrule) was better.

But if Konishi-san has always built his custom rods that way, then as you say, I guess there is little chance of the factory rods going back to the older style.

In the meantime, after my experience with MH80H, I will immediately change the EVA foregrip on any new Carpenter I buy with an exposed ferrule.

I must stress again that this was in no way intended as a complaint; rather, a constructive observation that what seemed to be a recent change was perhaps not for the better.

[Jay Burgess]

Hi Mark, all my Carpenter factory models are built this way (with the exception of MH79XH) so it's not just a recent developement. As Brandon says, Carpenter has been building their rods like this for a long time and that's not exclusive to the custom models.

[Mark Harris]

Thanks for the feedback Jay.

It might just be me then!  My older Carpenter rods all have the full length fore grip and the two newer ones came with exposed female ferrules.

[Christoffer Hansen]

Hey guys,
                Is there a reason why carpenter rods come with downlock reelseats? I personally prefer a uplocking reelseat on stickbait rods as I generally hold the rod very close to the reel.
              Cheers chris

[Brandon Khoo]

If you want an uplocking reel seat, you may have some trouble finding a specialised stickbait rod considering that Ripple and Carpenter both go with downlocking reel seats.

[Christoffer Hansen]

I have found the ripples with the uplocking reelseats. I have seen a few ripplefishers with the downlocking reelseats where the line catches the lip of the top Eva grip to the extent where it was slicing into the Eva getting caught and busting pe10 Varivas during casting. I think if a uplocking reelseat had been used this problem may have been avoided.
Do carpenter do custom reelseat orders, I'm interested in the blueschaser rods.
             Cheers chris

[Mark Harris]

Surely it is the positioning of the reel seat relative to the length of the butt section and specifically the length of the foregrip, rather than uplock or downlock, that would determine any line catch on the EVA?

Errr....... along with casting technique of course 

[Wan Izhan]

from previous topic " problems with loose ferrules"

A friend of mine had these problems with his newly accquired Carpenter MonsterHunter. 
His male joint flying out during heavy casting in Maldives. He said his new MH has loose ferrule (joint) which got space inside the joint section resulting in no grip.
Only the top section is tight. He said the female part also cracked during the incident.

So when my friend came back to KL, he customized the female ferrule with aluminium sleeve.






I wonder if this situation has ever happened to Carpenter users?
Do we need to modify the female section i.e. modified to metal ring to prevent break?
Is the epoxy binding for the rod but is not strong enough to prevent the blanks cracks?

many thanks
cheers
izhan

[Brandon Khoo]

Wan, that is a disaster! That said, I have never seen or heard of this happening before and I suspect that the rod was not properly inserted.
A tiny bit of wax on the joint would have ensured this doesn't happen. I suppose there is no reason why you couldn't customise your Carpenters with the aluminium sleeve although I wouldn't say it was necessary

[Tak Otsuka]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your feedback. I was talking to Konishi-san late last night and your feedback is with him now.

The difference between two handles is no more than cosmetic reason and as Brandon mentioned, Carpenter in-house handles have been built with this way for long time and it won't be easy to change this for a few reasons.

With standard models, there are two types of handle exist as you mentioned. Reality is Carpenter uses two factories to build their standard models and they build handles differently - one does with exposed female ferrule and the other does without - and it is depending on which factory Carpenter assigns the job. This means same model could have different type of handle on next production.

Cheers,
Tak