The post topic for today is coating. Before I explain our reason for offering “raw,” uncoated blanks, let me share two key reasons why blank manufacturers coat their blanks. The main reason manufacturers coat blanks is because customers want different finishes and colors. Anglers are a varied group, and I’ve seen them fish blue, green, [...]

It may not be sexy or exciting, but we just finished our flex and break tests on three new materials. As a result, we qualified some new materials. All three materials are sold by American companies and prepregged here in the US. The first material we qualified will be our next SM material, which should [...]

There appears to be some confusion out in the rod-building world as to where NFC blanks are made. The simple answer: the USA. If anyone were to certify U.S. made blanks like they do organic vegetables, we’d get a pretty little seal of approval. Here’s why: Our blanks are Made in USA (Pacific NW) Our [...]

I’ve always known that Gary believes that custom rod makers are responsible for most of the new developments in rod making. One day I asked him what developments he was talking about.  He paused, and then said: “Probably everything! Split-grips, rod balancing, how to spine, enclosed handles, reel seats, the graphite trigger, Robert’s wrap…” Just [...]

As some Connection readers may have already noted, the CCS Values page (look under “Pages” in the right-hand sidebar) is now live, with actual CCS data. There may be some adjustments to the data shown (for example, we may yet add or subtract columns, depending on relevancy), but the thing is live and there are [...]

Post data has been moved to the NFC Blanks Stats and CCS Values page!

It’s no secret that we are huge fans of CCA out here in the Pacific Northwest. Gary is a one man wrecking crew when it comes to fish policy. And although North Fork Composites isn’t up to full capacity, we’ve made the commitment to do our part. At every CCA PNW banquet, there will be [...]

As promised, we shipped our first blanks last Friday. Everyone wants to know what’s next. We’ll dribble a few things out each day this week. One of our top priorities is fly blanks and Jason has been hard at work testing and working on two-piece fly blanks. These will be offered in Next IM and [...]

While Jason will be filling this topic in with more detail going forward, we at least wanted to get a post up about why we’ve adopted the CCS (that would be Dr. Bill Hanneman’s Common Cents System) for our blanks. First, it’s a matter of consistency. By adopting the Common Cents System, we can comparison-test [...]

It’s been a long, graphite-paved road, but yesterday afternoon (Friday) we hit a pretty exciting benchmark: we shipped our first distributor blanks! The blanks that went out (with literally about two minutes to spare) were our Mag Bass series (rolled in our Next IM graphite). You can order these from Angler’s Workshop, Bingham Enterprises or [...]

Gary has been making graphite rod blanks for 35 years. To celebrate each of those years, the first 35 of each of our models produced during the current year will be commemorative editions, and will carry a special gold-ink decal (thus the oh-so-clever golden ticket reference). While we’re happy that a number of these blanks [...]