06:WHY KAIZEN PLATINUM TOOK FOUR YEARS TO DEVELOP
People are often shocked, or even don’t believe us, when we mention that it took four years to develop and test these rods extensively to get them just right before they went on sale to the public.
But there is a lot more to it than meets the eye when you are designing a range of rods completely from scratch, rather than just buying a pre-made blank from another manufacturer, which will already have gone through the testing and development phase, and simply needs the fittings and finish added to it. The two processes are very different.
The most important part of this process is getting the mandrel just right, as that is what determines the overall action of the rods, and whilst the lengths and test curves vary within the Platinum range, depending on which model you choose, the same fast taper action is used for all of them, and they share the same basic attributes.
Once you have a mandrel that you are happy with and which produces the desired taper, you then need to actually manufacture some blanks using your chosen grade/type of carbon, in the form of cloth, along with a suitable resin which binds the cloth and hardens when heat is applied, and which gives you the hollow blank that the rod is built on.
That process takes a lot of time if you are experimenting with different types of carbon and playing around with the resin content – the more resin that you use the heavier the rod becomes, but that has to be balanced with not using enough, which structurally compromises the blank and can cause complete failure, with the rod ‘blowing up’ when under load. The resin is basically the binder that holds the carbon fibres together and determines how power is transferred through them and how they react when under load – including factors such as how much they might twist.
If you don’t get it just right when making the blanks, everything else is pointless as the rods will regularly fail, so this phase took a lot of time and testing to perfect, with plenty of failures along the way.
The exact type of carbon that you choose is also instrumental in how the rod performs, as that also determines power transfer, weight, rod recovery after casting, how much the blank twists when it is loaded – something that would surprise most people – and all sorts of other factors. You can read more about this in detail and see exactly why we chose the materials that have been used in these rods, as it is covered in Platinum carbon and materials explained.
We also wanted a rod that was well balanced and allowed even the average angler to compress it and achieve impressive casting distances with minimal effort, whilst also retaining plenty of feel when it comes to playing a carp, and which is where a lot of the enjoyment comes from.
It is easy to create a stiff ‘broomstick’ of a rod that can hurl heavy leads a very long way in just the right hands, but far harder to make one that is balanced and will perform well for anybody who uses it.
Whilst distance matters in carp fishing, accuracy is at least as important, and the way the blank is constructed plays a big part in that – obviously alongside the casting style of the person using the rod – and it was essential we got that just right, as our aim was to make these rods as easy as possible to use, in the hands of any angler. To find out more about how we achieved that fine balance between the two, ensuring that these rods give the real world experience you expect from them – rather than just doing so when in the hands of a tournament caster or similar – this is discussed in depth in Casting distance vs casting control.
So, a lot of effort went into getting that balance just right, and extensively testing different blanks using different members of the Korda team, who each have their own casting style and strengths, to make sure the final production model rods really were as close to Danny’s original vision as we could make them.
All of this information should be used to help you make an informed choice when it comes to choosing the perfect Kaizen carp rod for you, but ideally you should also pay a visit to your local Korda stockist to actually handle the different models yourself, and you can find your local shop using our store locator.