The manufacturing and creation of poles is a very technical process with a very delicate raw material. The higher the price of the pole generally reflects the higher quality of carbon used to create it. Higher quality materials are used to create the lightness and rigidity required to fish poles at long lengths with minimal fatigue and maximum performance. Heres how a typical pole is made: -
Most poles are made from sheets of carbon cloth. These sheets are cut out via specific templates to create the correct shape. They are then wrapped aroud steel conical mandrels and sealed with a thin cellophane tape which holds it in place. It is this tape which creates the ridges or wrap in the pole sections!
Once the carbon is sealed in place on the mandrels it goes into a specially built giant oven and is cooked at a specific temperature so as not to burn but to harden and cure the material.
When the it comes out of the oven it is cooled in a bath of cold water so that the mandrel contracts in size slightly. This makes it easier to take the carbon tube off the mandrel.
Once off the mandrel the tube will be cut to size so that it is axactly the correct size every time.
Any graphics will then be applied to the pole at this stage and the final varnish applied where necessary.
This process is repeated for every section with different sized mandrels. The investment for quality mandrels is huge as to make big batches of poles you need big batches of every size of mandrel, times that by 10 sections per pole and add it to the labour cost and the raw materials cost and you can see why some poles are so expensive!
