|
That guy is Rex Nelson, who come to find out is a braided line pioneer. He works for KastKing and I know him that way, but did not know the braid part. Here's a little history:
> "I used to be with a company called Western Filament...the original inventor and marketer of Tuf-Line. That was my brand – I created it, named it, trademarked it...in 1991. It was my first foray in manufacturing...but I'd been a fisherman my entire life.
> "I'd got a job with Western Filament, my first real job out of college. I used to work with a really large West Coast company at the time that was really big into monofilament fishing lines. When I was working with them they asked, 'Hey if there's anything you can think of...a fishing line that might work for saltwater'...."
> "What they were looking for was sensitivity and a small diameter. I said, 'We're working with this fiber called Spectra Fiber, which was a trademark of Honeywell.' And we actually started building some braided fishing lines for them....
> "We discovered that braided lines had a super-small diameter and low stretch, making them unbelievably sensitive. We started selling a lot of line [for saltwater], and a pro bass angler in TX won a Bassmaster tournament and claimed to be using our product. That's where everything started."
That angler was Randy Dearman, who won the Rayburn Invitational fishing heavy cover with that line he discovered when saltwater fishing. I was a B.A.S.S. writer at the time, and remember former B.A.S.S. Times editor Matt Vincent being super excited about getting that scoop.
3 types of braid
Even though we covered the different types of braid in part 1, here's Rex's take on it:
> "There's multiple different styles of braid out there. ...there's the super-durable tough as nails braid. Those are great and typically in the 4-carrier or 4-strand configuration. It's also known as a 1 over/1 under braid process. It adds kind of a bigger peak and valley on the crossovers...the bigger the peak and valley, the more abrasion-resistance it has.
> "The fiber bundles end up being larger, and the larger the are...the more abrasion resistance it has. [It's for things like] frog fishing, lilypad fishing, heavy grass, fishing timber and cover....
> "Then you get into more of the finesse quiet, super-smooth braids – mostly 8-carrier, or 8-strand, braids and up. You end up with the ability for the braid to be super-smooth, super-quiet through rod guides, for finesse or open water.
> "...not the best abrasion resistance. It's still good, but not as good as the standard 4-carrier braid.
> [Super-thin braids]...fewer micro-fibers in in that particular bundle of fibers...a smaller overall bundle diameter, which then gets braided into a higher carrier/strand count. So that's gonna be either an 8-carrier, and sometimes all the way up to 16 – so 8, 12 or 16.
> "It becomes what we call a micro-fiber braid. There's less of a peak and valley – it almost goes away to where it's almost completely smooth on the outside."
Coatings make the difference
> "Every one of the braided lines on the market typically use [the same type of] fiber, and those fibers can be a combination of different materials. They can be Asian, US or European-sourced material [with different brand names].
> "The difference between the fibers can dictate sometimes the overall abrasion-resistance and the performance of the fiber.
> "When you look at how the fibers are manufactured, typically it's a gel spinning process or a melt spinning process. The gel spinning process tends to be little bit higher quality process than melt spinning. ...affect fiber bundle diameter.
> "...the melt spinning process tends to have little bit bigger fiber bundle, and gel spinning tends to have a little bit smaller fiber bundle. One equates to better abrasion resistance and a little bit more strength....
> [All braids]...not much difference except for maybe the tightness of the braid...relative minor differences. The real difference is how you finish that braid...the coatings that are put on the braid.
> "Every one of the fibers are produced in a white color. So in order to get it to be [a color], you have to put color into the spinning process, which can affect other properties. Or you put it onto the line after it's been braided. The longer the coating lasts, the longer those properties are going to remain in that line....
> "One thing that would set our Hammer braids apart...we coat the raw fiber before the line is braided.... Once you braid it, it's crossed over, you bond it, so the color retention and [other properties] of that line lasts longer than post-coated braid.
> "...no one else is doing that. That's unique to our process."
Hammers are tighter
> "We typically braid our Hammer braid at a tighter PPI count...the crossovers in a braid. What the crossovers do in most cases is affect the diameter. [Tighter crossovers] also make the braid a little bit smoother, and can also increase abrasion resistance.
> "Standard braids on the market are typically 20-22 crossovers per inch. ...our Hammer braid is a minimum of 24-26 all the way up to 32 crossovers per inch. ...gives it a little more body...a little shape...a coiling effect that will actually cast off the reel a little better."
|
