Sage Factory Tour.

In May 2005 I had the great privilege of being invited to visit the Sage factory on Bainbridge Island near Seattle in the north west of the US in Washington state.  I was met at Seattle airport by Marc Bale, Vice President of Sage and their International marketing manager. He took it upon himself to test the mettle of this Aussie with a punishing schedule of hospitality that allowed me no time to even think about being jet lagged, it was a tactic that worked for a week or so, and by then it was too late, I was fishing in Florida and had broken through to the other side.

The inner city area of Seattle reminded me of an oversized Hobart, its a water front city on Puget Sound and although we were more than150 kilometres from the ocean it is a major port. On a clear day the city is dominated by the spectacular volcanic peak of Mount Rainier to the south east, and to the west are the rugged and still snow capped peaks of the Olympic Ranges. This is a wet and cloudy part of the world and a new arrival in Seattle might wake up one morning six months later to see this massive volcanic peak completely, and spectacularly dominating the landscape “Where did that come from!!!!’’ would be an immediate reaction. Seems its not seen all that often and I was fortunate enough to glimpse it one morning through the low mist.

Early the following morning I crossed on the ferry to Bainbridge Island, it was spring in this part of the world and it was green and lush, the harbour was glassy calm and we saw seals -  “sometimes we even see otters” said Marc. The Sage factory and HQ is an ordinary looking building set in a patch of forest right on the road, but once you step inside any ideas of “ordinary” soon disappear. The staff at Sage are amongst the friendliest group of people I’ve ever met, and
there’s a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere about the place. Most of the staff have been here for many years and I was greeted like a long lost relative.

Seattle is the world headquarters of amongst others, Microsoft, Boeing, and Starbucks. I was to learn over the next few days the importance of the Sage relationship with Boeing in the development of graphite technology, and also the importance of their relationship with the University of Washington’s Polymer chemistry laboratory where work on pushing the limits of graphite and polymer resins is under constant review. Sage also has a relationship with leading independent engineers and chemists who are also fly fishermen and combining all these sources of information and technology allows them to constantly look at rod building materials in new ways.

My visit coincided with a visit from a group of 16 guides from Sun Valley in Idaho. After an introductory talk from Sage boss Bruce Kirchener and Marc we were handed over to the production and research crew of the Sage team for a complete tour of the facility. We were divided into groups and taken completely through the factory from the
freezers where the graphite cloth is kept through to the warranty division, the only place we weren’t allowed to go was the epoxying room, simply because of the possibility of dust particles entering that sealed area, but we could look in there through windows.

That afternoon we were treated to a talk and demonstration by Jerry Siem the chief rod designer, and Steve Greist one of the boffins who works on rod design and graphite technology. They showed us a range of fascinating displays including the remnants of a rod that had been hit by lightning and we discussed freely many of the problems that need to be overcome to produce a high end graphite rod, the problems of making light weight high performance durable rods from high modulus materials. We then went about the business of casting a range of rods from a 00TXL through XP’s, TCR’s, and a bunch of others.

The following day I returned with a camera and was given unfettered access to all points of the factory but before I did that we were given some time on the Sage casting analyser that is a work in progress. Its a miniature gyroscope that fits onto the butt end of a rod, and using a single handed cast of 40 feet many aspects of your stroke are recorded and shown on a computer screen, aspects such as the acceleration and stop and rod  movement at all stages of the cast. The resulting analysis is almost immediate and I went away from there with several trouble spots of my cast to work on. Don Green, the founder of Sage, and the man who is probably the father of the modern tubular fishing rod (fibreglass and later graphite) was also on hand that day, he comes in most days even though he sold the company a few years ago to the Seattle based Joshua Green Corporation, a long established family business . His casting stroke is amongst those recorded on the analyser to give a picture of what the perfect cast should look like - it was a great honour to meet him.

The following series of images give a reasonably clear picture of the Sage production line. As with any high quality product the real detail is in the heads and in the files of the Sage team and you won’t learn any secrets looking at these pics, things like the grade of cloth and the resin mix, the cut of the cloth, baking temperatures and times and so on could never be gleaned from any image - what you will see is a staff who are very dedicated to making these fine rods and who are very proud of the products they manufacture. Sage rods are made in the US, their annual output is 60,000 and every one of them is made in this facility through the processes you will see here.  To keep up with demand the factory operates two shifts from 4am to 11pm and they still cannot build up an inventory - and nor will they ever compromise.

    

Jerry Siem is the chief rod designer for Sage. He is an immensly powerful  caster who grew up on the trout streams of the US mid west. He is a highly regarded fisherman as well and makes an 11 weight look like a twig. This casting pond is at the back of the factory and I couldn’t help but imagine some of the great casters its seen over the years, from Jerry, Lefty, Don Green, Flip Pallot, Jim Green, Steve Rajeff, Dave Whitlock, and many, many, others.

Steve Greist and Jerry use a simple but very effective rod bending device to measure the breaking point of various graphite and resin mixes. Just check out how far back that rod tip has gone! Not only that but take a look at the shape of the bend - in the very next instant it exploded. Much is learnt about cloths and resins from analysis of the resulltant shards.

 

 

 

 

 

 Steve Greist loads another length of graphite into a compression bending machine. The results are being read by a computer and are later analysed. A wide array of resins, scrims, and graphite cloth combinations can be measured for performance using these simple devices, the real skill is in analysing the results and then applying them to rod building, casting, and fishing

                                  

The casting analyser is a fascinating project being carried out by the boffins in the back shed, known at Sage as the Skunk Werks. A gyroscope fits to the butt of the rod and many aspects of the cast are recorded into a palm computer for analysis. It gives you a read out of your basic casting stroke which can be printed out (one handed and no hauling at this stage of its development). These guys were a group of guides from Idaho, their casts with the 5 weight and 40 feet of line were mostly immaculate and it was very interesting to relate the casting stroke you saw to the results shown by the analyser.

                             

Analysis of my stroke indicated much time spent in the saltwater in recent months, but an early forward drift after the stop on the backcast was immediately identified (I’m working on it). 

 Rod Factory Tour 

Laying the scrim and the graphite cloth together. The scrim ends up inside the blank it is a very fine woven glass cloth that is pre impregnated with resin to form a tacky bond to the graphite cloth which is also resin impregnated.
			Cutting the scrim/graphite cloth to length for a particular rodsection.
Cutting the sheets of cloth to an exact shape using a metal template.
			Sections of rods cut to shape before being fixed to a mandrel.
A selection of steel mandrels.
			Before the graphite cloth is affixed to the mandrel the mandrel needs to be polished so the baked graphite doesn’t adhere to it.
The straight inner edge of the cut section of cloth is ironed onto the mandrel using heat. They come away from this process looking like a flag or a sail. Each section is fitted with extra cloth pieces that later create the ferrules. A piece of coloured thread, which is visible on the inside of every Sage female ferrule as a means of identification, is also laid in.
			The rolling machine was built by Don Green many years ago. It is a sophisticated piece of equipment that moves according to the cut of the cloth because as the cloth is rolled around the mandrel its not a consistant shape, tapers can vary considerably and it is crucial that the graphite fibers are rolled parallel to each other with a perfect amount of pressure so they aren’t distorted, and that all air is excluded.
The rolled graphite and resin on the mandrel is then bound in tape to hold everything in shape.
			The rolled and taped sections are then incased in a steel mold to hold them straight during baking. This is to prevent the mandrel from buckling because it, and the graphite have different expansion rates as they’re heated in the oven. They are baked for approximately 3 hours at approximately 250 F.
Once the sections are baked the mandrels are extracted and the pattern left from the tape is very lightly ground away.
			Ferrule plugs are fitted to prevent any of the outside finishing coat getting to the inside when they’re dipped
These girls are preparing the blanks for dipping in the coating. The sections are treated with a very fine abrasive powder so the final coloured coating has a good surface to key onto. Any flaws in the blank are picked up here before the coating goes on
			This is one of the most skilled jobs in the Sage factory. A cylinder of coating material is in a pipe in the floor and the rod sections are dipped into this through a hole in a latex rubber sheet. Pulling it out must be done perfectly straight or the coating is uneven. It is done quickly and very efficiently then the hanging sections are baked to harden the finish.
Once cleared from the coating oven they are given their first full inspection where any blemishes in the finish are detected.
			Every ferrule is cut by hand and every section tested to make sure they fit perfectly with no movement between the pieces. A high speed diamond saw is used to cut the ferrules to length.
The blanks are again assessed        and each section lined up.
			The make and model number is screen printed onto each blank by hand and then its baked on before the rods move to the section where they’re assembled.
Reel seat selection
			All the cork used at Sage comes from a single family cork plantation in Portugal - its location is a secret.

The reel seats are glued on and then the cork rings are glued into place with a special flexible epoxy. Only the FLi and Launch rods use preformed cork grips, all other rods have entirely hand shaped grips.

	Each blank is marked where the guides should go and the rod wrappers have a pattern to work to
Once the guides are bound on the wrappers take them to a room with a vertical light box and using this as a background, the guides are given their finally line up before going to the epoxy room
Every rod is inspected for any blemishes once the rod is completed. Any flaws  such as a bubble in the epoxy, a speck of dust or a wayward piece of binding thread  means a rebuild.
All the rod bags are cut and sewn on the premises and the rod tubes are assembled here
	Visitors are very welcome to see where the world’s finest fly rods are made,  just ring ahead and book yourself a factory tour - it is fascinating and even worth a special detour to Seattle to see.

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