SAGE FLY RODS FACTORY TOUR - 2003 

In the late fall of 2003, I was lucky enough to have a free morning while visiting relatives in the Seattle region. Being one of the larger Sage dealers does have its benefits, and my wife, father-in-law and I were able to wrangle a tour of the Sage rod production facility on Bainbridge Island, WA. They even let me take some photos of some parts of the operations.

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This "sandwich" will become racks of Sage Fly Rods. This is a stack of cut composite laminate material, labelled for the rod model and section. This will be wrapped around the forming mandrel under heat and pressure. Those with sharp eyes will see that this is the butt section for the Saltwater Series 990-4 Xi2 rods, introduced in the fall of 2003. These have been precisely trimmed and layered from huge rolls of different composite materials.

This sandwich of varied composites will be separated into the proper set of layers before rolling onto the mandrel.

The secret nerve center of the actual Sage construction facility. These metal mandrels shown in the forward bins will be used to form individual sections of fly rods. The taper of these create the individual sections of what will become a Sage fly rod. The actual taper of the mandrel determines how the section will be formed - it is critical to the final action of the rod.

Beyond this is a rack of inidividual blank sections which have been rolled and approved, labeled and ready for the next steps in the process.

 
Two ends of the forming process. (The machine "rolls" pretty quickly, and with the lighting, I couldn't get a good clean shot of it in action.) The composite laminate is tacked down precisely on one end of the material, and then rolled around the mandrel under heat and pressure using the machinerey made for Sage. The operator carefully aligns the mandrel on the edge of the laminate material, then presses the "GO" button. The entire horizontal arm comes down, putting the heated press into direct contact with the material. It then sweeps through a predetermined arc, putting tremendous pressure and heat onto the section as it gets rolled around the mandrel. At the end of the arc, the arm is released and swings back to the original postiion. And out of the "oven" pops a newly formed rod section, with the mandrel in the middle.

The formed sections are stored in a vertical rack before the first of many quality control stations. Note the gauge - it gives a constant readout of temperature and humidity so that the press operator can monitor her machine temperature during the day.

Next, the mandrel is popped out, leaving the tapered graphite composite section ready for the next steps. The unfinished sections are allowed to cool slightly before moving on.

Once cooled, the wrappin layer is peeled off and the blank is sanded smooth. This is an extremely critical step trusted to a very few employees, as removing too much of the finish can sacrifice rod strength. The technician who accomplished this step had been doing it for years.

After this step, the blanks go through another QC step. Then they go through the heat treating step. This proprietary process was OFF-LIMITS to our cameras. I guess I could've put a picture or two from the rest of our vacation....

After heat-treating (a 24-hour long process), cooling and another trip through the QC process, the rod blanks receive a color (dependiing upon their series finish) and protective coating. This is achieved by manually dipping the blank into a vat with a specialized squeegee system - the layer of epoxy must be super-thin so as not to add excess wieght. It also must be entirely even over the blank or it is failed on Quality Control. It takes a steady hand to work the blank through this step, but the results are impressive (OK, MUCH more impressive than this photo would suggest...) The coated blanks are then are hung to dry. Again, watchful eyes have passed the blanks through this process, weeding out any that don't meet the stringent requirements.

This rack is drying blanks will move next to the finishing stations.

Every one of the premium rods you see here has received a set of individual cork rings, which were then formed to the half-wells grip as shown. I was surpised to find that Sage uses the individual rings, rather than preformed grips.

I tried to get a shot of the forming, but it's in an enclosed (and heavily ventilated) room - cork flying all over the place! Still, this impressive view of aisles and aisles of top quality rods with sparkly new reel seats is one of my favorite. I wonder which ones will be ours?

After that, every Sage rod receives its label via a silkscreen process - you are looking at the silkscreen for the RPLXi series (now merely a historical remnant). I always thought this was a decal - but was corrected.

There is a tremendously tall rack of silkscreens, covering every rod model made by Sage - pretty impressive when you see the variety. But, that's why we like to support Sage - they have such a breadth of actions and sizes to offer.

There is no better way to finish a rod than at the hands of an experienced guide wrapper. The people doing this work (there were more than a half dozen stations going at full speed) had been doing this for years, and the crisp uniformity of their quality work is on every finished rod. The speed with which they were able to work is iimpressive, but the absolute precision of their craft is even more so.

After another QC check, the rods proceed to final finishing - a separate climate-controlled room for the epoxy finishing step - again, no photos allowed.

But, they did let us look through the windows, and we could see hundreds of rods rolling slowly as the epoxy hardened. Numerous technicians in clean-suits were continually checking quality under the bright lighting. After the rods have finished, they receive the final tests to make sure that they are cosmetically perfect and functionally correct. Only then do they get to take the final "march down the aisle."

Finished and checked Sage fly rods get matched to the proper color-coded cloth bags, are scanned out by serial number and matched to the appropriate warranty card, and are nearly ready to go out to the happy dealers (like us!). The final packing takes place up the street at a different facility - where the rods are matched to the proper tube and boxed for shipment to the dealer.

Even through I've seen other rod manufacturing facilities before, it is always suprising to see just how many steps it takes to make a premium fly rod. At every step of the construction, the blanks run a gauntlet of Quality Control steps - and those that don't meet th rigid and specific requirements are weeded out. The commitment to maintain such high production standards sets Sage apart - they really care about what leaves their production facility.

It's also impressive how many hands-on steps there are - this isn't really something you can leave to for the machines to work out. Despite the computers, equipment, and high-tech composites which they use, there is a sense of "feel" in the production. I suppose you could probably cut that down a bit, and maybe save some money, but the high-quality results of the Sage production really speaks for itself. It was an impressive tour!

Thanks again to Sage for putting up with our intrusion, and for taking the time to show us around the production facility and answer all of our questions!