What the Lines in Weihai Can Actually Build
Capability claims are easy to write and hard to verify, so this page sticks to what our partner lines do every week. Each heading below is a decision you make on a rod program — and each one has a cost, a lead time and a minimum attached to it. If you need something that is not on this page, ask; the answer is often yes, just not on this line.
Carbon Grade, Taper and How They Are Chosen
The blank is the rod. Everything else is fitted to it, and everything else can be changed later — the taper cannot.
24T–30T
Tougher, more forgiving, cheaper. The right answer for entry and mid-tier programs, heavy boat rods, and anywhere a rod is likely to be knocked about. Slightly heavier for a given power.
30T–40T
The volume sweet spot: noticeably lighter and more sensitive without becoming brittle. Most branded spinning and carp programs sit here.
40T–46T
Maximum sensitivity and the lowest weight, at the cost of impact resistance and price. Used where feel sells the rod — finesse spinning, specimen carp — and usually with a scrim or mixed layup for safety.
Taper, not just tonnage
Two rods built from identical cloth fish completely differently. Fast, moderate-fast and parabolic tapers are produced by changing the mandrel and the ply schedule, which is why we ask for a target species and a target retail price before we recommend a blank — the grade follows the price, not the other way round.
Guide Train, Reel Seat and Handle
Guide train
Single-foot, double-foot, KW anti-tangle and micro guide layouts. Rings in Alconite, SiC or Torzite on stainless or titanium frames. Guide count and spacing are set from your length and line rating, not copied from a catalogue — a badly spaced train is the most common cause of a rod that casts worse than its price suggests.
Reel seat
Screw-down seats in the patterns buyers already know (VSS, ECS, ACS, TCS and their equivalents), plus custom collars and carbon inserts. Trigger seats for baitcasting, slim profiles for carp, exposed-blank designs for finesse spinning.
Handle
Full grip, split grip or custom length. Cork (including graded and composite cork), EVA in any density and colour, or shrink tube over carbon. Shaped foregrips and butt caps made to your drawing.
Wrapping & cosmetics
Thread colour, metallic trims, decals, hydro-dip patterns, matte or gloss clear coat. Cosmetics are the cheapest way to make a rod look like your brand and the easiest thing to get wrong — we send a photo of the first wrapped blank before the run starts.
Logo Methods and Packaging
Getting your name on the rod
- Silk-screen — the default. Any colour, low tooling cost, durable under a clear coat.
- Laser engraving — permanent, no ink, works on reel seats and metal parts. Also how single custom rods are personalised.
- Hydro-dip / water transfer — full patterns and camo across the blank; higher set-up cost, better suited to longer runs.
- Decals & badges — for complex artwork and multi-colour logos that screen printing cannot hold.
How it leaves the factory
- Rod bag — cloth or non-woven, printed with your logo.
- Tube or triangular carton — sized to the closed length, printed retail artwork or plain.
- Retail box — full-colour print, barcode, hang tab, warning text in your market's language.
- Master carton — specced for container efficiency, not just to survive the trip.
Printed packaging carries its own minimum because the printer does — usually 500–1,000 units for a custom printed box.
What We Check, and When You Hear About It
Nobody can promise zero defects on a hand-finished product. What we can promise is that you see the rod being built, and that a problem is our phone call to make, not yours to discover on the shelf.
Incoming
Blanks checked for straightness, weight and finish; components counted and inspected before they reach the line.
In-line
Guide alignment, wrapping tension and epoxy checked during assembly, not only at the end of it.
Pre-shipment
Photo report plus a defect-rate summary against an AQL you set. Third-party inspection welcomed and coordinated by us.
Documents
Packing list, commercial invoice, certificate of origin and any market-specific paperwork agreed up front.
Want the Capability List as a Document?
We keep a one-page capability sheet with the ranges, minimums and lead times for each process above. It is easier to forward to a colleague than a web page.