Hi guys,
new to the forum, saw it after looking for iron glass blanks. First rods I built since arriving in Australia, first I built was a GH 6. Built about 50 GH 6 and 12 S for me and mates since and probably about 10 JS980s. They were designed as Howard said by Joe Gospel. And Wayne Hanstead who came over here in the 70s I believe and along with Ross Cusack et al., pioneered high speed jigging over here. The 12 and 6 were both rated at 12 lb or 6 kg, but had slightly different actions, they were absolutely the best 4kg rod you could build, fished 4 to the absolute limit. The blanks were made here by Butterworth and later changed to have graphite incorpororated in the butts, at least for the lighter rods. When Australian Composites started making them they modified the lighter GH 12/6 to a very/very radical taper that was rated for 6 kg, unfortunately people put heavy braid over it and broke it so they slowed it down. I have one of the originals with a Calcutta and it is my favourite rod, wish I still had some of the original GHs. Recently managed to buy two 15kg and one 8kg Butterworth blanks to build. I’ve built Sabre, US Composites, Jigging Master and a load of other “best blanks” and nothing compares in my opinion to Butterworth or Synyderglass blanks. Sorry about the long post and rant. But those blanks were a thing of beauty.
cheers,
another Howard