How it's Made | TFO Conventional Rods

get ready to work halfway around the world temple Fork Outfitters offers a behind-closed-doors look and how their gear gets made for the outdoors people are passionate about outdoor equipment get this Americans spend more than twenty billion dollars a year on year as no one ever really sees how their stuff gets me oh that's where we come in each week we throw open the factory door and give you a behind-the-scenes look and how your favorite gear is made made for the outdoors fishing draws me to faraway places [Music] South Korea's Seoul and Incheon area sits one of the world's five biggest population centers just look around here technology and manufacturing would even so people remain tied to the sea fishing shapes work wage and hobby exactly why we've come to the home of Temple fork Outfitters fishing rods a shop run by Byung Jin M affectionately known to us is BJ that is awesome my hobby it is his work too he is the best as a wonderful a wonderful person and one of the most gifted rod engineers on the face of the earth I mean he's he's that good we could not be what we are without him there's no way Jim Schulman should know he helps run temple fork Outfitters a texas-based fishing rod company home to some of the biggest names in both the fly-fishing and conventional rod business this machine can replicate that Jim agreed to travel to Korea and help us better understand PFOS rod building process the magic starts workers call this the rolling room and here raw stock carbon fiber lines the walls a material called carbon fiber prepreg meaning carbon fiber with the binding resin already in it three times a week it's coming in boom boom boom you know it's like eat warm donuts every day mr. Kim rolls the prepreg onto his cutting desk he marked each sheep for each specific rod model based on exact measurements in that master design book of his a book full of secrets so if I'm counting right he just marked out 12 pieces so I think that would be 12 rods lays out his guide get some just right and cuts everything is so exact am I wrong to think there's merit in doing it this way do you like to find the mate Italian shotguns they're all handmade once he gets these cuts you can see how they're stacked up over here workers label and name each stack how many 50 men do you know judo city girl 3 ah yes the mandrel missus stainless steel that is machined down to look how to find the tips on those things that's like pencil in a hair mine these steel rods create the exact sort of genetic code of each rod the point is these are the essence of each individual rods unless these are exact the rods won't be right workers start by cleaning and polishing mandrels hot out of the oven then mr. Kim takes over the action actually helps the resin evenly cover the entire man cracking the whip this is the process where the patterns join the mando mr. bond and mr. Kim now aligned and joined the carbon fiber pattern flags to the mandrels this work takes very steady hands they were on a small heating iron over the fabric it melts the resin and locks a carbon fiber to the mando I'm being serious up next temple forks rod building process really gets rolling and later rod building gives me the willies made for the outdoors is brought to you by apple dorrance resort suzuki marine action track chairs mountain dew and by central boiler [Music] tucked away in South Korea's biggest manufacturing district a modest facility home to fishing rods a shop where sixteen dedicated craftsmen and women build on temple fork outfitters fishing legacy with the carbon fiber cut and attach to the mandrel the rod building process now rolls on it literally takes a couple of seconds to turn a sheet of fabric into what looks like a fishing rod a worker loads different diameter tapes for certain rod models there's definitely some secrecy to this time step an exact lair tape covers that entire blank so that when they cook it or cure it the rod stays exactly round they say the taping is just taping there's something about this machine that's secret it's just typing bill okay that's as much as we're gonna get out of Jim as soon as the mystery tape goes on the rods they go in the other Mr Kim hangs each man every blank in the place gets cooked for 90 minutes but again here's the problem more secrets all they'll tell us is 90 minutes the temperature curve that's a secret and what happens in here another secret what you're essentially doing is you're bringing these resins up to a melting point so they all bind together and instead of layers it now becomes one solid piece it's another of engineer BJ's closely-guarded TFO rod secrets so big secret ninety minutes later the rods come out of the oven properly cured problem is the hot rod blank grips the mandrel hydraulic arm quickly pulls and pops each blank off each mandolin and like that they pop out and they are complete and mr. Kim grabs those still hot manuals and retreats each and the process starts all over again meanwhile the warm blanks sit and cool for about 30 minutes then the toughest job in the place let me tell you yes there is a job in here I can do somebody's got pull all that tape off of every single round believe it or not that's one this work goes faster by hand versus some machine at least for the folks who actually know what they're doing where did everybody go the production team heads out the door and around the corner together your friend yeah me that's why BJ's employees all break as one group and eat lunch on his tab every day they gathered one big family to him and he he feels responsible for him after food all chips sort of go on the table break means Korean chess what locals called Chang ji this intense lunchtime tradition almost always ends with the winner up next team TFO cups Rob's two sides and I try and finally dig a few rod building secrets out of TF oh yeah let's cats out of the bag get it back in [Laughter] made for the outdoors is brought to you by topper easy lift banks outdoors game fair by the yard outdoor furniture and by ice castle fish houses BJM nose fishing like few other South Koreans is my job and my hobby he also knows fishing rods exactly why BJ runs temple Fork Outfitters South Korean production facility following BJ's engineering process and the vision of PFOS rod designers workers produce fishing rods with the conventional rod blanks now rolled wrapped and baked even BJ gets his hands dirty well sorta they happen to have BJ helps mr. chard grind down each fully cured Rock this takes weight off the rods and smooths them up I don't know if you can hear that for the vibration makes the rod sort of thing it's like they're excited to move on to the next step until they meet this guy mr. Chow proprietor of PFOS essential torture tests I know that's totally normal for a rod but it just gives me the willies every time I see it mr. Chow bends and flexes every single rock to make sure each can handle just about any abuse future anglers might inflict that is nothing more than quality control just making sure they are ready to go if the rod passes his test it's on to this guy it goes to the pace mr. Li preps the paint booth the sky's the limit on colors he pushes the rod through a rubber squeegee tips the paint pan back and then draws the rod back I don't know what it is but the color just brings them to life a very simple but effective coloring system when you start to see the magic happen that's exactly what it is they're coming to life so pretty I can sit and watch this all day although I might overheat you see hot air swirls over the rods in the booth they're brought up to a temperature that that paint cures there's not as much mad science in that part of it though nope hot air equals tough paint simple enough right then mr. Cho gets his paws on the rods again with the slightly gentler approach you might even say silky well silk-screened see he centers each rod and then rolls on the company logo then checks to make sure each lines up just right the rods sit for a bit on the drying racks and are now ready to leave the production facility let me explain look at this this giant machine it's called a coating machine and it's it's quiet because BJ had sort of a larger plan which takes us across town to BJ's buddy's shop he's friends with these people and part of the community he wants to give them the business and keep them and their families you know happy and healthy and working five workers rap guides on to each Tempah Fork Outfitters rod blank watch this first she lines up the threat then drops the guide on and quickly spins the thread to hold the guide in place pedal power helps control the spin it's a pretty simple process but it's a very important process the guide spacing everything straight and alignment BJ's friend then double checks every single rod [Music] only then does it go into the coding machine much like the one back in BJ's shop now we wait these rods will twist away an hour to while the epoxy cures and dries we'll let that happen and get back to the work in just a few seconds made for the outdoors is brought to you by Magnum Research select Minnesota GMC dealers ours machining incorporated and by Minnesota horse and hunt club even South Korea's nail-biting traffic won't stop Temple fork Outfitters from getting fishing rods to market after the guide wraps drive the rods get trucked well actually card back to Temple for Outfitters main shop only now can the crew get a grip mr. June who happens to be BJ's nephew whips up a batch of epoxy to join the cork grips to the blanks he mixes in a little mystery ingredient that material is actually Emery Potter it's the same stuff used in fingernail files and sandpaper and they add it to the epoxy because when those real seats go on and that epoxy dries the stuff just gets locked together forever first mr. June glues a spacer inside the cork he then passes grips over to mr. King who actually joins a handle to each rod blank he twists on the cork and makes sure it is centered perfectly with the guides once the epoxy dries the rods are now ready well actually not quite yet each first gets a stamp of approval from the team then one last quality control look see anything they might see gets a little red dot like this one it's a part that they'll either go back and fix and make right again otherwise goes into the garbage can if the rod passes that final inspection the finishers attach labels package rod and a wrapper and stack for shipment to Texas a 12-hour flight war and fishing terms about five million seven foot rods away from Korea this place temple Fork Outfitters world headquarters centered right here in Fort Worth Texas USA hello I'm Danny yep Danny Gregor the guy who oversees TFO shipping shipping department there you go Danny and his team pick impact rod orders all day long and an hour of each of us will pull about 10 quarters [Music] that's it rinse and repeat and just like laughs James and Cleveland your orders ready to go along with the rest of them temple Fork Outfitters legacy rods that are beautiful to the eye and feather-light in the hand crafted by a very special group of people [Music] it's a surprise no question about that that's fun the fun part is when you get people sharing their experiences using our product out there to field some that's the real reward

Channel: TempleForkOutfitters

Views: 86,594

Rating: 4.783309 out of 5

Keywords: tfo, tfo rods, temple fork outfitters, temple fork, power to the angler, how it's made, how fishing rods are made, fishing rods, made for the outdoors, fly fishing, bass fishing, conventional fishing

Id: w5JCDs6NnK8

Length: 20min 57sec (1257 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2018