Does anyone know what the Wulff rods are impregnated with?
(Larry Tusoni) Yes they were impregnated with bakelite. (Gary Nicholson) I’m not 100% sure, but it should be bakelite. Once Orvis shared that formula with Sharpes so that Sharpes could build rods to Orvis specs, I believe when the patent expired all of the English rod companies. used it to impregnate their rods. Possibly someone from across the pond will chime in to confirm or debunk this answer. (Will Price) My best source, Overfield, says it’s “A Bakelite resin”. This would have been something like a phenol-formaldehyde impregnated under pressure, although its not impossible that it was vacuum impregnated I suppose. Crude old Bakelite was quite stiff, but quite heavy and I should take a lot of convincing that it achieved anything much more than adding weight and softening the action. The latter because it is less stiff than bamboo, so the combination will be more stiff than Bakelite but less stiff than bamboo. By no means all of the English rod companies used it, in fact Sharpes were
