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Old 09-19-2016, 03:46 PM
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Tom Vaught Tom Vaught is offline
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The early 59-61 forged rods have a chance to be heat treated with the right person doing it. Butler had a guy many years ago who could bring them up to the high 20s/low 30-31 range. Never to 421 SD numbers. The guy eventually passed. RIP.

The 'Rubber Rods' ~61 to 63+ vintage are softer than the cast iron rods and will waste your money even trying to heat treat them. Even the poorest Chinese rods will typically test out better than the rubber rod stuff but the rubber rods had at least minimal clean steel.

Cast rods are great, as is any "hard material" rod is, (until they fracture).

Tom V.

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