steel fishing rods

Question
Hi Robin I hope you can provide a clue as to the white covering that came out in the later 40s on some of the steel rods.  True Temper applied what appears to be a type of plastic over tubular steel rods.  Union Hardware had a different cover which had a white pearl like appearance.  The rod was coated with this covering with the guides already on the rod than painted red over the windings.  Gep has a bait caster with a similar pearlized finish.  It seems that these companies did these finishes as glass came on the scene.  I have contacted other Allexperts and its still a mystery.  Charlie

Answer
The best I can guess, is that when fiberglass rods started getting more popular than steel ones companies tried to "dress" up some of there steel models to try to compete with the fiberglass rods.  Heddon also made steel rods with a finish that made them look wood.  


Robin