Dry or Greased Drag Washers
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Heavy Metal - Jig fishing
Forum Description: Anything related to jig fishing here
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26833
Printed Date: 25 Jul 2026 at 11:02am
Topic: Dry or Greased Drag Washers
Posted By: Benk
Subject: Dry or Greased Drag Washers
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2008 at 9:25am
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Whats the general consensus on greasing drag washers? I am about to order some new washers for my duel speedy and found that the dry washer that came standard went sticky after a while. I greased it and it smoothed right out, but I lost some top end. Any ideas on how to run a dry drag and stop the stickyness? ------------- http://www.manutere.co.nz - http://www.manutere.co.nz - Tauranga Charter Boat - Jigging - Bottom Fishing - Hapuka Fishing |
Replies:
Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2008 at 8:51pm
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Ben
I've yet to find a reel that didn't improve with the application of a very thin coating of Cals's Grease on the washers. Forget about running them dry and lube em up but lightly - just enough to leave a fingerprint. ChrisW has Cal's Grease. ------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |
Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2008 at 10:24pm
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Ben, dry drags = higher drag pressure but sticky.
Wet (greased) drags = smoother drag but lower drag pressure.
some drag materials suit being greased, others should be dry. See what Duel recommend for their drag washers. If its an aftermaket drag, then its your call.
And yeah, we stock Cals drag grease. ------------- give it death! |
Posted By: Bunzo
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2008 at 10:56pm
Chris, what do you think of the use of a little graphite powder on dry drags  .
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Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2008 at 12:22am
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Dry drags aren't as common nowadays and there is a possibility that grease can cause jerkiness on a such a drag. However, the good thing about Cal's grease is that it contains Teflon which works well on just about every drag material including cork. It even works on hard drag materials such as Delrin. If using a drag grease it's important to clean all traces of the original grease off first, if any, using white spirits or similar. If the drag material is made from thin carbon fibre be very careful not to break them as they can be quite fragile.
The coarser carbon weave type of drag washer materials such as Carbontex or similar work okay without grease but do perform better with no detriment to the drag pressure if Cal's grease is used sparingly as previously mentioned. ------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |
Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2008 at 9:36am
I've heard it being used in the early days but once Smooth Drag & Cals' 2 Speed came along with their complete drag products & lubricants, you never heard of this again. ------------- give it death! |
Bunzo wrote:Posted By: sooshee
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2008 at 10:24am
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So far, the only drags I've come across lately that do not respond well to grease are the stock ones in Daiwa Saltists and cork drags. I had some grease that accidentally got into the saltist drags with resulting max drag of around 3-4kg. Once I cleaned that off, it improved heaps and is now around 7-8 kg straight off the reel- still 1-2kgs off the spec-ed max drag though. |
Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2008 at 11:30am
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sooshee, The Saltist drag washers that work in conjunction with the metal drag washers are made from some kind of carbon paper type material and if you just want to clean them be very careful. Most generic brands of drag grease don't mix well with many other brands of grease or oil and need to be thoroughly cleaned off first. Once done a high quality drag grease such as Shimano TBM-O, or even better Cal's, usually helps the overall performance. Daiwa have their own proprietary drag grease - very hard to obtain in NZ though.
Shimano dartanium drag washers, the Daiwa Saltiga equivilents and the Saltist washers can wear quite quickly when subjected to continually high drag settings. They also often don't respond well in very cold winter type conditions once the wear starts. Not usually an issue with snapper fishermen because they don't wind up the drag like jiggers do. The easiest and most worthwhile drag upgrade for your Saltist is the Carbontex washers with Cal's grease available from Chris. This will make the drag very smooth and reliable under pressure and when it's very cold. It should also return it to the rated drag specs although this tends to be overrated on some Saltiga and Saltist reels.
Cork washers generally are impregnated with oil that oozes out when the cork drag heats up under pressure. I've used Cal's grease on the cork drag of an Abel fly reel which was sticking slightly and it worked a treat although I wouldn't do it if it didn't need it.
------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |
Posted By: Benk
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2008 at 12:21pm
sounds like cals grease is they way to go then 
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Posted By: Men In Black
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2008 at 5:12pm
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I have had a chemical design engineer mate of mine looking at this exact issue and we have been playing around with some pretty hi-tech materials to infuse AvCarb drag material with. The secret so far is to get a compound that is not effected by saltwater or oils and greases from the reels workings. We have a prototype AvCarb material in both Activated Carbon infused with graphite and Activated Carbon infused with Boron Nitride. Both combinations give smooth drags at a wide range of settings for Stardrags, Spin reels and Leverdrags. They don't absord saltwater like standard carbon matrix drag washers, when the saltwater dries it leaves the crystals behind which kill drags quicker than anything. You can still put CALS drag grease on them but they run just as smooth dry. ------------- www.synit.co.nz |
Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2008 at 6:22pm
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MIB
That's extremely interesting. Are you going to market this drag material, if so when? ------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |
Posted By: Men In Black
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2008 at 8:36am
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Chopsticks, we will more than likely release these in the second quarter of this year, as we still have some field testing to do in a varity of reels, as you can appreciate what may work well in a Shimano may infact be less effective in a Daiwa, so we need to get the substrate material thicknesses correct .We will have them available as either a "do it yourself kit" or fitted by a reel mechanic at a tackle shop. We can make these drags for just about any make or model reel but for practical reasons we will keep it to the common reels suited to high perfomance drags, or we can custom fit for you if you send us your reel.
I will keep you posted ------------- www.synit.co.nz |
Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2008 at 11:31am
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Thanks MIB. ------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |