Point Blank Enters Gen 2 with Katana and More

Introduction: As I sit down to write this article, a look at the archives reveals it's been roughly five years since I began my rod building hobby. While I'm sad to report my skills haven't gotten much better, I can easily say my level of frustration has grown. Goals. Then why do I continue?

Guess I'm just a glutton for punishment, but I do get a certain level of gratification fishing a rod I assembled.

2020 marks the year I descended down the rod building fish hole
 

My journey down this fish hole began with a blank developed by Angler's Resource, the outfit responsible for importing Fuji rod components to the United States. The brand name of their blank business is, of course, Point Blank. That initial build was on their PB761XXHMF, to this day, one of my favorite blanks to build on and fish. I've completed six builds on this blank for myself - three as swimbait sticks, three as flipping sticks - and a few for close friends. A second favorite, initially intended as a heavy powered, do everything stick for the CA Delta is the PB731HXF. Trouble is, that blank behaves more like a medium-heavy, than a heavy, but I still enjoy how it fishes.

All because I wanted to fish this blank

I credit Jim Ising, former Marketing Chief for Angler's Resource, for turning me on to their product and me into this maddening hobby. Unfortunately, Ising is no longer with us having lost his battle with leukemia several years ago. However, Ising's replacement, Jack Baron, reached out to me late spring of 2025 to share with me the news that Point Blank's product was being revamped, and asked if I'd be up for trying out the result. Believe it or not, I hesitated for a moment. I mean, sure I wanted to check out the blanks and write about them, but that meant I'd have to build out another rod. I was kinda, sorta in rod building hiatus - it took me months to complete the last set of blanks I ordered. Could I really find the motivation to finish another under the time constraints of an article? Well, the answer to that question is rather obvious.

Point Blank refines their freshwater series and gives it a name, Katana

Katana : There are now three separate series under the Point Blank umbrella covering applications like saltwater jigging (Tanto) and tuna (Kira). The original, freshwater blanks are now under the series name Katana returning all the original models and introducing seven new ones to cover lighter line applications. I have a BFS build on the former PB691MLXF, the lightest powered blank at that length in their catalog I could find a the time. Now there's a PBT691LMF and PBKT691ULM sitting below that model and similar models at 7'-0" and 7'-3". A new 6'-6" ultra light rounds out the new models.

Comparing the surface of new vs old, the differences are very subtle

So what's in the revamp of the actual blank? The majority of blanks on the market are a blend of different grades of graphite. For Katana, the content of higher modulus, 30T and 40T graphite, has been increased by fifteen percent (15%). They tell me the blanks are still scrimless, but now there's also a new, forty five degree, multi-angled mesh layup (think cross fiber reinforcement) to reduce blank twist and improve hoop strength. Looking back at my write-up of the PB731HXF in 2022, reveals the original blank also had a cross weave, so maybe it's the angle or material that's changed, or perhaps both. Nevertheless, Katana represents a natural refinement in composition and build to increase strength and responsiveness with, hopefully, no ill affects in weight.

Couldn't decide which blank to build, so they sent me both! Note the much cleaner and improved label application. The old labels were a pain to remove

The Build: That all sounds fine and dandy, but unfortunately, the only method that works for me, in determining the viability of a blank, is to build it out and fish it. Thus began once more, the process. For this article, Baron offered to send me a Katana blank, but that meant I had to make a decision on which model. For a true comparison to the previous generation, the decision should be one with which I'm already familiar. I shared with him my favorite, the PB761XXHMF, but also my curiosity of whether or not the new PBT731XHF's power curve has been corrected to be a true heavy power. Such a dilemma. Well, thanks to Point Blank I was able explore and compare both.

Weights are within 0.1oz of the original series

Grip Design & Material: Included in the shipping tube with the blanks were new, Fuji carbon grips! Seems everyone is jumping on the carbon grip bandwagon. Fuji's, as is tradition, are a somewhat simple split option but with a twist at the butt end. Instead of continuing the round cross section of the forward grip, Fuji's butt end has flat sides and a complimentary EVA end with a sculpted angle for just a little design flair. So my intent was to build these two blanks with the same, split rear grip design using a handle length of around twelve inches behind the reel seat. The decision was a toss up for the 761XXHMF of whether or not to go with the longer handle for swimbaits, but in the end, I decided it's easier for me to fish big baits on a rod with a short handle than it is for me to flip and pitch on a rod with a long handle.

The new, flat sized butt end has some nice flair to it

Installed, I had a little issue cleaning up the epoxy at the EVA end

The Guides: For these builds, choice in guides was kind of a no brainer. Though Baron was kind enough to send a mix of SS/Alconite (running, transition, and tip top) and SS/SiC (stripper), I replaced the SS/Alconite options to have a full SS/SiC guide train to compliment the reverse orientation stripper guide (TRVSG Ti/SiC). That stripper is only available in a size 6, so my ring size didn't vary much if at all on these builds. I went with a straight, size 6 train set on the PBKT761XXHMF and a 6 to 5.5 train set on the PBKT731XHF.

Guide train for both builds were Fuji SS/SiCs