Say you want a 7-foot spinning blank for shaky heads and light Texas rigs, and you're ordering it online, so there's no flexing it against the shop ceiling first. North Fork Composites sells the SJ 705-1 (IM) as medium heavy, rated for 8–15 lb line and 3/16–5/8 oz lures. MHX lists the SJ843 with exactly those two ratings and calls it medium. Lamiglas rates the PRO843 at 8–17 lb and 3/16–3/4 oz, a range that swallows both, and calls it medium light.
No industry standard defines power labels, so each maker decides what MH means inside its own lineup, and the word doesn't carry over to anyone else's catalog. It can wander inside one company too: G. Loomis began standardizing its conventional power numbers in 2022, after two of its MH models had carried different power digits. So when you compare blanks from different makers, set the label aside. Look at the lure rating first, then butt diameter and blank weight, and use Common Cents System numbers wherever a maker or another builder has published them.
Across eight MH blanks from four makers, lure ratings start anywhere from 3/16 to 3/8 oz and top out between 5/8 and 1 oz, and butts run from 0.43" to 0.59". If you want the action side of the question first, Rod Action vs Power Explained covers it.
Why the label drifts between makers
A power label is a position in one maker's lineup. A company builds a series from light to heavy, and MH is whatever sits one step below heavy in that run. Change the series, the material or the maker, and the step lands somewhere else.
G. Loomis's rod-information page lays out a scale for conventional rods from 00 (ultra light) to 6 (extra extra heavy), with 3 as medium heavy. In its example, an 843 JWR was a 3-power MH rod, while a 1205 STFR was a 5-power rod also called MH, and the page says the 1205 would become a 1203.
The digit at the end of a model number is a habit some makers share, and it doesn't mean the same thing from one to the next. An "843" is MH at G. Loomis and on MHX's MB843 Mag Taper blank. On MHX's SJ843 spin jig blank it's medium, and on the Lamiglas PRO843 it's medium light. North Fork counts from a different starting point: its SJ 703-1 (in C6O2 graphite) is medium light, the MB 704-1 medium, and the MB 705-1 and SJ 705-1 medium heavy, so a North Fork 5 sits where a G. Loomis 3 does.
MHX's MU84MH shows how much the intended fishery moves the label. It's also a 7-foot, fast, medium heavy blank, but it's built for musky and saltwater, rated 15–40 lb and 1 to 3 1/2 oz, with a 0.645" butt and a weight of 4.75 oz. MHX's bass MB843 is rated 10–17 lb and 1/4–3/4 oz. The two share a length and a label, yet the musky blank's lure range starts at 1 oz, above where the bass blank's ends.
Under the labels, how stiff a blank is at a given diameter depends on the graphite's modulus, the wall thickness and the taper, and makers vary all three. G. Loomis's page says, "Taper design, materials, and manufacturing process all combine to achieve the right 'feel' and power levels for a particular application." Two blanks with the same butt OD can be built very differently inside, which is why diameter alone won't sort them.
Seven-foot MH blanks by the numbers
These are graphite blanks their makers file under bass or general freshwater and label medium heavy, with figures and list prices (US dollars) taken from each maker's own product page on October 6, 2026. Rainshadow's Revelation and Lamiglas's PRO lines have no 7'0" fast MH, so their nearest lengths stand in: Rainshadow's 7'2" REVC72MH cast blank and its matching spin blank, and Lamiglas's 7'3" PRO874. All are one-piece and fast except Rainshadow's 7'0" REVCB70MH, a moderate-fast crankbait blank, and the PRO874, whose page states neither. Tip sizes are left out because the makers don't state a common unit.
| Blank | Length | Line (lb) | Lure (oz) | Butt OD (in) | Weight (oz) | List price, Oct. 6, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Fork MB 705-1 (IM) | 7'0" | 10–17 | 1/4–3/4 | 0.56 | 2.0 | $197.74 |
| North Fork MB 705-1 (HM) | 7'0" | 10–17 | 1/4–3/4 | 0.59 | 2.1 | $266.76 |
| North Fork SJ 705-1 (IM) | 7'0" | 8–15 | 3/16–5/8 | 0.56 | 2.2 | $169.66 |
| Rainshadow REVC72MH-SB | 7'2" | 12–20 | 3/8–1 | 0.522 | 3.1 | $197.85 |
| Rainshadow REVS72MH-SB | 7'2" | 10–17 | 5/16–3/4 | 0.462 | 2.6 | $144.21 |
| Rainshadow REVCB70MH-SB | 7'0" | 10–20 | 3/8–1 | 0.43 | 1.8 | $121.34 |
| MHX MB843 | 7'0" | 10–17 | 1/4–3/4 | 0.59 | 2.45 | $73.50 |
| Lamiglas PRO874 | 7'3" | 10–20 | 1/4–1 | 0.493 | 2.3 | $110.00 |
Price runs from $73.50 for the MHX in its Slate finish (other finishes cost more) to $266.76 for North Fork's HM MB 705-1, which has the same ratings as the IM version on a slightly fatter butt. All three North Fork blanks were on backorder that day, and the PRO874 was sold out.
Labels and ratings part ways fastest at the light end. These four 7-foot blanks are sold as MH, medium and medium light, with near-identical ratings. Lamiglas had the PRO843 on sale for $70 that day.
| Blank | Maker's label | Length | Line (lb) | Lure (oz) | Butt OD (in) | Weight (oz) | List price, Oct. 6, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Fork SJ 705-1 (IM) | MH | 7'0" | 8–15 | 3/16–5/8 | 0.56 | 2.2 | $169.66 |
| MHX SJ843 | Medium | 7'0" | 8–15 | 3/16–5/8 | 0.544 | 2.3 | $78.75 |
| North Fork MB 704-1 (IM) | Medium | 7'0" | 8–14 | 1/4–5/8 | 0.56 | 1.7 | $186.04 |
| Lamiglas PRO843 | Medium Light | 7'0" | 8–17 | 3/16–3/4 | 0.476 | 1.8 | $110.00 |
Which specs predict feel, and which mislead
Lure rating is the closest thing on a spec sheet to a description of the job. It's still the maker's call, so treat the top of the range as where the blank works hard and the middle as where it's comfortable.
Line ratings overlap more than any other spec in these tables, with 10–17 lb on MH blanks from three makers and 8–17 lb on Lamiglas's medium light PRO843, wider than several of them. Line class mostly describes what the guides, reel and knots will handle, which makes it the loosest guide to bend on the sheet.
Butt diameter is useful for comparing blanks within one maker's line, up to a point. North Fork's MB 704-1 and MB 705-1 share a 0.56" butt in the same IM graphite, and one is medium while the other is MH, so whatever separates them happens further up the blank. Across makers the link breaks down further: Rainshadow's REVCB70MH is an MH blank with a 0.43" butt, while MHX's SJ843, labeled medium, measures 0.544".
North Fork's MB 705-1 (IM) and MHX's MB843 are 7-foot fast MH blanks with identical 10–17 lb and 1/4–3/4 oz ratings, and they still weigh 2.0 and 2.45 oz on butts of 0.56" and 0.59". That's a 0.45 oz gap between two makers at the same rating and length, so weight compares cleanly only within one series at one length. There, a heavier blank at the same rating usually means more material in the wall, and you'll feel it by the end of the day.
Spinning and casting versions of the same MH
Rainshadow is the only maker here selling a matched spin and cast MH at one length in one series. The two 7'2" Revelation blanks share RX7 graphite and the MH label, but the REVC72MH cast blank is rated a step heavier on line and lure than the REVS72MH spin blank (12–20 lb and 3/8–1 oz, against 10–17 lb and 5/16–3/4 oz), with a fatter butt and half an ounce more weight. If you're building a spinning MH to match a casting MH you already like, check whether the maker rates its spin version lighter.
North Fork's closest pair is the Mag Bass MB 705-1 and the Spin Jig SJ 705-1, and the Spin Jig again rates lighter on both counts. North Fork's MB page doesn't say casting, though, so treat these as two series that happen to share a label.
The Common Cents System
Dr. William Hanneman, a retired research chemist and gemologist, designed the Common Cents System in the late 1990s, and RodMaker first published it in 2004. His starting complaint in that first article was that "no one has ever defined exactly what a 6-weight rod is." He found that ten commercial rods all labeled for a 6-weight line needed anywhere from about 46 to 60 cents hung from the tip to reach the same deflection. He measured every rod the same way, by hanging pennies from the tip.
The first of the system's two numbers starts from intrinsic power (IP), the weight it takes to pull the tip down one third of the blank's length, counted in cents and expressible in grains. The CCS chart converts that count into an Effective Rod Number (ERN), and a higher ERN means more power. The second, the action angle (AA), is the angle the deflected tip makes, read off a printed protractor chart, and higher means faster. Written together as ERN/AA, they can be compared across makers. The CCS sheet doesn't try to translate AA into fast, moderate or slow.
Tom Kirkman, who edits RodMaker, wrote in a 2022 rodbuilding.org thread that several blank and rod makers backed the CCS "right out of the gate back in 2006," then dropped it: "Due to so many people using it in different ways, altering and renaming it, using different terms, etc., those manufacturers dropped it," and he doubted any would pick it up again. Of North Fork, MHX, Rainshadow and Lamiglas, only North Fork prints CCS numbers today. It lists ERN and AA on its C6O2 blanks, such as ERN 13.75 and AA 77 for the 7'0" SJ 703-1, a medium light. None of the 7-foot MH blanks, North Fork's included, carries one.
Taking an ERN reading at home
The CCS measurement sheet calls for no special tools, just two supports, a tape measure, a light plastic bag, a few hundred cents and the CCS cents-to-ERN chart. Measure the bare blank to compare blanks, and again after trimming.
- Support the blank level at the butt, with the forward support at 10% of its total length. On an 84-inch blank that's 8.4 inches from the butt. Some droop from the blank's own weight is normal.
- Measure the height of the butt off the floor and subtract one third of the blank's length. With the butt at 60 inches and an 84-inch blank, your target is the tip at 32 inches.
- Hang the bag from the tip and add cents until the tip reaches the target. Use US cents dated 1997 or later, which satisfies both the CCS sheet (1986 on) and Hanneman's original article (after 1996). For heavier blanks, the sheet suggests bagging cents in counted lots ahead of time.
- Count the cents and read the ERN off the chart. 41 cents is an ERN of 5.05, 140 is 13.72 and 246 is 21.03.
- For the action angle, tape a straight wire or a piece of uncooked spaghetti to the tip as a pointer and read it against the CCS angle chart.
Take your final reading at the length you'll actually fish. Hanneman notes that cutting back the tip makes a rod shorter and stronger with a slower action, so "the ERN will increase and the AA will decrease."
The most useful reading is on a rod you already fish and like. Kirkman suggests running the AA measurement on a rod you have now, so you can tell whether other measured blanks are faster or slower. An ERN reading on the same rod gives you a power baseline the same way: once you know your favorite jig rod is, say, an ERN of 15, every blank with a published ERN can be compared against something you've felt.
Ordering a blank you can't flex
If you're still settling length and material, Rod Building Fundamentals walks through blank selection from the start. Once you know the length you want, start with the lure rating and pick the blanks whose range covers what you'll actually throw, ideally with your usual weight near the middle, whatever the label says. For the shaky heads and light Texas rigs from the top, 3/16 to 3/8 oz, that puts North Fork's SJ 705-1, MHX's SJ843 and Lamiglas's PRO843 on the list.
Then, within one maker's line and one material, use butt OD and weight to choose between candidates. A fatter butt at the same rating usually means a stiffer lower section, and a heavier blank is more to hold all day. Across makers, treat those two numbers as rough, and if a maker publishes ERN, check it against a reading from a rod you already own and like.