I broke in on a Chance fiberglass stick in 1996, but the old timers still told stories about varnished wood. For the trivia buffs: what year or decade do you peg as the tipping point when fiberglass hot sticks became standard on most U.S. crews? Wild to think we’ve gone from that shift to drones and line sensors in a single career.
Late ’70s was the tipping point in most yards I saw — by the early ’80s wood was just backup, though a few co-ops hung on into the early ’90s. > to think we’ve gone from that shift to drones and line sensors in a single — same vibe here, and my tip: keep sticks bagged out of the sun and give them an alcohol wipe and thin paste‑wax coat before switching; did your crew ever set a hard retire date for wood?
In our IOU yard in western KS, fiberglass became the everyday stick by about ’82; we still kept one varnished hickory switch stick a few winters because early fiberglass adapters liked to seize in the cold. Once ASTM F711 landed (https://www.astm.org/f0711-20.html), big fleets sped up the changeover, so I’d peg the national tipping point to the early ’80s with some rural outfits lagging. Quick tip: to date it locally, check the old dielectric test stickers or F711 stamps on retired “Chance fiberglass” sticks in the training trailer — it usually shows the year and whether the yellow Hubbell tag was used.