Carbon rod is solid carbon fibre stock. In bending it is many times stiffer than wooden dowel of the same diameter and far lighter than metal, which is why it becomes struts, wing spars, control-horn pivots and the load-bearing members of flying models.
The surface is smooth and dark enough that a length left visible on a finished model looks finished as it is, with no paint needed. What it will not tolerate is being levered or twisted, because the fibres run one way only. Rod and wire in metal and plastic, which covers most pushrods, joiners and small axles, is in wires and rods for models, and the timber a carbon member normally stiffens, balsa sheet, pine strip and ply, is in wooden profiles and strip. Epoxy for bonding a keyed carbon surface is in adhesives for models.
