do you put your guides for a fly rod on the spine or opposite the spine

on the rods i have built i believe i have put them on the spine not really sure but i have done the same on all my fly rods (when looking for the spine tip in hand and butt on table apply pressure and side that rolls to top is where i put my guides)

i have different things and get confused

thanks for any help

Sean Hansen

Read the FAQ's. Topic #5 addresses your question.

Personaly , on lighter fly rods , I lean more twards orienating the guides to the natural curve of the blank . Heavier rods , I place the guides on the inside of the spine. JD

I believe the idea is to allow the blank to do what it wants to do naturally when it is fighting with a fish. For example when you roll your blank as you do and it jumps into position, it is jumping into the curve that it feels is the easy movement for it, that is the curve that is now facing upward at you. This curve is the path of least resistance for the blank and should be the side you put your guides on. So I believe you have been laying out your guides on the right side. This is my understanding of it, but hey I am new at this skill.

Sean, I can not be sure by your post what you mean by the top - but if when you place the bend in the blank you are placing the guides on the inside (top??) of the bend, you are actually placing the guides opposite of the spine. The "effective" spine is the outside of the curve. See FAQ #2.

A couple of years ago I was surprised to find out that Sage and Loomis, do not spine their blanks. They determined where to put the guides by the straightness of the blank. In other words, if there is a slight curve to the blank and even the best blanks usually have a little curve, they put the guides on the bottom of the curve. I still spine my blanks, but this got me to thinking if it is really that important. ????? John Butterfield

Lately (last couple dozen rods), I've been building to optimize straightness more than anything else. I notice no difference whatsoever and doubt if 1 person in 10,000 could. Just about anyone can notice a crooked rod though and that's why I started doing it this way.

Most rod customers sight down a new rod by holding the guides either straight up or straight down. This is why commercial rod operations put the guides on the straightest axis. It has nothing to do with performance, but rather everything to do with not having people refuse to buy a rod because they believe it's "crooked."

...............

Well, the more I test my blanks with the CCS, the more I demonstrate to myself quantitatively why I can't feel anything regarding spine orientation in actual fishing and casting situations. I am not sensitive enough to notice a 1 penny difference. That being the case, if I can't feel the difference and the rod looks best when straightest, I see no downside to using the straightness method for guide orientation.

Just my .02 (I might be able to feel this much money)

I'm a novice rodbuilder and after learning about rod spines, I've stripped down and redone a couple rods and placed the guides directly on the spine and the difference is like night and day. Even my light weight rods cracks like a whip! This winter when football season is over, I'm going to strip down my 11'6" GLX and redo it with ceramics - besides I think I put too many snakes on it the first time.

I have built many rods and I always put my guides on so the
soft side of the rod that bends the easiest goes towards the
fish or the water. Why would you want the rod to bend with
more resistance. good luck whatever you do

Why would you want it to bend with less?

Spine seems to be like opinions...everyone's got one!
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Not true Doug,
In two instances. #1) you can find a rod where it appears there is no effective spine and #2) I know many PEOPLE that are spineless!!
Ray

Point well taken Ray!

Doug

well i supose i am going to keep doing it the way that i do

as others have said the blank seems to bend the easiest that way and that is what i want the blank to do anyway

this way there is no extra resistance to the fish

tis is the best way i can put this like humans we bend foward the easiest and the spine is our back so i want the guides to be the front

i think i worded that right if not please tell me