I am new at this, building my first rod. I have found some of the literature confusing. My first question revolves around the terms spine and spline which I have encountered fequently. Are the terms interchangeable in rod building circles? Are the meanings smiliar? In some liteture spine seems to be used for awhile, then spline, almost as if it is a typo or a proof reading error. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

They mean the same thing. On this site the preferred terminology is "spine". The term "spline" probably is a holdover from the days of bamboo where each rod section consisted of, usually, 6 individual strips or splines. I think writers then often used the term "spline" to denote finding what we now refer to as the "spine".

For better literature, see the FAQs and Glossary on this site. Use the buttons above. I think they'll be a bigger help to you.

Romans were matching the "spline" of their arrows long before fly rods were thought of. Though in the archery world spline is refered to as the stiffness of a given shaft even though all arrows manufactured today have a given stiff side which we would be calling the spine. They dont get nearly as concerned about it as some of us do about our rod blanks.

Spine is correct. The way I heard it, "spline" was how Dale Clemens' secretary misread his writing.

Ditto on what I heard re "spline" being a misspelling. Regardless, you see the term used to idenitify the same thing.

Lou

Yes spine is the correct term as we use it but I know for a fact that the romans were matching the "spline" of arrows hundreds of years before Dale Clemens' secretary's ancestors came across the big pond.