Many thanks to those who answered my previous question regarding the spine. Now one on finding it: your glossary (as well as a few other sources) say the spine is the outside of the curve when you press down on the rod, but some others, such as Mud Hole say it is the inside of the curve (see page 5 of the 2005 catalog). Please clear up my confusion on this-are not both sources considered reliable? Thank you.

Check the FAQs page. It should have your answer. Top is usually marked but both sides are used depending on how you want the rod to perform

You have to remember that the spine of a rod isn't a physical thing, it's only an effect. Therefore, you come down to where you want to make a mark so you'll understand the particular orientation of that effect when you view the mark.

Most rod builders will mark the outside of the curve when the blank is flexed into a curve of least resistance and call that the "effective spine."

In a past issue of RodMaker, Rich Forhan used the terms ISCAR (inside of curve at rest) and OSCAR (outside of curve at rest) as good means of remembering just what it is you're looking at.

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The spine is stiffer, right? So if, when you do the press and roll thing, it does indeed move quickly to a certain position (hope theres no little chips on the butt of your blank) then the spine would be inside or against your hand. I could not find the spine on the last rod I built. I chose to ignore it and see what happened. I honestly cant tell the difference, or detect any strange goings on cast or fish on.

This is a difficult topic because some rod blanks can have as many as five spines and possibly more. The short version of the long story is that a rod with only one spine tends to want to roll to the spine when it is placed under load. So, building on the rod's spine helps prevent most rolling issues. However, it's not always so easy. When a rod has several spines or even worse, several winding spines that wrap around at different angles, it becomes a decision making process as to what the rod is going to be mostly used for. If it's a game rod, you have to make sure the spine at the butt is the major one so that when the fish loads the rod until it bends all the way down tot eh butt section, the rod will theoretically stay more stable. So, if you're approaching the rod from a fighting standpoint, it is not a necessary issue to think in terms of inside or outside rather than where does the rod want to roll to when it is under load? If you aprroach from a casting standpoint, then you have another can of worms. The real trick is balancing the two issues of fighting and casting because some guys prefer casting sideways and request for rods built with the spine on one side. To avoid a lot of this, always request that the blanks you receive have only one very straight and prominent spine. If it comes otherwise, send it back. This way, you have less issues to deal with in the rod blank. I hope at least something in this post was of some help. Good luck!