I may have asked this before so bear with me. When you are flexing and rolling a blank to find the spine side is it considered the flat spot opposite the curve where it kind of stops when you roll it? I've read conflicting tutorials on the subject.

Bruce, Spine your rod by placing the butt on a table, while holding the tip in one hand, push down in the middle of the rod with the other hand until the rod is flexed to about 90 degrees. Let the rod roll to the position where it is at rest or locked in a position where it resists turning. With the rod in this position, turn it a little to the right and then a little to the left to feel if it is in the position where it resists turning the most. The spine is on the outside of the curve and with rods where the tip guides would normally be located on the bottom of the rod when retrieving, the guides should be placed on the outside of the curve. Don Morton

Yes, it is that place where the blank settles in and does not want to leave. There is no right or wrong place to locate guides in relation to the spine, however. Each placement will provide you with subtle differences in performance characteristics, but I hope the day is over when we say that on casting rods the spine must be placed in a particular orientation or that on a spinning rod you must place it in a particular location. Early thought was that spine orientation could produce a stable rod - but that was wrong. Only guide location can create an inherently stable rod.

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

On casting rods I would almost always put the spine at 90 degrees to the guides for either standard conventional baitcasting or spiral wrapped baitcasting.

But lately I've started doing something different that you might try and consider. If you have a rod wrapper or lathe, move two rod supports close together about 1 foot apart. Then put the butt end of the blank there and lock it down. The blank should be level. Now stand up a board or some sort of backing that you can easily see at the tip end of the blank. Move back to the butt and rotate the blank. You will see the tip move in a complete circle against the board or backing. When it reaches the highest point on the circle, at the very top of the circle, make a mark on the top of the blank.

Now when you build your rod, casting or spinning, make sure that mark is "UP" and I think you'll have a rod that you'll really like. I just don't find the spine to be very important, but having any upward curve on top of the rod gives me what I think is a better balanced and better performing rod. I like it and my customers like it. I think you'll like it too.

Not a bad idea. If nothing else it would locate the straightest axis.