The blurb on these guides advertises TiN deposition rings, and super light stainless steel guide frames. These are the ones used on the Pure Fishing rods (Berkley, Fenwick and co.). They also match the original rings on my rebuilt Qunatum Affinity light spin. They seem to be holding up well to braided line so far.

Question: What is their ring material? It's considerably thinner than most of the ceramics on offer. The frames also seem to be coated.

Reason I ask is I've seen them in the black frame/silver ring combination that appeals to me. How do these guides stand up to hard use? Are they worth it, or should I just stick to ceramics.

i have used these guides with super lines, braided and the firewire/spiderwire. I use them on my king salmon rod for river fishing. These rings held up very well to the abuse these fish can dish out. I love them. I have not had a problem with any of them bending or getting any type of scratches in them. I also like them because they are extremely light due to the insert not being as heavy. Makes very light action rods easier to cast as you dont have as much flex and wobble in the rod on a cast. I dont know what their ring material is made of, however if you contact them, they might tell you. (Berkley)

I bought 3 sets of them to use on my future rods.

MI Builder

SS 304 is stainless steel. 304 is the grade of steel, the bolts you buy at the hardware store is probably 304 stainless and many times it is stamped so on the bolt's head. 300 series stainless is a marine grade stainless, 400 is food grade, etc. I not particularly impressed with them. Take a piece 8 lb mono, run it thru the guide and wrap it around both hands, now saw it back and forth and count how many times it takes to break or melt flat, it won't be many. Now try it with a hardloy Fuji, takes a lot longer doesn't it? If you try it with a Fuji SiC guide you may need to pack a lunch, it's going to be a while.
The original Berkeley guides were hard chromed on the ring, they may have changed that.
The Vickers hardness of 304 stainless is under 200, hard chrome 800-1000, aluminum oxide 1500, zirconia I believe I was told was 2000-2200, SiC 2400, diamond 6000.


Spencer

Spencer, these guides look like TiN or TiCH on the ring. the ring is definitely a different, harder material than the frames.
I also use braided line almost exclusively now, but I did it with 6lb line. I don't find this a very realistic test, only an extreme situation one. By the time that amount of heat and friction gets to the line, you're either spooled, or you're seriously undergunned, lucky, and have had the fish on back and forth for hours. Either way, in a real fishing situation, you'll never move line that fast under that kind of pressure.

I think I'll order some and try them out for a while.

And then I had a bit of an accident. On the river, I tripped, fell and poked my rod tip into the sand. Half expected to hear and see it snap clean off. No damage to the graphite, so cleaned up and continued fishing. The Fireline started fraying badly, though, and a nylon stocking inspection revealed a scratched ring in the tip top. They sure scratch easy. Cut the lot off, and will not be straying from ceramics ever again. Forced the scratched ring out and it actually looks like TiN on stainless steel for the insert. So a took a file to it, and it cut really easily. Even almost right through the ring it was still gold though. Won't be ordering those.