Some of you have probably already stumbled onto this technique but I am still fairly new - only been wrapping a little over a year and I haven't seen it in any of the mags.

I am building a rod for my brothers birthday. Because it is family - I spared no expense and purchased Fuji Gold Cermet guides (yeh i know).

These guides look great. Since the blank is green (St croix scv) I decided to wrap the guides in yellow. I knew the guide feet would show through the wrap somewhat - I liked this idea because these guides look so good.

The problem arose when I decided I didn't want to prep the guide feet. I didn't want to do any grinding or anything to alter their appearence (I did do some work on the bottoms so they would fit the blank well).
Since the guide feet fall of rather quickly to the blank - there was no easy way to get the thread to climb up the guide foot.

When it looked like the next wind should start up the foot I increased the thread tension and brought it well onto the guide foot. I continued for 3 - 5 turns - then packed the thread back off the guide foot. This created an attractive effect.

I just put the first coat of finish on and it looks great. I like it better than grinding the guide feet for a smooth transition.
I think I will use this method for all my future guide wraps.

The one problem I see with this method is the finish coat is more likely to crack at the guide feet because they were not ground down and will not flex with the blank.Before learning the importance of proper guide prep I used to do the same thing.Joel

I'm with Joel, I think that could give you problems down the road with finish cracking. One of the reasons for prepping the top of the foot is so that the foot will be more able to flex with the blank. The foot being stiffer than the blank is what causes the finish to crack (there are probably other causes, also) After grinding the feet, you can always color them.

Mike

Are the gold cermets ti framed? If so what is the core color? Jay

WHAT??????!!!!! you're supposed to grind the top of the feet too??????????

(only half joking)

egads.

eric
fresno, ca.