I'm building a 3wt, 4pc (FT 865-4, my first attempt) using recoil single foot wire guides. These aren't "raised" like the ceramics but lie flat against the blank. Do these require some sort of locking wrap, or am I safe just wrapping the foot?

Does anyone bother with a trim wrap on the tip side of these (I put one on the butt side)? If so, how do you do it? Before hitting the loop or after?

When putting Epoxy on the wraps, do you do it all in one shot by assembling the rod and Epoxying the entire thing? If so, how do you avoid welding two pieces together when Epoxying a ferrule wrap? Do you just take it apart while wet, clean it up and put it back together? I'm afraid if its not cleaned really good, it will get permanently stuck.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Steve Hocevar

I normaly use a blocking wrap on those guides , 4 or 5 wraps past the guide ring on the tip side . I'm sure you can use a locking wrap if you need to .
If your afraid of "welding" the rod , do it in sections , just means you have to mix 6 batches of epoxy (2 coats), kinda' a waste if you can do it in 1 piece . Better safe than sorry though ...............
Have fun , JHD

Got Fish ?

Just take care not to put to much epoxy on the ferrule wrap. After you are done, slide the sections 2 inches apart to make sure you haven't glued them together. I generally check them again after an hour just to make sure. Don't put the sections together too loose as they can work apart and drop a section off the drier, which is a TOTAL bummer.

Oh yeah--good advice there, Don! Total bummer doesn't even quite suffice! ;)

Steve: I'd use what John calls a "blocking" wrap on all sf's up to 6wt, and a locking (i.e. Forhan's, etc.) wrap on SW 6wts and all 7wts and up. 3-5 turns "in front" (read: between the "loop" of the guide and the tip of the rod) of each guide is all you will need, ESPECIALLY considering your envisioned usage of this rod (from our previous conversations).

I haven't seen a lot of trim wraps on the tip-end of guide wraps on fly rods, but the beautiful thing about rodbuilding is you get to do it YOUR way, and beauty IS in the eye of the beholder, after all! You could do it either way--before or after the loop/eye. One way you could do it would be to use two pull-loops...wrap your main thread toward the eye, tie in your trim thread, make a few wraps to be sure it's secure, cut the main thread and pull the tag through, wrap your trim, cut and pull that tag through.

I'm going to face some grief for saying this here, probably, but I personally hold that one good (read: sufficient but not excessive) coat of epoxy is better than multiple thin layers. Some feel when starting out in particular it's easier to to the latter, but I'm not convinced. Anyway, I take my time and have never been able to do a complete rod with one mix anyway--I generally do one mix for the top half and one for the butt half. I have NEVER (great--now it'll happen today, probably!) ;) ended up with stuck/glued ferrules, despite liberally applying finish to the ferrule wrap--again, I'm careful. The advice to check it and then firmly re-connect isn't bad, but frankly any time you handle the rod after applying the finish is less than desireable just because it's so freakin' easy to drag a sleeve or finger through one of the other wraps while trying to avoid the one you're looking at! Never happened to me personally, of course... ;)

Have fun! Hope I'll get to see this thing sometime before long!

Warmly,

I've built several rods using single foot wire guides and have used a locking wrap on all of them. I only do two locking wraps instead of three since the thread can bunch up. Just follow Rich Forhan's instructions and only do two locking wraps.

When applying finish to the ferrule wrap, I use a tip from a junk rod with masking tape applied so I get a snug fit. I put the finish right to the edge and only once has it tended to stick, but two pieces came apart without much effort.

I always finish the wraps one section of rod at a time. I can't do a complete rod since I don't have the room and the finish I use has a pretty short pot life.

Yeah, I think the recoil guides need a locking wrap or some sort of security warp. I dont do the lock, but I do continue the wrap 4 or 5 turnes past the leg of the guide. I also put trim rings on both ends of the wrap on single foot guides on some rods. Depends on the look you want, I guess. I pretty much do the whole rod at one time. I used to worry about sticking it together. Now I don't worry. I just try to be careful with the ferrule coating and not have it lap down on the rod.

I'm almost finished wrapping all the guides and since I didn't know what a blocking wrap was, I didn't put any on. I stopped as close to the loop as possible and tied off. Nothing on the tip side.

Is it a big deal that I don't have blocking wraps? Should I redo them all before epoxying? My guess is no (they look pretty secure) but I don't want trouble down the road. Thanks.

I personaly have never pulled a guide out of a wrap that I've done with out a "security" , or blocking wrap. If the rod will not be abused , you shouldn't have anything to worry about......... If it bothers you , cut them off , it only takes a short time to wrap the little SFs. In my oppinion , if the thread tension was OK , you are good to go . Just my oppinion . Have fun , JHD

Got Fish ?

I've only ever had one guide pull out of a wrap and that was a snake guide. I slipped on a rock while wading and one of the guides must has really smacked a rock hard because one leg was completely out of the wrap.