This forum has just been incredibly helpful and appreciate so many of you for your comments directly helping me figure out what we need for our type of waters/goals etc. There are too many to name including, of course, Tom Kirkman but also the likes of Don Davis, John Launstein etc.

Want to publicly thank Mick McComesky for really going above and beyond by offering to grind my first set of titanium guides to illustrate a properly ground guide. He actually did a bunch - more than I needed for an entire rod! (In the past, wrapped without grinding any feet.) And he refused any form of payment which I was more than willing to offer.

Tom, hope the above is OK. If not, feel free to delete this.

Thanks again!
Mo

ps: I really wanted to thank Mick as an example of the generosity on this board and he was OK with this although it was probably reluctant permission. Of course, with everyone being so gracious on this board, I'm sure Mick's not going to suddently get swamped with requests.....:)

Hi Mo,
yes that is the beauty of this place. I just received some spools of older thread for a Hardy Fibalite Perfection that I'm restoring from Dirk Gärtner in Germany - free of charge and with a smile and some good advice also.

And this has been my experience with rodbuilders from this board - always offering to help others.

I wish this attitude would rub of on the rest of the world ;-)

Peter

Mo,

I too have been very impressed by the generosity on this board. I wanted to build my 4 yr old neice her first rod, so i asked on the forum where to locate a small blank for sale. A wonderful gentlemen responded from Maryland that he had a couple of short blanks that would work. He not only refused to allow me to pay for them, he also sent me a pistol grip and 2 sets of guides to complete the project!! All that he wanted in return is that the rod go to a kid, how great is that.

Carrington

Mo
Did you go Titans or Fuji?

Mo,

You may have just created a monster!! According to Laurel, his head is big enough already!!!!



Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Mike, whenever my head gets to swelling a bit, she does a great job of knocking me back into my place. hahah

No big deal really, I just had a moment of weakness and found myself pitying the inept and hapless Mo. hahaha It was really my pleasure Mo. Plus, I don't get a chance to do too many titanium guides so it helps me out too. The more I get to work with them, the more I get to learn them a little more. Win/win for both of us!

Lot of great people here who will gladly lend a hand when needed. Even Mike (above) is capable of it! He made me a beautiful wood grip with burl cork accents, just cuz. Of course, my wife immediately claimed it as her own for her first rod that she is slowly getting geared up to build.

Mick,

'Inept and hapless' is right! I think I'll bolt those nicely prepared guides on with the rod. Sure's easier than having to wrap them....:)

Thanks again!

Mo

Bill,

Forgot to answer your question. Went with the Titans. Fuji is lighter and looks better to me (TATSG) but cost too much.
Also looking at the recoil.

Mo

Fuji's are lighter ?? Did not realize that. Then again the cost of Fuji's

Mo, you could always go with some small hose clamps to mount them ;)

Those Titans are really some sweet guides. I'm still amazed at how light they are. I was a skeptic when they started coming out until I picked one up. Even when holding a large spinning guide, it's hard to believe that you have a large piece of metal in your hand. As light as they are, it's also hard to believe that they will take any abuse... until you start to work on them. Anybody who is looking for weight savings will do well to go with these, if you have the means. Unlike the super alloy rings, IMO, Ti framed guides are worth the money if weight is a concern.

Bill,

I'm not sure but I think that for Fuji SICs, ONLY the single foot (literally one single foot) TATSGs are lighter than these. Otherwise, I think they are pretty similar with other Fuji titanium SICs. I did read somewhere that when you get down to the size 6s, the fujis are lighter by maybe 10-20%? Vague memory here. On the size 6 titans, there's quite a bit of metal in the hoop around the ring. If someone was hyper precise about it, these can be filed down in my opnion. I'm not going to take that kind of time. But size 5s of the Titan in the fly are quite a bit smaller than the size 6 and should be great for us.

In the larger sizes (i.e. 20 and up), the Titans are about 40% of the Fuji's prices so that's pretty decent.)

Mo