Been a fuji man all my life. Recently made a couple of rods with Forecast AOxide casting guides with some trepidation. Contemplating more builds. Cannot account for the Forecast guides in the field under sever load and long term punishment. products look same, what about toughness?

Fred,I think we at Fishsticks4u can account for them. They are the ones we use on our customs rods and on our personal rods . A lot of what we build gets pretty heavy use ,and have never had a complaint about breakage , rust , or ring problems . To me that says a lot for the product . Again we dont just sell them , we use them . I hope this helps. Robert w / Fishsticks4u We are on the sponsor list

I'll be calling you later this morning about some blanks. Like the song says, "breaking up is hard to do"....

I have used the Forecast guides on my last several builds. Robert turned me on to them. After several trips to the outer banks I have had no troubles with corrosion or failures on my personal rods and the customers that have rods with them love them.
HAGO!
Joe

Have two halibut/ling cod rods in Alaska built completely on Forecast products. The customer treats them poorly, but they keep coming back for more. The rods have the BSUUG blackframe/blue ring boat guides. Dan Craft introduced me to the Forecast guides and many of my own rods have them.

I have a couple of additional questions on the forecast guides:

1. What do the "Hard Aluminum Oxide" guides compare to with Fujis? I have assumed they are similar to Hardloy guides.
-->Is there a substantial weight difference from Forecast's to Fuji's?
--> Does forecast offer anything similar to Fuji's alconite guides?

2. I seem to remember reading that Forecast can do Silicon Carbide guides upon request, but they are not listed in their catalogue. Is this just for commercial rodbuilders, or could a hobby rodbuilder come by SIC Forecast guides? If I could get them through a Batson retailer, what kind of $$$ would we be talking?

Adam Stewart

Thank you everyone for the kind words in reagrds to the Batson - FORECAST guides.
ADAM: Sorry I did not answer these questions earlier, first weekend home in awhile. I promised my wife and kids no work.
I will only comment in regards to the Batson/Forecast product line. I will not compare the two product lines out of respect for Fuji.

*1) The tecnical information in regards to our "H" ring is on our website - www.batsonenterprises.com- top header " Components" then " Guides" then Read more about Forecast>>>. This will tell you Vickers hardness and other info.
--> I would be happy to weigh any guides you need weighed in the FORECAST series.
--> I would look at our Zirconium ring guides as an upgrade to our "H" ring
*2) We do special order SiC ring guides. This is NOT a stocking item for us. Our distributors can order them if they get enough requests for them. IMHO I prefer the Zirconium ring guides as they are not as brittle and the breakage of rings is not as apparant as the SiC rings - This is only my personal opinion.
*As far as cost you would need to ask our distributors what they would charge.
If you ever have any questions please feel free to contact us.
Thank you for looking at the Batson / Forecast components. The choice is yours to make, but you now have an option.
Bill Batson
CEO
Batson Enterprises
Rainshadow/Forecast product line
batson@batsonenterprises.com
877-875-2381