I am on my 17th rod and am hooked on building. So far I have built for friends or myself. I have read any and every thing i could get my hands on about rod building and the learning curve is amazing. I feel i am almost ready to start charging for my service beyond the material i have charged so far. There is one area i am confused on. It seems there are very conflicting ideas on weather to underwrap guide feet. So far I have never done so and as far as i know none of my rods has broken. If i am charging for more then material though its a whole new ballgame. I live in south west florida and the bulk of my rods are jig or live bait rods. Most people around here prefer lite to medium as they are mostly targeting snook and reds. There is always the possibility of a big tarpon hook up though and they are "EQUIPMENT RUINERS" in a hurry. I really like the soft feel though of the rods I have been building as you can feel what your live bait is doing and jigging you can tell the bottoms structure to a tea. Do i need to compramise that in the name of strength?

Billy.If the feet are prepped properly there should be no worry.The key word is properly.
If you did a lot of reading you probably know the proper way to do.Rodmaker Mag had a good article reciently.It took me a little while to get away from underwraps but I agree they are only needed on the heavy salt water stuff.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Underwraps don't protect the blank. Anything that would harm the blank is going to do so right through an underwrap.

Flat, smooth guide feet do not harm the rod blank. Nor would underwraps stop guide feet that are uneven, sharp, with burrs, etc. from harming the blank.

If underwraps had anything to do with reducing rod breakage, blank manufacturers would require them in order to validate any warranty and reduce their own costs on replacements.

Underwraps are almost purely cosmetic and on lighter rods certainly cost you something in terms of performance.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2006 03:52PM by Tom Kirkman.

50+ lb Tackle / Rods ==> Underwrap.
Most Customers would expect it, and the rod can handle the extra weight.

Below 50 lb Line Rating, ... As you wish.
Cosmetic preferences may prevail.

That's my opinion, ... and there seems to be little hard or conclusive evidence "Pro" or "Con" regarding "To Under-Wrap or not to Under-Wrap - That is the Question, ..." ...

I have read dozens of dozens of vociferous comments on this "Under-Wraps?" Question, ... Agreeing to respectively disagree, based on that rod-builder's personal hierarchy of priorities, seems to be the last word on the subject.

Certainly many, many millions of Ultra-Lite to Medium-Heavy and Heavy fishing rods have been built and fished for decades without underwraps, and many millions of rod failures related to guide feet NEVER occurred. That certainly speaks for itself.

I think most opinions on this subject are closer together than a casual glance may reveal. Certainly qualifying the specific conditions under consideration is an important part of that decision process, IMO.

I'm keeping my words soft and sweet, because I wasn't planning on having to eat them, ... LOL, ... "Peace / Out", -Cliff Hall+++, FL-USA

WOW Tom them there are some profound words of advice! Rod manufacturers would have the most to loose from the whole subject wouldn't they. I feel better obout the rods i have done so far and the time i took to read up on guide preperation and the what at times seemed like redundent preperation. Thanks for the advice and i will ignore the "you have to underwrap" i read recently. Cliff you would make a heck of a politicion lmao. Don't exactly know what you said but it sounded great . lol

Billy,What I usually do is run the foot over the top of my finger nail.If it scratches it they need more work.If it dont they are good to go.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

IMHO manufacturers who mass produce rods do not underwrap to save money.

IMHO expensive blank = underwrap. Why place a metal object directly on the blank surface. Never wrap an ill prepared guide - it WILL damage the blank, underwrap or no underwrap. With a properly prepared guide foot the guide rests on a bed of thread, not in direct contact with the blank. IMHO this is good. It does take longer to wrap guides on when underwrappping, but the extra time is well worth protection this underwrap provides.

I recently built a series of rods that I did not use underwraps on - the complete rod less than $30 in parts. Also built a couple of solid glass blanks - these I did not have to underwrap, but did so anyways for the added look the underwrap provides.

IMHO the underwrap also gives the rod builder another area to show his skills with the use of colors/thread.

The addition of the few grams of extra weight underwraps add to the overall weight of the rod is negligible in all but the lightest rods.

Lou

Because I've never seen a rod that was broken due to not having an underwrap I guess it's never occured to me to bother with them. I know that on even medium plugging rods for surf you can tell a big performance difference on rods with underwraps. I don't use them and the metal guide feet haven't hurt any of my expensive graphite blanks yet.

But its your rod and you can use them or not. Up to you. Do what makes you feel best.