I just got back from the only fishing event I could afford, I had two free tickets and they wanted $9.00 to enter, scalped the second one to offset the buck I paid to a parking meter and made someone else happy. Bottled water, or a soft drink inside was like $2.50, but I packed a lunch.

Well I was talking with a custom rod builder who builds a ton of rods too many for me to consider custom, but thats another story some most likly will take umbridge with. He had an Ameican Tackle brochure, not looking at it myself, he told me these Nanloite ringed guides on Titanium frames are 65% lighter, lighter than what? good question? I now see American claims they are 45% harder. I saw on this site, that Alconites claim of 15% lighter was not panning out save for the BFAT tips but that weight savings was because of the much shorter barrel on these tips. I can see these Nanloite guides had alot less ceramic ring material, even less than the Alconites, but 65% was a big claim. Was this guy just pitching the attributes of this guide he put on some of his many many rods. I must imagine he is comparing Nanloite to the Hard/Hia-loys ceramics out there, as this would produce the biggest discrepencey, or maybe you have to go back to agate ringed guides... Hold water or not?

maybe they are comparing them to roller guides? well i bet they are if you compare the 2

wouldent happen to have been in G.R there Chris ????? i seen his ........semi custom......rods last year nothing special about his rods at all but he must be doing something right to have that kind of setup.........were abouts are you located if you dont mind me asking ..

I just got some of the new AMTAK A-frame guides (not the Titans) and they are 75% the weight of an equivelant Alconite concept guide in 25, 16 & 8 sizes.

Chris,
If you Google density and then look around a little you will be able to find the density of aluminum oxide (Hardloy, Hialoy), silicon carbide, titanium, stainless steel etc. and the mass is what you really want to know because that is what affects rod performance but you will not be able to find Alconite or Nanolite. These are just trade names and have no objective meaning. I could be wrong but I strongly suspect that they are both just grades of aluminum oxide. Plus you do not really know how much of the material is actually in the guide. The only way to tell how much a guide weighs, which will give you a rough indication of the guides affect on the rod, is to weigh it.

I've always figured that all of those weight claims were pure marketing nonsense. None of them EVER say lighter than WHAT.

Chuck, If you have the weights on those guides (or ANY guides) could you please submit them to [www.wideopenwest.com] so that all builders will have access to that info. The more people that submit info, the better for all of us!!

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!!

I have a question in reference to guides as well. I see where some guides boast 100% Titanium frames. I am not a metalurgist, but I thought that Titanium was i brittle metal and had to be combined with a stronger alloy to be useful. Anyone have any insight into this claim?

Tight Lines,

Pat

Pat you are completely correct! All Ti claims that i see combine with Ni to allow the flexibility plus they are a good match molecularly. It does add weight but is much lighter than a carbon iron molecule. And more resilliant with a higher memory.Pure Ti if broken would shatter almost like glass if hit with a powerfull enough bullet. A little like carbon.

If you are interested in the "titanium" frame materials you can take a look here to start. There are many forms of titanium and each has properties that effect their behaviour when used for fishing rod guide frame material.

[www.key-to-metals.com]

This one will give you some ideas on how to work with the various forms.

[titanium.corrosionmaterials.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2007 12:12AM by Bill Stevens.

the titans have a titanium alloy frame, not pure titanium. also, the "nanolite" rings are zirconia material from what i understand.

the lighter claims I would imagine are compared to stainless steel framed guides of somewhat equivalent sizes. the harder guides are probably zirconia compared to some other ring material.

Don't really understand who Mr Crabtree is talking about, me or this mass producer of rod with custom in his website name. My set up is a simple as it needs to produce truely one off custom work, modifing every component other than to merely assemble it correctly.

If he is talking about the guy in the booth doing something right, he didn't have a handout to distribute, or a working website to consult, (just were having troubles of one sort or another page instead) it appears hes building for the masses to maximize and maintain profits. I'm not exactly sure about the price but I heard a booth at the show cost $1600 you have to sell alot of rods to cover that and break even. Not having a brochure to hand out and a corresponding website, which is infinately cheaper and is almost a prerequsite for the show vendor to have, would make me wonder how well he is doing?..don't know if right would be the term I would use. He is building for the masses and as such causes one to cut corners. I'm not in it for the money I wouldn't want my custom rods sold in big stores. Thats just not how I envision doing something right and still claim custom work, next thing you know your claiming 65% lighter guides, and decerning ppl start looking at at you funny. You saw what You saw, so did I.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2007 05:33PM by Chris Karp.

what ever you just said i totally did not understand.... i was talking about the guy at the sport show with all his mass rods on display i was not reffering to how you build rods or what you work with i simply stated you must have been in grand rapids at the show i live 20 minutes away from g.r ...................thats why i asked...............