Hello, a question/concern on spline for multi piece fly rods. I have read in some books to find the effective spline on a blank to assemble the blank and roll it with some downward pressure on the blank and feel for the hop or roll to its natural curve. My question is that wouldn't it be more effective to roll each section on its own? To me this would make more sense, especially if it is a 3 or more piece fly rod blank. I did this on some inexpensive blanks and they cast very well and accurate for being sort of cheap blanks. Would appreciate any comments since I am new at building rods. Thanks, Bill H.

Bill; If you will go to the FAQ's section above I think all of your questions will be answered.

Yes you would want to find the spine for each individual section. However, you will quickly learn that spine makes little difference in your rod's performance.

Do a search of the archives here on "spine" or "rod spine" and you can read 'till your heart's content.

In the meantime, do as Jim advises and check the FAQs page here.

.................

bill, you're right, the correct practice would be in checking each section individually. but don't rule out the possibility that those inexpensve blanks may have cast just as well without spining the sections use the term SPINE in your search. spline generally refers to the bamboo rod making process.

eric
fresno, ca.

I have a question then. When not using the spline as a alignment guide how do you effectually align the guides? Would not the guides be off center and look like a snake going down a road?
Good Wraps Bob

Bob,

What does the spine have to do with guide placement? The guides are placed on the rod blank. They're aligned by eye or some other means that you contrive. They can't look any more like a snake than the rod blank does. I've seen some crooked blanks, but not quite snakelike.

................

I was just being funny about the snake. Unless you were working on a 3 or 4 pcs. rod. Then it could go in any direction.
Thats why I like laying my guides on the curvritue of the blank
Good Weaps Bob

I didn't understand what spine has to do with guide alignment. Thanks for clearing that up.

...........

The word SPLINE was a typo in Dale Clemens' book for the word SPINE.

And the word spline is used as reference to a piece of bamboo making up a section.