Is the single foot ceramic wrapped on as a tip really worth it with regard to weight savings? What about durability?

Weight savings would depend on what you are comparing it to. Probably not a lot of difference.

As far as durability is concerned, there are better options.

I experimented with the guide as a tip and it went over like a lead balloon with my customers. It looked funny and they were afraid that their ine would be damaged by the blank rip. (casting rods not spinning).

My next choice was a regular BFAT6 which worked fine but it looked out of place with the small guides.

I finally settled on using a BFAT 4.5 with the largest tube size (3.9). I split the tube, swaged, fitted, glued, wrapped and epoxied it. Out of 36 builds I have yet to loose a tip.

Hope this helps.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

What does "swaged" mean and how to you do that? I follow all the other steps.

After I slit the tube with a #11 Exacta blade you have to open it up in order to get it on the tip. This is what I referred to as swaged. I use a pair of round nose pliers. Just push one of the sides into the tube until it expands enough to fit the rod tip.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

That makes sense. Thanks.

Marty,

I use the regular single foot guide in the place of a 'tubed' tip top on all of the fly rods I build now.

It is stronger than the tubed tip top. Wrapping thread around the leg provides more holding power than any glue, and is really 'stronger than steel' as far as staying put is concerned. You don't have the glue/heating/coming loose issues that abound with tubed top applications.

Since the guide is the same as those below it, the line path is straight and the guide angles match. Not sure if it maters much in practice, but it should allow easier passage of the line and any connections through the guides and out the tip.

I don't do this on conventional tackle, mainly because I seldom build such things anymore and really don't care about experimenting there. I'll let others forge that road.

As far as 'looks' go, until I point it out, most folks don't notice it and really can't tell the difference until I 'educate' them on the advantages. You do need to do it properly, including making sure that the end of the blank is properly trimmed so it doesn't look like the rod got broken. I prefer the look of this method, as it makes all the wraps and guides look the same. There is no 'odd looking' thing at the end of the blank. It's an elegant solution to the 'tip matching the guides' issue with the tiny guides many are using now, but I've been doing it for fly rods with 'normal' sized guides for years now.

Takes care, and it's not 'easy' to do it, but you have to wrap the tip guide on as close as possible to the end of the blank. For most guys doing large numbers of rods or production work, it's much faster to just slip on a tip and glue it in place. For me, this is just one more advantage to 'custom'. I see the advantages to this method. It's harder to do correctly, but I have the time and the will to do it. So I do it, and the extra time, care, and aggravation (even doing a bunch of these, it takes a couple of tries on most of them, it IS tricky with a tiny guide and a very thin blank) is 'worth it' to me.

Up to each, of course.

Buddy Sanders

Thank you, Buddy. I agree. I, too, believe the benefits outweigh the slight added effort. I have a pet peeve concerning "quicker better, easier better", when it affects quality. "I can't walk a block or two, I must drive/be driven". I even wrap by hand, by prefernce.

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

Those that are using the single foot guide for the tip is it the same size as the rest of the running guides?

Ron
That seems to work well and matches up best for me.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I'd like to see a picture of a guide used for a rod tip. Can someone post one?

Go to the photo page, click wraps, type tip in search, click go, and you will see a #3.5 guide as a tip top.

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

Alex,

I went and looked at the picture that Ralph directed you to.

I do mine a bit different.

When I'm done, that little stub of blank is barely visible, it's tapered down to the guide, and the guide ring is in front of the end of the blank.

Buddy

Buddy can you post a pic or email me one? I'd be interested in seeing that.

Alex,

I am digital photo challenged.

Camera/computer interface is incomprehensible to me, and I've never been able to figure out how to post photos anywhere.

So, unfortunitly, I can't show you one of mine. But I know someone here has to be doing it in a similar fashion. Hopefully, they will help you out.

Buddy