FYI, Harrison Advance Rod Co. has stopped using thread to whip their guides on rod shafts. They are now using a glue called Bug-Bond to mount the guides. It will be interesting to see if this will become the new means for whipping rod guides onto a blank. I saw one of the rods today and the guide feet sit and look like they would on a transparent or threadless guide mount. Most people would not notice the difference. Just looks like no color preserver has been used until you get really close and see that there is no thread there at all.

THre' sa post on another site with a rod built with this stuff, and a review aftr fishing. From the guy who "invented" or markets & sells it.

Looks like it's a photo-activated acrylic as opposed to a "glue".

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AD

It's a UV cured coating. Serviceable but I doubt many custom builders would find the slightly sloppy look, appealing.

Mike McCoy at Snake Brand Guides is working on a similar system along with a fixture that automatically aligns the guides during set-up.

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What happened to the other adhesive that was being developed that showed some real potential for use in securing guides on fishing rods?

Is that the system from Snake Brand?

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AD

what about the coating that was being discussed on the blog? would it be suitable for this application?

Tom

No, I don't think you could use it like that. While I think it will eventually replace epoxy as a wrap coating, It's not an adhesive in that same sense. At least not from what I'm being told.

I'm not sure what Mike is tinkering with. I was more interested in the fixture he had devised for aligning guides - you don't put the guides on the blank, the put the blank on the guides. It's quite an interesting concept.

I got the new TTW this morning and there is a story about BugBond being used on fishing rods. The photo they show has a guide glued to the blank with the stuff. One end of a guide foot is sticking completely out of the adhesive and the other one looks pretty bad. Now that may be due to poor application, but if that's the best it will do I really don't see it being the sort of thing that any custom builder is going to want to bother with. But that's just me.

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I'm the guilty party responsible for the material, the rod and the photo...

I'd like to point out for clarity that Harrison Advanced Rods in Liverpool have not stopped putting whippings on rods (to my knowledge). I know Dr Steve Harrison very well and I conducted tests with Harrison's to test the viability and really to prove that the material is what it is! They provided the blanks for the test.

Those tests culminated in me building a rod on a Harrison Lohric blank in under 2 hours (excluding handle). I am not a rod builder and this was my first rod... I tie flies and catch fish ( I just so happened to develop something along the way)! I don't have a rod turner and all the coatings were done by hand...

The rod is a 9ft 9# and is thread free from tip to handle and has had 15 fish to 16lb in weight... sure extensive testing is required and that is now a continuous process (not helped by me snapping the tip on a bush! But then the new section was ringed in 1/2 hour and ready to fish immediately.) How long it will last is subject to conjecture as no-one has done it before with my material.

With great respect (I'm not a rod builder and probably treading on thin ice) I would like to comment on the photo in TTW. The material is the same refractive index as glass and it may be the way the photo has been taken that it looks as if the foot is sticking out of the adhesive however, I can assure you it isn't... it is fully coated. Again those coatings were turned by hand by me at home and the ring is on the rod and cured in less than 10 minutes... the rod rings have not been fettled - just straight out of the bag from Hopkins and Holloway.

It was an exercise to prove a point... it can be done.