The thread about gold cermets being discontinued got me thinking.

The one thing I liked about cermet as a material was its resistance to cracking. This was evidently because of the metallic, or semi-metallic, nature of these guides: ceramics mixed with metal (CER for ceramic + MET for metallic, get it?) made them much less prone to cracking than ceramic is by itself. I never used cermet guides or tops much, because they were never available in the smaller sizes I needed, but I liked what they offered.

And the question that comes to mind while pondering the fact that cermet has been put out to pasture, is why can't another company manufacture a crack and chip-proof ring material?

My wholly unscientific guess is that for every guide that is replaced, at least 10 tip tops are replaced, and many, if not most, of these top repairs are because of a cracked, chipped, or otherwise broken guide ring. And this is logical, when you consider the fact that a rod's tip get more abuse, probably, than the rest of the guides combined. Just the other night, in fact, I almost ruined a rod by doing something as simple as walking in a door: it was late, it was dark, I had been fishing the beach at night, I was tired, and when I tried to walk in the front door, I banged the tip pretty hard against the door jamb (fortunately, it didn't break). This kind of stuff happens all the time.

With all the abuse that tip tops get, why hasn't someone come up with a ring material that can't crack? I would gladly pay more for this if it meant that the likelihood of a tip repair is much less. Give me a rustproof frame, with a frame that can't crack or break, and I would line up to buy them, even if they cost $20 more (apiece) than traditional tops. Heck, I'd even try plastic, if there was a plastic material that was strong enough to work on a fishing rod and was shatterproof.

Why is something like this not on the market? Is there no demand for it? Or is the custom rod market too small to justify the R&D that developing something like this would require?

There is one tiptop that fills the bill for you, provided you can source them in small enough sizes - carbaloy. You won't crack or chip it, ever, and it's extremely hard and wear resistant. However, it's very likely that very few companies are continuing to offer them.

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

Check out the Pac Bay CSBT tungsten carbide tip tops, Donart I believe has them.

We have a limited supply of the original US made Carboloy tip tops, sz 08 and 10 rings, tubes to 7.0.
Give me a holler'

Best wishes,
Ron Schneider
Schneider's Rod Shop
Mountain Home, Arkansas
[www.schneidersrods.com]
mtnron40@yahoo.com
870-424-3381

Pac Bay minimas will never chip or crack, since there is no ceramic insert in the guide or tip.
Nice long wearing guides. Very very light as well.

Roger