This was written by Thomas Lyle in 2006
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Recoil Guides What Are They Any Way
Hi There Again;
The Recoil guides are manufactured by Ultimate Ni Technologies; REC being there licensed distributor. Recoil guides are made with Nitinol a Nickel Titanium alloy developed by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in the early sixty’s and is about 55% Nickel with the balance being Titanium and trace amounts of other metals to making up its alloys. Nitinol being not only a super stainless alloy but also has some unique properties in that it has shape memory and super elasticity. After being hot worked in to a shape it can be bent and stretched. Just to have it return back to its original shape and size earning it the name memory wire (just like those eye glass frames that you can wrap around your fingers and they will spring back into shape, it's the same metal alloy).
But it’s not the same kind of titanium alloys used in making the frames for guides with rings. Nor is it one of the harder stainless alloys developed by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, SS316 stainless steel being harder. So if line wear and grooving of the guides are a real concern, you may wish to use another guide! But gram for gram Nitinol is lighter, stronger and more flexible that alloys like SS316. Making Recoil guides a better choice for fly rods and light spinning rods where its strength, flexibility and lighter weight are put to better use.
But there have been some troubles with them. In the past to much was made of the fact that they do recoil. I think that the wire was made to thin to show this off and there was a breakage problem with the very light guide sets, REC calls them Recoil fresh water fly guides. Also the feet trying to move around under the wrapping and coating with the snake guides has been a problem to. Both problems are due to there flexibility along with its shape memory of the wire which stores energy then releases it on recoil. Most metal guides give up most of the energy applied to it as heat.
The other problem is there cost at about $2.80 each compared to the under a buck price of most other wire guides. This has stopped rod makers from using them except on there most costly rods. If you have had to repair or replace a number of high end rods due to breakage or the feet dancing around under the wrappings you would stop using them. But some rod makers like Loom’s have had good luck with the thicker wired RSFX’s.
But things are not all bad with the Recoil guides if you understand them. They’re a very good guide for fly rods and light spinning rods. It’s my option that if you stay with what REC calls the Recoil saltwater fly guides, RSNX's and RSFX’s you should be fine and the same with the spinning guides. Just take a little extra time with dressing the feet and wrapping them. Or just use the single footed RSFX’s guides with a Forhan Locking Wrap and the same on the spinning guides to.
The sizes on the Recoil snake guides are with in the norm according to there spec. list and what I have seen. But things do get a little off centered with the single foot guides. I was told by an insider that when the manufacture first started making guides and was looking for buyers that some one placed small order for what should be a size #1SF guide and claimed proprietary rights to it and is still sitting on it. When REC started to sell the Recoil guides they ran from size #2 through #6. People started to ask for a size #1 guide and some one else had the rights to that size and wouldn’t give it up. So the Recoil #1SF is sized about half way in between size #1 and a size #1/0 to get around this. I didn’t know if the story is true or not but the #1SF Recoils are in between a #1 and #1/0 in size any way. The Recoil SF size #2 through #6 is a little bigger than normal.
