Hello,

I am a new rod builder. In the past year have built 5 rods, each looking better than the one before. I am in the process of rod #6. On this spinning rod, digital camp grips, sanded 7 ft med blank and single foot guides, I am wanting to add a locking wrap to each guide. In Tom's book he talks about using a security wrap behind the guide leg. I have also read and watched the videos on using the forhan locking wrap.

Is either one better than the other? Which wrap do you use more often?

Thanks

Barry

The only one I've used is the Forhan, covered in the Library I believe, and have had no trouble with tying it or with its performance. It is very easy to wrap, so I've not had a reason to look elsewhere.

The Forhan adds an additional level of security if you need it. Takes a few seconds longer to wrap. That's about it.

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Tom, I would like to ask about your comment "an additional level of security if you need it". It is hard for me to do so without feeling I am being rude. That is certainly not my intent in any way.

I have been around rods, both building and fishing, for 50+ years now. The majority of it has been saltwater fishing and I have used spinning rods during that entire time period. I have seen line wrapped around guides and guides destroyed from other reasons. However I have never seen one ripped loose from it's wrapping. Maybe just blind luck? Maybe because we used longer guide wraps in the past? Anyhow, in your experience, when do you think this "additional level of security' is needed?

Part of me would think the smaller fly rod style guides would be one example. Then I think the total opposite and feel the bigger the guide, the more it would be needed. Perhaps a surf casting rod that would need to pass shock leader knots during casting would be the ultimate need? Fishing a braid backing with a 100 yard mono top shot might be another good reason.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

If you keep your rods in a bass boat rod locker, yes. It's needed. That's how they get ripped out - as the rod is put in or taken out they catch on the lid or box and get pulled out. So it's not so much the fishing, but the transportation and storage where this comes into play.

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I thought that is what micro guides were for
Keeping guides frome getting rip out when in lockers - Cause they were so small ????

And then with maybe two turns of the Forham wrap Or even just one turn

Bill - willierods.com

Yes, micros are less likely to get snagged on rod lockers, less likely to have line grab them, so one would conclude that there is less need for a "security wrap." But, in that rare case where the non-stretch braid of probably twice the normal pound test gets snagged on the micro, it is less likely to be able to resist the forces imposed on it unless it has something like the Forhan wrap tying it down. Especially if CP is preventing optimum bonding of the epoxy. It is so easy to do Forhan wrap, it is hard for me to understand any debate on the issue. Just do it, just in case.

If you are wrapping snake guides on a fly rod, especially if you are wrapping "lightweight" snake guides, the use of a couple of Forhan wraps is a wise precaution.

Would like to see how you would wrap a forhan wrap on a snake guide. This would be the same as a locking wrap on a double foot guide.

Rolly Beenen
Rovic Custom Rods

Rolly, just cut the line from the spool and feed the line between the guide legs by hand keeping tension on the thread.

Just make sure your pull though loop is in place

Bill - willierods.com

Hi, Barry,
Flex Coat has a video on You Tube called "Tying a locking wrap on microguides" which you might find interesting.

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Mark Twain
John in Wethersfield, CT

Once while fishing I had a single foot guide come loose (I believe the flex coat was too old). Once was too much. I used a backup rod the rest of the trip. Since then, I use the Forhan locking wrap. I only build rods for myself, and the locking wrap takes so little extra time and energy.

Thanks for the replys and info. After some practice, the forhan loop is now being wrapped.

Reading about new things is great, but it never replaces the directions of experience.

Hmmm ---- "locking wraps on double foot guides"? Interesting but why - since the wrap on the front foot is essentially a total lock down of the rear wrap... I need to think on the physics I guess....

Ken: Lightweight fly rod snake guides have a nasty habit of deforming/compressing when struck parallel to the axis of the blank - like hitting the top of a rod tube when you are putting the rod away. This can - and has - caused one guide foot to slide out from under the guide wrappings. A couple of Forhan wraps is a better looking and lighter precaution than a big gob of epoxy on each bend of the snake guide.

Thanks Phil... makes sense for a couple of seconds of time invested to not loose a guide. Same happens removing rods (especially bamboo rods with varnish finish from rod sleeves)

that does sound like a darn good idea Wrap the foot - with pull loop in - then cut a long thread and hand it around several times while holding the wrap

I got to try that sounds easy ??

Bill - willierods.com

Thanks Phil .....good idea. The teacher - becomes the student - again. Keep it up, We're never to old or proud to learn.
Rich Forhan