Was playing around last night with a way to lock the single foot guides to the blank with thread in order to prevent ever coming loose. I have never had this happen, but figured some reassurance is nice and what worse PR is there to have your new custom rod fail.
So, this is what I did not this rod. Now I haven't seen this written anywhere, so if it is already published or known, I certainly do not mean to infringe, but since I hadn't seen the technique displayed, I will claim it until otherwise notified. (I am making it sound like some brilliant technique, when it really isn't).
Wrap guide as usual from tip to base, wrap up the base til you come where the foot lifts off the blank far enough to fit a single thread under. (Make sense). Now as you continue a wrap, bring it UNDER the guide, STOP. Keeping tension on the thread, wrap it over the foot and back under again, you should be just where you stopped earlier, so make another rotation of the rod to bring the thread back to the base again. On larger guides I did this twice, on the smaller ones, I did it once. Now, make 3 more complete wraps under the base of the guide. Your done. Pack the threads up under the base and viola! You have the guide secured to the blank. One tip; This secures the guide where it is at, so before you wrap the thread around the guide, make sure the guide is very close to the final position as this does not allow alot of manipulation, once secured. You can still make MINOR adjustments, but that is it.
You can probably do this 3-4 times on very large guides.
It worked GREAT and should make the guide very secure. The finished wrap looks just like any other with 3-4 threads under the base. Everything packed together well, no gaps.
Again, if someone has already developed this, I take no credit, but it was on my own that I figured it out.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Happy wrapping.

This has been done, and is being done, by many rod builders. Perhaps not enough however. There are many variations on "locking wraps" for single foot guides. In the next issue of RodMaker, we will feature the "Forhan locking wrap" which is another version of a wrap to keep those single foot guides in place. Rich has been using it for many years now and wanted to share it with others. Your own version is probably equally good and hopefully more rod builders will give it a try.

Single foot guides are much maligned, and usually do not deserve it. Little things like these "locking wraps" may help to dispel so many of the myths and misunderstandings of what for most purposes is really an excellent choice in guide styles.

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Elrod, I have been wrapping my single foot guides the way you describe on my fishing buddies' rods. I always thought it a waste of time but the inevitable happened last week. I had given one of my rods to my best fishing buddy and we were wade fishing for flounder. My friend hooked a large flounder and when he set the hook, one of the guides came loose. First time for me. From now on all one foot guides will be Elrod locked at my bench. Yours was a very informative article and if any young wrappers out there read it, they should follow your advice. Lock 'em in! Thanks, Ellis

I am the newest and most retarded of all rod-makers. I've had a couple of single foot guides pop out. Never from fishing, always from rough handling or getting the guides hung on something. I now "cheat" and lock them into place with a tiny drop of superglue.

After wrapping the guides and aligning them, put a tiny drop of superglue right where the foot comes off the blank. Tap the butt of the blank to make the glue go down around the foot under the wraps. Do not use enough to make the thread wet. Let it dry before applying color preserver and finishing as usual. Once finished, I have found no negatives after a month of constant use.

I also used superglue to re-attach the ones that popped out. Put a drop into the hole and then worked the guide foot back in. They haven't moved since.

"Sounds good. I would like to know longterm outcome though, as superglue is not very flexible and might crack and crumble under much flexing. Let me know."

It's been 5-6 months since I started using the superglue, and they are still holding well. At first I thought of it as only a temporary fix, but it seems to be lasting. I think the trick is to only use a tiny drop of glue. I dunno. All I know is that it's working well. But I'm going to use the Elrod Wrap from now on, too. :-)

TH