Jared: I did not do well in school in the class with all those numbers, so I suspect your conclusion about area is correct. Most rods I build are for use in salt water, so I take care to ensure the spaces between the guides, the wraps, and the blank are completely filled with epoxy.
My thinking is this will discourage corrosion of the guides and create a perfect radius of support between the blank and the guide foot, regardless of its concavity.

Jared: I did not do well in school in the class with all those numbers, so I suspect your conclusion about area is correct. Most rods I build are for use in salt water, so I take care to ensure the spaces between the guides, the wraps, and the blank are completely filled with epoxy.
My thinking is this will discourage corrosion of the guides and create a perfect radius of support between the blank and the guide foot, regardless of its concavity.

Phil, I imagine that for salt water rods that you are building, you would be correct. The bigger diameter of the tips on salt water fly blanks would lessen (I think) the importance of a concave foot. I wasn't trying to call right or wrong, trying to figure it out for myself and to get your take on it. And thanks for the idea of doing a locking wrap on the recoil snakes. Fantastic idea that I wish I had thought of! Lol! I wish I had done that on a recoil stripper guide that I had to re wrap. Tight lines!