Is it customary to grind off the little bard or protrusion
At the beginning of the guide ?

Thank you
Jd

Some do. Some don't.

So really it is up to you and how far you want to take it and why.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2020 02:40PM by Kent Griffith.

You want to prep the guide for easy wrap starting - that's a given. The, if you have guides with very wide feet and are wrapping them on a blank that is very slender, you don't want the guide feet hanging over the "edge" of the blank. Grind that so that you have a more slender foot to match the blank.

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

John,
The reason for the barb is on the reel foot, is the same reason that there are barbs on the tip of a hunting arrow. You do not want the guide to pull out from under the thread wraps. On a good guide foot with barbs on the end, the thread is wrapped up and over the barb and lays in behind the barb to secure it tightly to the blank.

Best wishes.

Thanks everyone ! several very good points !
John d

John,
As Kent stated, some do, some don’t. There are respected veterans such as Norman Miller and Jim Ising (of Fuji) who do not recommend grinding guide feet. While I agree that grinding a significant amount off the foot is probably not a good idea, I do usually “dress” the tip of the foot to produce a very nice ramp to facilitate the thread as it starts to climb up the ramp and onto the foot which consequently produces nicer looking thread wraps in the end, but that is obviously just my opinion. I would think if the foot was too wide for the blank, a better option would be to find different guides.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I always prep my guide feet. I mainly wrap ul to med freshwater rods. Lot of times the guide feet are larger than need be for the blank. I try and leave the overall factory shape just reduce it. One thing to keep in mind is don't get the very end of the guide foot too perfect. The thread will some times not climb up the foot then. Leave it a little uneven or slightly rough so the thread can get some traction. I used to try and grind and polish my guides to perfection. I had a heck of time getting the thread to start,would always want to slip off the tip of the guide foot.

In addition to Michael's comment, I use a belt sander with about a 220 grit belt on the sander.
I hold the guide foot perpendicular to the guide foot so that I leave sanding scratches across the guide foot. These slight scratches leave tooth on the guide foot to allow the thread to grasp and nicely climb onto the guide foot without slipping off. I make the very end of the guide foot essentially razor sharp to allow the thread to easily climb up the guide foot with no slipping back.

Also, the last thing that I do for guide foot prep is to run the guide back and forth in line with the guide foot on a flat very fine grit arkansas knife sharpening stone to be doubly sure that there is no hanging chad, or metal fragments hanging below the guide foot that could conceivably put a scratch in the surface of the rod blank.

A picture of the technique and fixture that I use when prepping guides.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

The fixture is a simple machine screw with the head of the screw ground flat to not protrude above the guide loop. I have made various sized fixtures for various sized guides. i.e. larger screws for larger guides, and smaller screws for smaller guides. Then, I use a piece of rod blank for a handle and I trim the length of the screw so that after inserting the screw through the guide loop and inserting it through the handle of the fixture, a wing nut to tighten things in place only has to be turned about twice to be tight. This length trimming expedites quick insertion and removal of guides when prepping the feet. By using the prop fixture, there is no issue about losing a guide while prepping or making a mistake while prepping because the guide slips while prepping.



Best wishes.