I know there are no stupid questions here but...I am totally confused about reel seat sizing. I did a search all the way back and could not find anything to answer this question. Is there really a need for a specific size reel seat if you are building from a blank? What I see and read in questions and discussions seem to be about what size for a blank or handle. It seems to me that most of you are building arbors, reaming, and using other techniques to adjust/accommodate for blank strength, length, actions etc. I know that specific shaped seats go with particular handles and ways they integrate, but am I missing as much as I think I'm am? Are you more discussing reel seat compatibility with blanks or certain handles? I am lost here.

Fishing is not a sport, it is an art.

Fit the seat to your hand, not the rod blank.

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

Another factor to consider: Will the seat accommodate the reel you want to use for that specific build? By that, I am asking if the hoods will hold it securely. Will the reel be stable? Will the seat allow you to attach and remove it easily?

Danny,
A couple of simple hints about reel seat size.

Normally, large hands, large reel seats.
Normally, small hands, small reel seats.

Normally - larger blanks - larger reel seats.
Normally - smaller blanks - smaller reel seats.

But, in conjunction with those ideas, what sort of reel seat do you wish to have on a blank to match the type fishing that you are doing and the amount of "feel" that you wish to have with your fingers and or the palm of your hands.

Many many folks just really like a particular reel seat style or reel seat size and they will build nearly all of their rods - big and little, short, medium and long with the same reel seat size and style.

Other folks like to always try something different so in many cases, virtually everyone of the rods that they build will have a different size and or style reel seat on the rod in its finished condition.

The choice is yours and just one more item that you can check off when you build a Custom fishing rod.

Good luck

p.s.

Another thing to consider is to go out and look at the market and see what is being used on commercial rods in both sizes and or styles. Spend some time in a large sporting goods store that has a huge variety of rods for sale. See what the commercial rod builders are using. Check the feel of the grip and reel seat in your hand. If you have a particular rod in mind and or a particular reel in mind - take the reel that you wish to use with you when you go to the sporting goods store and just place the reel on the rod when you are handling the rod - to get a feel for the rod and reel together as a set and see if the combination works for you.

Spin, cast, or fly? Normal "bass" sized rods?

With spin, as Tom says, size the seat based on ergonomics, hand size. I have settled on the size 17 for my builds as it is much easier on the hands on a long day of fishing. 16's are simply too small for me and all of those people I've built for. Even 18's work well for some. As the size goes up the length often does too, and the larger seats may benefit from trimming the thread length down if you're not using reels with larger than normal feet. I'ts mostly about appearance; the weight savings is miniscule. I suggest you buy a few cheap seats just to evaluate the differences in size.

With fly the seat manufacturers give recommendations based on the line weight of the rods being built.

With cast, I believe, the only reason to go up from a size 16 is to get a bigger bore for larger diameter blanks. A lot of cast seats come sized for the blank, but 16's and 17's have the same size where they mate with the cork (or other material) grip.

Certainly not a stupid question.

On matching reel seat to blank can be a reference to exposed casting seats that come in different I.d.’s that would be sized close to o.d of blank ,then reel seat would be reamed to fit blank if necessary to fit blank snug without a gap at the point where reel seat would be mounted.If using a decorative insert it would match I.d. of exposed reel seat then an arbor is used and reamed to fit blank. I didn’t post this as a procedure but as an example. Hope this helps .
James

After reading all of your great and practical responses, I can see this was a good question that should help other newbies in the future. Your responses were informative and concise as usual. Thanks to all for taking the time to respond. I see I was on the right tract with my thinking. But also my main issue was answered in my mind. I deduce this is a component to consider for mostly ergonomic and decorative purposes and they all basically perform the same function. Size is considered more for hand size and maybe length of seat. I have been looking at a lot of rods for ideas, however this environment has not allowed me to do much in person looking. I will definitely look around and take the reel I am going to use.

Fishing is not a sport, it is an art.

For spinning reel seats they can be quite different in hand fit even though they are listed as the same size. For example, a size 16 standard pipe seat is much smaller in it OD than a size 16 Aero seat, which has a palm swell, or a size 16 Fuji VSS or IPS seat, which both have the handle cut outs which serve as palm swells to increase the OD. The 16 IPS grip/seat has a larger OD than the 16 VSS grip/seat. In contrast, most size 16 and 17 casting reels seats have the same OD at the rear of seat and thus fit most casting grips.
Norm

Sometimes when you get into larger freshwater fish, or saltwater fishing the casting reel's foot gets larger both in length and width than the ones found on bass rods/reels. Unless I know for sure what reel I, or a customer is going to use forever on one of these rods, I go to a 20 mm reel seat, any style, trigger reel seats for me get less relevant when a larger, wider reel is used that I can't palm the reel.. Many people in my experience over the years have bought their salmon fishing rods and reels separately, so they never have them together till they get them home, and worse yet when they are setting up for the first days fishing. They buy some reel like, for instance a Shimano Tekota line counter, and try to install it on a Chinese made off the rack rod and low and behold the reel's foot won't fit the reel seat, it's to big, it won't even start to fit.
If they had grabbed a Lamiglas, Loomis, etc. rod instead while purchasing it wouldn't make a difference what reel you wanted to use, they would all fit, even a large ridiculous reel like a Penn 4/0, Shimano TLD, etc. Stuff like that is important to me, if I spent $4000, or more getting to a fishing spot and had an reel failure, any reel I can get had better fit my rod, this is nickel dime stuff that can cost you if you get it wrong. Even if it's close by fishing, you've spent time and money to leave the driveway, the equivalent of forgetting your boat plug and not having a spare always on the boat.