I have build a few flyrods with genuine nickel silver reelseat. The pure nickelsilver seats are much heavier than their plated counterpart. My question is : How durable is the planting over time. This time I Am building a three weight and the nickel silver reelseat is as heavy as the blank. I know the weight is the bottom of the rod and does not affect the performance. I wish to have a light rod, unless if the nickel silver plating does not keep up well over time. Any input?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2021 01:24PM by Terje Bendiksby.

Stainless steel is low carbon nickel steel, REC recoil guides are nickel titanium, copper nickel piping is a highly durable piping solution in saltwater, I see a pattern here.

Assuming the plated seat is a high quality seat made by a reputable manufacturer, it'll be more than good enough for what you want to do.

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Terje,
While different metals have different specific atomic weights, for our intents and purposes in rod building, most are similar enough to make detecting an overall weight difference very difficult, Al and Ti being the exceptions. If your solid nickel-silver (NS) seat is noticeably heavier than a plated one, it is simply larger or thicker-walled = find a smaller / thinner version. By the way, there is no such thing as “pure nickelsilver” = it is an alloy containing mostly copper with the addition of nickel and zinc, but surprisingly, no elemental silver; with silver only describing its appearance. It is also commonly known as “German silver”. Its attributes for rod building include corrosion resistance, formability and lubricity making it the first choice for ferrules prior to Tip-Over-Butt (TOB) ferrules. But is considerably heavier than anodized aluminum or titanium.

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

Has nothing to do with larger or wall thickness. I think what you are going to find if using an identical size product, in terms of weight from lighter to heavier would be
Aluminum
Titanium
Aluminum Bronze
Stainless Steel
Nickel Silver
Copper

Ron Weber

Ron,
With all due respect, I am extremely surprised with your reply “Has nothing to do with larger or wall thickness.” It should be obvious that a part which is larger, including wall thickness, will be heavier than a smaller part. In Terje’s circumstance, the only explanation why his solid NS seat is heavier than a plated NS seat is simply due to the size / mass of it, including wall thickness. You even stipulated such “...if using an identical size product...” in your (misleading) list of lighter to heavier metals. While you are correct that Ti is (~30%) heavier than aluminum, you failed to include that Ti (depending on the alloy) requires ~ 20% of the material to produce the same strength = Ti has a considerably higher strength-to-weight ratio than Al. Case-in-point = who makes aluminum guide frames?

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

Ok, makes perfect sense. You have the ideal size seat for your build in nickle silver, but it is too heavy for your liking. So instead of choosing one with the same specs in say aluminum or another media, just downsize the original to a smaller and less desirable size and fitment to acheive the weight reduction.