I am new to the forum and relatively new to building rods. I am a fan of the Fuji SIC guides and the last 3 casting rods I built I used the Fuji KW's. Looking for guide suggestions for these blanks. I have built a few rods with the micros and I have decided they are not for me.

For the SJ-736-1 and the SJ-765-1 X Ray blanks, they will be used as casting rods for bass, I am not wanting to use double footed guides all the way up, instead I was leaning toward the Fuji SIC KL's for running guides (not sure if this is the best option). Also I am going to need to match a tip top with the guides as well and that seems to be a challenging decision as well.

Long story short I am in need of some guide options for these blanks.

All help is appreciated

Ryan

I have two rods built on SJ 736 X ray blanks, and I used Fuji T2 guides. Those are the black titanium with SIC rings. Pricey, but very sweet, and will result in a nice light feeling tip weight. I went with the conventional 3 double foot reduction train on them. KW 10, KW 8, KW 6. followed by 3 KB 5's and the rest KT 5's. Tip top is a Fuji KG Arowana in the appropriate size tube, with a #5 ring.

I recently built two rods on MB 725 C6O2 X ray blanks and I used the Fuji T2's on one of them, and titanium frames with Torzite rings on the other one, but I changed up the guide trains. I went with Fuji's KR concept for casting. Butt guide is a KW 10, followed by a KW 5.5 on both rods. the same 3 KB 5's and the rest KT 5's on the one rod with the T2's. And KB 4.5's and KT 4.5's on the rod with the Torzite rings. The Torzite's have about a half size larger ID than the SIC rings, because the Torzite is a slimmer ring.

I personally would go with KW 10, KW 5.5 followed by KBs and KTs. I will say I used one more guide than I have on the rods with the 3 double foot guide reduction train, because they carry a little more height down the blank. It's one extra running guide that weighs less than 1/10 of a gram, so it's really nothing to fret over.

I have 11 guides total plus tip top on the rods built on the SJ 736 blanks, and 12 guides plus the tip top on the rods built on the MB 725 blanks. Of course the number of guides you choose to use depends on how closely you want the path of the line to follow the natural curve of the loaded blank, and how close you'll let the line get to the blank.

For the SJ736, I've been using,

Rv6 butt guide: [voodoorods.com]
3 kb5
7 kt5

Pick your preferred frame and insert combination for the kb and kt guides.

The the SJ765 you may need one more kt.

Thank you for the input, I know what direction to head now.

David Baylor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have two rods built on SJ 736 X ray blanks, and
> I used Fuji T2 guides. Those are the black
> titanium with SIC rings. Pricey, but very sweet,
> and will result in a nice light feeling tip
> weight. I went with the conventional 3 double foot
> reduction train on them. KW 10, KW 8, KW 6.
> followed by 3 KB 5's and the rest KT 5's. Tip top
> is a Fuji KG Arowana in the appropriate size tube,
> with a #5 ring.
>
> I recently built two rods on MB 725 C6O2 X ray
> blanks and I used the Fuji T2's on one of them,
> and titanium frames with Torzite rings on the
> other one, but I changed up the guide trains. I
> went with Fuji's KR concept for casting. Butt
> guide is a KW 10, followed by a KW 5.5 on both
> rods. the same 3 KB 5's and the rest KT 5's on the
> one rod with the T2's. And KB 4.5's and KT 4.5's
> on the rod with the Torzite rings. The Torzite's
> have about a half size larger ID than the SIC
> rings, because the Torzite is a slimmer ring.
>
> I personally would go with KW 10, KW 5.5 followed
> by KBs and KTs. I will say I used one more guide
> than I have on the rods with the 3 double foot
> guide reduction train, because they carry a little
> more height down the blank. It's one extra running
> guide that weighs less than 1/10 of a gram, so
> it's really nothing to fret over.
>
> I have 11 guides total plus tip top on the rods
> built on the SJ 736 blanks, and 12 guides plus the
> tip top on the rods built on the MB 725 blanks. Of
> course the number of guides you choose to use
> depends on how closely you want the path of the
> line to follow the natural curve of the loaded
> blank, and how close you'll let the line get to
> the blank.

David, you REALLY know your stuff. I’ve had everything set up to do my first build on the 725 C6O2 Epitome blank for a few days now. Been reading a lot on here and watching videos to make sure Im ready to go. I’ll be doing that split grip assembly today. It will be my son’s finesse rod once I finish it. He’s 15, fishes a ton. He takes great care of his things. Got it on sale. Didnt understand how special it was until after that fact. I initially thought it was a complete rod due to the pictures on NFC. lol. Fast forward to now and maybe $1,200 later, I’m set up to build rods. I planned to anyways, just not this early. Glad it came in as a blank. I’ve needed a hobby and I’ll enjoy building rods for my son, wife, brothers, FIL, etc.

1st question: It will be a Split grip, casting rod. The guide train you did on your two C6O2, I’m guessing either would be good for this build? I haven’t ordered the eyes for it yet. Working on that now.

2nd question. If I used the 1 piece skeleton grip (or whatever you call it) on the 725 C6O2 for a future casting build, it should slide all the way to the butt of it it being the OD of this blank is small enough to fit through? If so, just epoxy the blank in? I REALLY love this grip but I haven’t purchased it yet until I understand it more. I’m not ready to start cutting on a blank yet. I read your threads about it.

I’d love to pick your brain as much as you’ll allow me. My email is soonerfirearms728@gmail.com .

Jeremy, thank you for the kind words. And if I really know my stuff, it's because of the help I've gotten from the members of this site. I'm sure you've seen for yourself just how much information can be gleaned from the pages of this forum. It's without a doubt the best rod building forum I've found on the internet.

As far as which guide train you choose to use ..... the type of grip being used has no bearing on which guide train you might want to use. So yeah, either guide train I mentioned above, would be fine for your build on the C6O2 blank. As I said in the post you quoted, I personally would go with the KW 10, KW 5.5, followed by 3 KB's and then KT's the rest of the way out.

As far as the MB 725 C6O2 blanks fitting all the way through an XO skeleton grip, I can only say that I have been able to pass all of the 4 MB 725 blanks I've received, completely through the XO skeleton blanks I've received. They've all been a little snug, but not overly so, as they passed through the slim portion of the grip. I would feel it pretty safe to say that the ID's of the XO skeleton grips are very consistent with other XO skeleton grips, regardless of when they were made. I can't say the same about the the blanks I've received, versus blanks from a different batch of blanks. Based on how closely I received my blanks, I'm assuming they all came from the same batch. A different batch may have different dimensions. One nice thing that could be, is that because the blanks have the ridges, that if you needed to have a blank that was just a bit smaller in diameter, you could pick up that diameter by sanding the ridges off the section of blank that will passing through the slim portion of the XO skeleton grip. It just depends on what your blanks dimensions are. All 4 of my 725 C6O2 blanks had a butt diameter of .479". And as I said, they all passed completely through the grip.

As far as e mailing each other. That's fine by me. I'll send you an e mail, and will put my name in the subject line, and we can go from there.

That’s what I ordered. I went with 4.5 on the KB’s and KT’s. Thanks for the info regarding the XO grip you put on a couple of your 725 C6O2 blanks. Looks very good. Time will tell how my first build goes. I’ll take my time and go slow. ????