Thread: building custom rods

Let me preface by saying that I know next to nothing about building rods, though I do think building anything custom would be a great way to spend some time (and money!) (guitars, rods, knives, etc...) I was listening to a podcast the other day about surf fishing and one of the guests had just starting building their own rods, at first for himself, and then to donate to charity events. One of the things he mentioned doing was bending the blank (IM6) to almost 90 degrees, and from that point, marking where the guides should go in order to have the line maintain an almost perfect curve (less angles). He said a lot of the manufactured rods just place guides at set intervals, whether or not that will result in better curvature of the line. This bending and marking may be standard common knowledge for custom rods, which like I said, I know little about, but I found it to be interesting enough to stick in my head and figured I would pass it along. He also swore by Fuji Recoil guides.

What he said is true. A good custom rod builder will perform a static test on the rod to place the guides so the line follows the curve of the rod under stress as much as possible. The total process is a little long to describe here, but I am sure a Google search on static testing will get you information. You can also check out this site. Look under their instructions.
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