I would also add that the rods spine, guide number placement as they
are a weight hanging of one side of the blank, scrim and painted
versus unpainted can effect speed and action, taper and material.
I was lucky enough to build and test fly rods for an Australia company
for a time and found the rod action could be altered very easily by
the above items so.
Material, taper build can effect speed which tends
to measured for recovery I was told, action how much and where it
bends before starting to recover.
I would also think that amount of material compression on one side and
stretch on the other which is part of modulus and scrim type effects
these actions.
As well as all of these items number of pieces 3 or 4 and type of
ferrule can change and action, all changes in thickness and all weight
has an effect.
Shaun
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[GH] Shaun,
I agree with you in that all these things make some differences in rod action, however small.
I'll have to think further on your comment about rod spine. The spines of older rods were much more prominent that the ones in modern fly rod blanks.
Tom White claimed that he was able to slightly alter the action of a fly rod blank by using various methods including rubbing with steel wool to remove the factory finish.
As I experimented with a few of his altered blanks, I felt i could improve these rods a bit by using Titanium/Nickel guides which were very light. Guide weight, number and placement can make a difference. With lighter metals, we have the option of using greater ring size and / or higher step-off from the blank for stripper guides (although weight added to the butt section of the rod makes a lot less difference to the cast or caster than weight out near the tip.)
Both G.Loomis and Kennedy Fisher came out with rods for salt water fishing which had no ferrules.... true one-piece rods. I compared them with the same models of G.Loomis rods made in two and four piece sections and noted a slightly improved "feel" of the one piece rods when cast. Strictly subjective. No hard data. I considered the fact that a one piece blank weighs slightly less than the "same" four piece one. Whether that was a factor, I don't know.
I, and many Florida Keys flats fishers and guides, went to the use of one piece fly rods for reasons other than the fine nuances of casting. Another subject altogether.
As weight, particularly out at or near the tip of the fly rod, appears to make a difference, the use of less material to affix the guides (thread wraps & epoxy) probably does have a slight effect.
One custom rod maker, our Don Jackson, made up some wonderful fly rods using standard factory blanks. He actually used threads of progressively lower diameter in wrapping the guides to the blank as he approached the tip and used sparing amounts of epoxy. (Thinner wraps hold less epoxy). Esthetically, his rods are works of art.
I suspect that some casters may be much more sensitive to these slight changes than others. From a practical market standpoint, I doubt many customers would ever notice these differences.
I wonder if you did your work with Strudwick of Australia ? I have some powerful salt water rods made by them given to me by Rod Harrison ("Harro") of AU. I don't know if they are still in business.
Gordy
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