Textured fly lines on vintage rods

[Matt B]

When on a fixed income or time time away from pleasure will answer your question...

That’s not a concern. Evan’s rolling in that Big Forum Money!

 

[Salmo_g]

There are better quality snake guides available these days than when I assembled that rod. Back then Perfection offered two grades of snake guides, uncoated stainless steel and triple (or hard) chromed stainless steel. The hard chrome definitely last a lot longer than the uncoated guides, but both will succumb to textured fly lines. I never expected the guides on a rod to last forever and figured that installing new guides was analogous to buying new tires for my car.

The good news is that the guides on that Fenwick are easily replaced. The wraps are coated with spar varnish, not expoxy. So the wraps are easily removed for installation of new guides. Use whatever line you want and go fishing.

 

[Evan B]

There are better quality snake guides available these days than when I assembled that rod. Back then Perfection offered two grades of snake guides, uncoated stainless steel and triple (or hard) chromed stainless steel. The hard chrome definitely last a lot longer than the uncoated guides, but both will succumb to textured fly lines. I never expected the guides on a rod to last forever and figured that installing new guides was analogous to buying new tires for my car.

The good news is that the guides on that Fenwick are easily replaced. The wraps are coated with spar varnish, not expoxy. So the wraps are easily removed for installation of new guides. Use whatever line you want and go fishing.

That was my plan! I'll just run this and if the guides fail, then it gets another upgrade.

 

[mcswny]

'll just run this and if the guides fail

And you'll consider that a life well lived for those guides.

 

[Lake flyer]

Trying not to veer too off topic here. But I'm curious what you did to sand those guides smooth? I have a rod I built and used with one of the original sharkskin lines that wore the inside of the black single foot guides chrome, plus wore some grooves. I hadn't thought about trying to sand them smooth rather than stripping the whole rod down and rebuilding it.

The tiptop was the worst grooved, so I used a really fine emery cloth wrapped around a nail and just took my time. I wet sanded it.

The snake guide had hardly anything so I used a piece of paracord and I think it was with some valve lapping compound. That was quite a few years ago so I am just not sure what the compound was. It basically only needed some polishing to clean up the slight grooving. I am not sure how much pressure one can put on single foots because the snake guides were pretty secure.

 

[ffb]

The tiptop was the worst grooved, so I used a really fine emery cloth wrapped around a nail and just took my time. I wet sanded it.

The snake guide had hardly anything so I used a piece of paracord and I think it was with some valve lapping compound. That was quite a few years ago so I am just not sure what the compound was. It basically only needed some polishing to clean up the slight grooving. I am not sure how much pressure one can put on single foots because the snake guides were pretty secure.

I think it's worth a shot. Worst case is I still need to replace the guides, best case is I can start fishing that 4wt again.