I am building a 13', 7/8 wt. spey rod and want to be sure to find the spine. I have a spine finder (2 ball bearing raceway, one in each end of finder) and according to
Dale Clemens (in Advanced Custom Rod Building) when you push down on the tip the blank will roll to point where effective spine will be on top. Is this accurate in
your experience? A friend says no... the spine is heavier and will always roll to the bottom...not top. Who should I believe? And since this is a 7/8 weight should
I place guides on spine or opposite the spine? Appreciate some ideas. Thanks ... Sam Slack

Hi Sam,
You opened a big door here for a two sided argument.
Anyway - this is how I spine all my blanks.
You don't need the spine finder though. Use it if you wish. but you can also return it and get your money back.
Sections are numbered starting from the butt.
So the tip is section 4 (S4).
Start with S$. Tip on a hard smooth surface. I use a glass top coffee table or tile floor

1. With tip on floor hold section at 45 degrees. Push down on center on S4 and it will automatically roll to its preferred orientation. You can roll it back and forth to confirm that position if you wish. You will feel it "bounce and settle" into the position it likes. Place a grease pencil mark on the top (concave) side. I place the guides opposite side of the marks.
2. Do same to S3
3. Assemble S4 and S3 with spine marks lined-up.. Spine the assembled sections as above and re-mark if the lines are not exactly on top.
4. Assemble S1 and S2
5. Spine as above.
6. Assemble all sections with spine marks aligned.
7. With butt (S1) on a tile or wood floor - push down on blank while holding the tip section. The blank should rotate with spine marks exactly facing up.
If not - re-mark.

Install guides opposite the marks.
Good luck,
Herb

Your right, and your friend isn't wrong, depending on the perspective. If you don't have a spine finder and you have the butt on the table and the tip on your finger and push down with your other hand the blank will pop into the stable position and the bottom , the outside of the curve is the spine. With the finder, you push down on the tip and the blank stablizes with the top being the outside of the bend and the spine.
All you have to do is be taught one way and than have to look at it from a 180 perspective and get a different picture in your mind. Whatever way you look at it, the outside of the bend on the blank is the spine.

Spine on a 4 piece rod , very hard on the larger size's section's [diam.]

William Sidney
AK

Sight down the pieces and select the straightest axis on each one. Align all. Now find that straight axis and position it so the overall natural curve puts the tip and butt up, and the belly down. That should be your fishing orientation. Disregard the spine.

...........

It seems like alternating the direction of the spine 180 degrees in each successive rod section would result in a rod that had no spine at all, which would seem to be the ideal situation. Of course the finished rod probably wouldn't be very straight, but it could be worth it to have a neutral spine.

Phil,
Although one could do that - but I have found 0 effects fishing even with a blank that has a great deal of "spine" effect in the blank.

Good luck

I fish and build Spey rods and find the "spine" has no determinable effect on casting or fighting fish. I use the straightest axis for aligning guides.

Building upon the "spine" is "old school", a carry over from the early period of fiberglass blanks that had a much more prominent spine. Today's blanks have a far less prominent spine, and as has been pointed out in many previous posts, it is not a straight line.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2017 08:26PM by Phil Erickson.

I like to do both if possible but sometimes the spine and the straightest axis just will not line up very close to each other. I have found with modern graphite blanks they typically have a major and a minor spine but most all have a slight bend you can see looking down the blank. If you build a pieced up fly rod without aligning these visual bends it will look like a dinosaur's back. Many fly blank manufactures will spine the blank prior to selling it so it may already have marks for alignment.

Spineing a rod apparently is supposed to make it cast farther, but I have never seen evidence this is so. An accurate rod is like an accurate rifle. An accurate rod will always shoot to the same spot, which might not be straight ahead and never is straight ahead if there's any wind. As long as the rifle barrel, stock and sights don't move erratically each shot, or the rod's grips, guides and ferrules don't move erratically each cast, great accuracy is possible; even if the stock or rod blank is not straight.

I disagree with Lance, there are very few fly blank mfg who mark the spine in my experience. It is no longer a factor worth considering.

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