Phone books - the phone company (at least here) doesn't print phone books any more - rather, the county business chamber puts out the small phone book with yellow pages.
I have one of those and a U-line catalog. I fold the line through one, put the other on top, and modulate the tension by how I position the steel wedge. (photo just above)
Line management designed into reels and spools comes up. The ability of the system to lay line flat makes the most difference in wind knots. (Check some of Tackle Advisor's vids where he talks about line management and spool shimming, and look at his loaded spools).
With good-line-management reels like my Stradic et.al and Libra, I fill both braid and fluoro to the bottom of the line-hook groove.
I fill the spool until I can run my fingernail from the bottom of the line hook groove and feel that the line is flush. I wouldn't do this on my old Penns, but quit at their fill-mark in the spools.
Since doing this, I've had exactly two minor wind knots, on the smallest diameter spool to the right (40 mm). After I cut off a total of 20' (not much braid), didn't get another.
Again, manual bail is important - if you're spooling loose line, possibly not even on the spool, all bets are off.
Also, a properly shimmed spool is important (hopefully at the factory) - if your spool stacks line at either end of the spool, you can't load past that.
Tom, your wind knot analysis applies to deep spools and pretty much everything up to the current decade. But if you look at my Vanquish spool, it begins where you said you left off. You can't see what's too much with braid and shallow spools, but you want to load it to that cusp for maximum cast distance. (kinda like your longest cast with a baitcaster is on the cusp of backlash)
The spool I'm actually using on the Vanquish is the doubled-capacity F6 spool, but you can see how this reel lays line, and this reel has never suffered a wind knot.
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I bought cheap uncoated braid once, KastKing, and found it abrasive and brittle. There was a discussion on TKF "all braid is the same".
I've found braid brands couldn't possibly be more different.
The new generation X-braid I just loaded on my Lew's SP - they're all hard-silicone-coated, not bare woven fiber, begin with a higher-strength core fiber, and thermally fused.
From reading the marketing on similar grades from Japan makers, the new lines have everything braid is not supposed to, shock resistance and elasticity, max possible strength for diameter, wear resistance, and I've already determined it makes phenomenal knots.
I've had fluorocarbon cut itself from past backlash damage. Certainly most braids should be worse at this, though the new generation of Japanese X-braid (YGK), Duel Hardcore X8, etc, may be more resistant to this and all abrasion - the elasticity might have landed me a big snook on UL at Arroyo last time.
Decided to try it on one reel in each of my line classes, PE 0.6, 1.0, 1.5. Ordered 200m in each size from Asian Portal to get a $100 basket and free Fed-Ex.
I'll probably be fishing the 0.6 and the 1.0 this winter. Going to pick my Stradic/Black Hole UL combo to get the new 0.6 (13-lb instead of 6-lb).
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I have 2 more reels spooled up with X-braid.
My 5500 CT, with Avail shallow spool, held 200 m of X-braid, and it's 30-lb test - the PE 1.5 line is thinner than its published 0.205 mm diameter.
The 15-lb Suxfix 832 that I removed, published as the same diameter, is thicker than published, because the spool wouldn't quite hold a full 200 yards.
(Didn't waste that good Sufix, used it on my spare FL4000 spool to replace 4-strand Yo-Zuri)
My "heavy-use" UL combo - aiming for redfish on winter glass minnows - Black Hole Rockfish UL rod with Stradic C2000SHG (equivalent to FL 1000), also held a full 200 m of the PE 0.6 X-braid - it's not supposed to hold that much, but 150 m.
Again, this whopping 14-lb test braid is thinner than Sufix 832 6-lb braid.
It ties a serious and thin Allbright knot to 15-lb Blue Label shock leader, and I managed to catch a black 1-m mark in the line colors.