Silk will be just fine. It's very strong, and you don't need much tension to prevent a break there once varnish or epoxy is applied.

Some rod builders I've talked to have recommended double wraps for increased strength, but others I've asked about double wraps there don't think it's necessary. And that goes for both nylon and silk. I think it comes down to wall thickness and personal preference.

imho that juncture will have more possible stress problems than any other point. i'd wrap well with nylon and be done with it, enjoying the fact that it's done "right". the spigot joint will/should always be pushed tight. there's the possibility also of well meaning folks who will try to tighten the joint up.

Silk stretches a lot less than nylon and you can get almost two wraps of silk for every wrap of nylon. I doubt if anyone has done destructive testing on practice ferrules comparing the two thread types but if I had to guess I'd bet that the silk might be more resistant to ferrule cracks because of it's low stretch. Either one will be just fine, IMO.

Are you doing silk for the guides?

Guide foot prep is the key, reduce the hump at the beginning of the guide foot. That and really check for threads that might crossed over each other. They seem to jump up out of no place.

New Old Stock (NOS), usually means a new build on old materials (stock). The state of preservation of the old stock can vary wildly.

Right, the blank is an old one that has never been built on. So it is a new build with old stock. Such blanks are in varying conditions of preservation, so you want to take that into account when you wrap the ferrules etc. Such blanks are always a gamble, it could break the first time you cast it, or fight a fish. Most of the time they are OK.

It is the same thing with a new blank, there could be damage that you can't see, and that is where the rod fails. It may not fail the first time you try it, but it eventually will fail. That is why new blanks have a one year factory warranty.

Old blanks that have been kicking around for a while, could have been abused in all kinds of ways while in storage. And, the ultimate question that always bugs me is: Why wasn't this blank built-on years ago. Could the original rod builder have rejected the blank because it had some kind of flaw? Yes, using NOS blanks is not for the faint-hearted.

Fisher rolled blanks for many companies, including Winston. They never made blanks for Scott.


Tom