But on the subject of pieces, the join makes a big difference too. Spigot, overfit, push in, ferrule..they all alter the rods action. A spigot should have the purest "bend" with an overfit being the "flattest" join due to the extra carbon used to strengthen the female section..but most rods seem to go for this...cost maybe??
Also, with an overfit, the rod is made in 4 unmatched sections and married up after..a spigot is made on one manderal and then cut to size. so is perfectly matched.
So which is best????
Good question, to which i have no answer
I have tried blanks with all these. I think perhaps there are some that work for different applications better than others, but if a blank is designed right to start with, the the joint is built into the design and shouldn't matter.
Actually a metal ferrule causes more interruption in the bend of a rod - flat spot - look at the stress curves on old cane rods. Spigots can be good, it depends how well the joint is designed. Overfit can be heavier than spigot but is much more cost effective and a great deal less fragile than, say, a carbon spigot joint which means using a narrower tube to continue the bend.
I never saw a mention of this either
However if you look at many cane rod stress curves, then yes there is a difference at the joint, however a lot depends on how the taper was measured, nearly all the stress curves that are available to look at, are measured from built rods, not always an ideal way to find out what the rod designer was trying to do. Many of the older rods curves have a peak at the joint which means the rod is softer, not stiffer, and this is due to measuring the cane from the ferrule area, where it has been thinned down to accept the ferrule and sometimes the taper deliberatley thins down to compensate for the extra weight/stiffness of the ferrule, some others have a dip making it stiffer, this is often a figure including the ferrule and makes a lot of sweeping generalisations based on figures/specifications from a long time ago. None of the programs accuratley reflect the different styles of ferrules used on classic rods, what you can be certain of, to a large extent, is the original maker usually compensated the taper to suit the type of ferrule and they all did it in different ways
I, like almost all modern rod builder make my own assumptions as to what they were trying to achieve and adapt a design to suit. If you are lucky enough to find original, unvarnished unstarted blank, or the orignal taper figures that some of the classics were built to, then you can make a rod the way it was supposed to be. I've noticed that if you find these tapers they often get a bit thicker at the ferrule area (a dip on the curve), my take on this is they were allowing for the removal of extra power fibres at the joint to make space for the ferrule, getting a balance between the reduction in stiffness of the blank and the increase in stiffness due to the ferrule.
Some of the Americans such as Dickerson, Payne and Young, had fixed forms for each rod they built (they also generally made their own ferrules too), most of these have been sold on as the years go by, so they still exist and are in the hands of modern makers, these guys can provide you with a real indication of what made the classics, classic and how they compensated for the ferrule. If you ask the right people you can get the answers
If you get the taper right and understand the material, then a Metal ferrule can disappear into the action
I prefer 2 pieces, especially with cane, but a lot of modern rods are designed as 4 piece from the outset and the joints are compensated for, this is why they are so good
Cheaper multi piece rods generally have less involved designs and may not have this effect, so would not feel so good. But Scott, Winston, Sage, Hardy/Greys etc all make specific 4 piece rods, that are very nice. 2 piece rods just feel smoother when made of the same material, usually because they can be made on a more even taper and usually use less material making them lighter (albeit fractional).
I like the idea of a 1 piece rod, makes a lot of sense, especially with cane
Sandy
