[j.r fartley]

Wait until you pick up the Helios Ion version..WOW!..just over an ounce in weight...stunning They have one in Banchory..and I also think there is a Trout Bum sitting there too if i remember...

iv never had an orvis rod,they look gorgeous but il have to save my pennies then sweeten up my better half to justify another rod getting delivered!

[Rob Brownfield]

I have 3 now...to be totally honest, not too sure about the finish (Western 3..hmmmm ???), but the actions and warrenty are spot on.

[j.r fartley]

iv never heard a bad word about  orvis customer care,when you spend a few hundred on a rod i think its important  you get that! 

[Ben Dixon]

I have 3 now...to be totally honest, not too sure about the finish (Western 3..hmmmm ???), but the actions and warrenty are spot on.

Have you had a good look at the finish of the Western3 rods Rob? 

They are designed with UK stillwater anglers in mind, these rods are a UK only product and have been designed around feedback and requests from UK anglers the majority of which seem to want a matt finish, the rings are a black nickel colour rather than gold or bright silver for the same reason, the build quailty of the rods is high and the cork is pretty good too. 
I said above that they are designed for stillwater anglers, this may have been the brief and the rods will excel on stillwaters but there are rods in the range that will work well in other applications I have cast the range and have to say I am most impressed.

On the Ions, have a look out for the 6ft #2, it weighs in at 7/8 of an ounce!

Cheers

Ben

[Iain Goolager]

On the Ions, have a look out for the 6ft #2, it weighs in at 7/8 of an ounce!

Hi Ben,

What reel would you marry that up with?

[Ben Dixon]

Not really sure Ian, my first choice would be the large arbour one, the Ion series has a cork reel seat so adding a little more mass at the butt end is not really a problem.  The smallest lightest reel Orvis do is the Battenkill Barstock one but for me, it is a bit too small even though it would sit nice with the rod, I prefer a large arbour so would put up with the weight of the LA.

Cheers

Ben

[Rob Brownfield]

Ben,
its not so much the matt finish, I have always loved Loomis for example, but its the colour of the thread and the way it appears to have suffered from lack of epoxy penetration..ie..the whipping look patchy and not consistant in colour. Most noticable on the ring foot area. The Trout Bums and Ion also has this.

I have a real thing about medium and lighter coloured threads and dark blanks. The use of colour preserver keeps the colour consistent, but certain colours lose there "sparkle" and end up looking flat..my Greys Esox is a prime example of that. I use a "watered" down epoxy that soaks the thread really well and forms an even, if not darker colour, and then 24 hours later i add a normal epoxy coat. It stops some of that "transperant" look so ring foot and tags of silver or gold tipping dont show through so much.

Don't get me wrong..the epoxy finish is lovely, the fittings are fine (I am building a rod with the Titanium finish guides just now), the colour of the thread is fine, the blank being matt is fine, the reel seat is better than the old Western (but looks identical to the one on my £99 Fulling Mill rod), but from an esthetic point of view, it just does not work for me. I love the finish on the Western 2's though

Just a personnel thing and I am sure many folk will love the colours and finish and I am certainly not detracting from what looks to be a lovely fishing tool.

[Derek McLaren]

Have you had a good look at the finish of the Western3 rods Rob? 

They are designed with UK stillwater anglers in mind, these rods are a UK only product and have been designed around feedback and requests from UK anglers the majority of which seem to want a matt finish, the rings are a black nickel colour rather than gold or bright silver for the same reason, the build quailty of the rods is high and the cork is pretty good too. 
I said above that they are designed for stillwater anglers, this may have been the brief and the rods will excel on stillwaters but there are rods in the range that will work well in other applications I have cast the range and have to say I am most impressed.

On the Ions, have a look out for the 6ft #2, it weighs in at 7/8 of an ounce!

Cheers

Ben

Hi Ben_D, do you any idea what the weight of the Western3 107-3 Tip Fly Rod is ,It seems to be different in the mags and i don't see it quoted on the UK website  .

cheers
 

[Ben Dixon]

I will take my scales in to work tomorrow and weigh it, will do the others whilst I am at it.


Cheers

Ben

[Derek McLaren]

I will take my scales in to work tomorrow and weigh it, will do the others whilst I am at it.


Cheers

Ben

That would be great and interesting to see how the weight compares to the western two's

 

[Derek McLaren]

I will take my scales in to work tomorrow and weigh it, will do the others whilst I am at it.


Cheers

Ben

Hi Ben, Have you found time to weigh the rods yet 

cheers

 

[Ben Dixon]

I have more than had time but have forgotten to take the scales into work for the last two days, I am sat looking at them now, they are next to my car keys so I should not forget them tomorrow!!

Ben

[Derek McLaren]

I have more than had time but have forgotten to take the scales into work for the last two days, I am sat looking at them now, they are next to my car keys so I should not forget them tomorrow!!

Ben

cool   

[Mike Barrio]

Hi guys

I find the weight thing fascinating, some folk seem to base this on the "weight" of the rod and others on the "feel" of the rod.

Do you know what I mean? If you put a rod on a set of scales, it will either be physically lighter or heavier than another rod, simple really. But, if you hold the rod in your hand and cast with it, you may well find the same rod will "feel" the opposite, ie lighter instead of heavier, or vice versa?

I guess a lot of this is to do with the amount of effort required to perform a certain cast ...... popular thoughts being that "If the rod is lighter it will require less effort to produce the same cast?"

Best wishes
Mike

[Magnus Angus]

Hi Mike

With some others I've worked on exactly that issue. Simple mass, ie rod weight, doesn't give enough information. We need an idea like Swingweight which is not uncommon in other sports. So we came up with this http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/swingweight.pdf which is a technical article - the principle author is a Norwegian physicist, Grunde Lovoll, the article gives the physics and maths background and justification behind a Rod Swingweight.
From that we took it a step farther by producing a Swingweight calculator http://www.sexyloops.com/eric/moi.php
With some simple balancing, to give lengths and then straightforward weights the calculator produces a figure for the Mass Moment of Inertia for a rod. Sounds intimidating but is a simple number. Compare the numbers and you know which rod will 'feel' lighter in the hand when we're casting - even if the weights of the whole rods on the scales are exactly the same.

This is the introduction to the Swingweight article

The term "swingweight" (or "swing weight") is well established in many sports which use a bat, club or racquet. In those sports, swingweight means the moment of inertia around a predetermined axis. We use the term swingweight to mean the moment of inertia of a single handed fly-rod around an axis at the butt of the rod. This standardizes usage and distinguishes swingweight from the moment of inertia around any other axis { particularly around the center of mass.

Moment of inertia (MOI) is resistance of an object to rotational acceleration. Greater MOI requires more torque to achieve the same rate of angular acceleration. So, the greater the MOI of a fly-rod the more force (torque) is needed to cast or manoeuvre that rod.

MOI is strongly dependent on mass distribution and distance from the axis of rotation. The dependence on distance from the axis is quadratic, so MOI increases with the square of distance to the axis of rotation. The following will generally be true:

    * Long rods will have higher MOI than shorter rods of similar build and/or mass.
    * Mass in the tip of the rod is much more important than the mass in the lower part of the rod (reel seat and grip).
    * Rods with heavy blanks will have higher MOI than rods with light blanks.