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30 July 2010
FAQ
Which are better Snake Guides or Lined Guides?
What is the difference between English pattern & American Pattern snake Guides?
DLC, TIC and TIN what is it and how does it last?
Ceramic Centre
Types what is the difference?
Why are our guides so much more
durable than our competitors?
Do the rod blanks carry a life time warranty as some Rods do?
Do you have any information about sizing guides?
Is there any more information about the Rod Smith Power Wrapper?
Do we export?
Which are better Snake Guides or Lined Guides?
This is a commonly asked question, and at the end of the day
it is down to the individual angler, how they fish and the type
of fishing they do. Lined guides especially Fuji or Seymo will
not grove as fast as a snake guides, but the surface area of any
lined guide is much greater than a snake guide so this will increase
the friction and reduce the length of line cast. It is a trade off, but be sure
to use H&H snake guides as they are by far harder, than all others on the
market.
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What is the difference between English pattern & American
Pattern snake Guides?
In terms of raw materials and hard chroming of the guides there is
no difference, the difference is all down to the shape or form of the
guide. An American pattern is coiled left to right, it has straight legs
and stands off higher. The English pattern is coiled right to left and
is round in profile with sweeping legs, it is also a lot lower set.
In years of practice we have found that an English pattern is better suited
to a softer, slower action blank than an American pattern which is by far
better on a fast action blank. We proved this theory by putting American
pattern snakes onto a soft slow action blank in a relatively short time
of use the inside legs were showing sign of ware and in fact the Epoxy
on the whippings were actually grooved, We changed the guides back to English
pattern and tested again, over the same test period no ware was detected.
Dimensions of English and American pattern Snake Guides 
Note: All mm dimensions shown are approximate
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DLC, TIC and TIN what is it and how does it last?
All of these are different types of coatings that H&H can put onto there
range of snake guides and tip tops. DLC = Diamond Like Coating, This is a titanium
nitride coating, during the coating process Argon gas is added to give the
black/blue finish.
TIN=Titanium Nitride Coating is exactly the same as above but with out the
argon gas this leaves a gold finish. TIC= is the same but has an ebony gun
smoked finish. All of these treatments were originally developed and used to
coat drills, machine cutters and bearing parts to give a lower coefficient
of friction and improved ware resistance.
IN all of the finishes H&H take there Hard Chrome snake or tip top and then
have this coating applied to it. Why? Because it gives a very hard substrate
for the coating to adhere to. It is best related to a pond that freezes over
in winter, if you take a hammer and hit the ice you will smash through. However
if you take a small amount of water and pour it onto a road , that freezes ,
you hit it with a hammer , the hammer will bounce off because of the hard substrate,
That's why H&H put these types of finishes over hard chrome , Unlike Pac
Bay who coat directly onto the bear wire. This also means that if the coating
does were off you are safe in the knowledge that you have hard chrome underneath.
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Ceramic Centre Types what is the difference?
There are lots of types of centres but generally they can be split into 4
main groups based on the material they are produced from.
These are Porcelain, Alumina Oxide, Silicon Carbide and Titanium Nitride/cermet.
The biggest group by far is Alumina Oxide with different manufactures altering
the colour and even adding coatings on top of the ceramic to alter the appearance.
| Name |
Colour |
Material |
Hardness in Vickers |
| Fuji gold cermet |
Gold |
Titanium Nitride Cermet |
1100 |
| Fuji SiC |
Silver/Black |
Silicon Carbide |
2200 To 2400 |
| Fuji Alconite |
Black |
Reinforced Alumina Oxide |
1300 To 1500 |
| Fuji Hardloy |
Grey |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Fuji Hard |
Dark Grey |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Fuji "O" |
Dark Brown |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Seymo Superglide |
Brown |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Seymo Hardlon |
Dark Brown |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Seymo Titania |
Grey |
Alumina Oxide |
1200 To 1400 |
| Porcelain |
White |
Porcelain |
550 To 650 |
All of these centre types have there own benefits, and all the centres will
handle mono fishing lines. If you use braded lines we recommend that you use
Alconite, Sic or Cermet. But be warned there are lots of copy products like
this, where a softer alumina centre has simply been painted or chemically plated
to make it look like Sic or Cermet. It pays to buy a branded product. Back to top
Why are our guides so much more durable
than our competitors?
All our guides are put through
vigorous
abrasion testing. Click
here for more information on the testing procedure and the results.
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Do the rod blanks carry a life time warranty as some Rods do?
All the Rod blanks we sell are covered against all manufactures faults and Defects.
Obviously the workmanship done on a rod blank is not warranted in any way.
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Do you have any information about sizing guides?
Yes. You can download our sizing
guides below.
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Is there any more information about the Rod Smith Power Wrapper?
Yes. You can download our Power Wrapper
PDF here.
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Do we export?
Yes we do, to all people in EEC we have to charge VAT unless they can provide a VAT number. For the Rest of the World we can deduct the VAT.
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