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I love good questions. Let me say this, specific to the Sceptre blanks many of us have now. These blanks are Im sure gonna be a once in a lifetime build for alot of us. They are just that good. I doubt we will come across such blanks at such a price again. I plan on treating these blanks just as I would and do and will a vintage Epoxite, Eponite or a few others.
In this case my choice was never any less than an Agate and none but the best and I consider Golden Witch to have just that, some of the best. Ive never had one of there's thats been a problem. Even those tiny wire pure gold wire rope bezel models on blued frames. That by the way is my choice for the Spectre, they are costing me twice as much as the blank, simple as that. I feel the same way about the reel seat, luckily they are available from several sourses. My point being how many times are you ever going to have a chance to build a glass rod with this quality of blank into a once in a lifetime presentation rod?
On a whole, for presentation rods I like and stick to Agate. For some of the high grade Conolons I built I used the Conolon white agate guides, they still show up on ebay from time to time.
For rods based on the Eponite series I prefer gold plated stainless steel strippers. For the earlier Epoxite series I prefer either some of the larger Conolon white agate or even one of the special color Golden Witch agates. The few last year Epoxites I have came with Oxide strippers, they look alot like Fuji's to me.
For general use glass rods, I like chromed stainless, gold plated stainless, black chromed stainless and Mildrum bronze. Most older rods have strippers in sizes like 8mm. My smallest strippers are never smaller than 10mm. I prefer 12mm and like them closer to the grip on shorter rods. I like as a rule more guides of a larger diameter on my rods spaced closer together based on rod flex under load. If an 8wt fly line has a burst strength of 20 pounds then I want my 8wt rod to be able to handle the stress of a fighting 20 pound fish. That especially includes the ferrule and wraps on the guides. On heavier rods I follow the practice of underwrapping the feet of guides. For lightness of weight I prefer top wraps only and as short as practical for 6wt and below. For fiberglass I prefer double footed guides only because they were what was used during the golden era of glass. I do have some glass rods that have been rewrapped with single footed fuji's and they fish ok, as do several current glass rods made on glass with single footed guides. But for the classics my first choice is traditional. I especially like the double loop Phillipson guides on Phillipsons. Likewise the short wraps of the last year Phillipsons and some of the rods based on similiar Hardy/Fisher/Spectre based rods. The bright wraps really do something both for the dark brown Phillipsons and the dark Spectre blanks.
Its hard to color match Carbide strippers because of their duller finish but they are perhaps the strongest of the all metal strippers for glass rods and some of the most cost efficent as well. Phillipson used alot of Carbide strippers on their Eponite based series.
I haven't had a great amount of experence with ceramics, on some of the vintage rods I have especially the casting rods, Ive had so many that have seen their inserts fall out with just the slightest impacts that Ive been a bit leary of ever using them. However such as Russ Peak back when he first started buying Conolon and Silaflex (late 50s early 60s) blanks used those red and white ceramic strippers almost exclusively. Although when he made his agreement with Garcia Conolon to use their ovens for his blanks the newer lighter glass rods can be seen with both metal and Garcia Agate strippers. I have early rods by Russ Peak, one on a Conolon blank the other on a Silaflex and am very interested in there composition and layout, in that they were I think both build just before he started rolling his own blanks at Conolon.
I guess what Im rambling on about is the fact that on a so so blank, just about anything you want is acceptable and each to his own. But in the case of something special, like the Spectre blanks, I hope all are considering both the rarity and furture of what they build today. It would be interesting seeing a piece in Johnson's book about glass rods 20 years hense and seeing some of those Spectre built rods being listed as classic examples of glass rods made in the new century.
It is I think a very good chance for the members of this forum to really show some of their skills that they have been showing for some time in their builds on lessor blanks.
Im looking forward later in the year of showing mine off for sure too. I think they will test all of our skills in producing the best rods we can.
Richard