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I've had a set of the "new" titanium ferrules from Golden Witch for about a year now, and finally decided to put them on a rod.  The males are prefitted to the female.  Whoever did these for Russ Gooding did a pretty fair job, but the fit isn't quite as smooth as I would like.

If any of you guys has some experience working titanium, I could use some information on how best to tweak the ferrule fit just a little.  When thinning and crowning the tabs, I used diamond files and diamond paste.  That worked okay, but I'm curious if there is another way.  

Another thing.... will a regular drill bit work okay if I decide to pin the ferrules or do I need something special? (Harry Boyd)

I'm not 100% certain, but I think you need cobalt drills for titanium.  I'll check a little further on some of the machinist groups and web sites that I belong to.  (Mark Wendt)

Oops, I missed the last question Harry. Regular drill bits will work fine for pinning. You just need to use the slowest RPM your drill can run. Use a good cutting fluid if you have any, if not Isopropyl Alcohol makes a great Ti coolant.  (Mark Wendt)

I would proceed with caution. Don't use any aggressive  abrasive in the fit area. I would dress the males carefully with a  hard Arkansas   stone until I got the fit. Don't expect the same  "greasy" fit you get with NS. They are going to feel and sound a  little "scratchy", for lack of a better term. I would not personally  use the pins, being somewhat concerned that I would bugger something  up when dressing them, but I may be too cautious in that regard. I  would suggest you mount them with a strong epoxy, and then tweak the  fit, if necessary. My advice is to fit them a bit slacker than you  would with NS.  (Tom Smithwick)

As I'm sure you know I do a fair bit of work in titanium. The only problem for working titanium with hand tools is that its hard. You can use regular files and sandpaper to crown and feather the tabs. It would certainly help though if your files are nice and sharp, so work with a portion of the file that doesn't see much use and it'll cut quicker.

As for the fit, if they're too tight you can adjust the fit just like NS ferrules with sand paper, but I would use one level coarser grit (400 instead of 600, etc.) to start off with.

Good luck, and if you have any more  questions give me a shout.  (Mark Shamburg)

I have put a set on one rod. I did only a little to the male/female ferrule fit. They are a little tight, but with use they have seemed to loosen up a bit and work OK. I think that I did take some 400 grit Carbolox and polish the male ferrule a bit - does almost nothing though. I did not use pins, but did make sure that I roughed up the inside of the ferrules with a very sharp hard steel tool to ensure good adhesion with the bamboo. I have a fit that would let me remove the ferrules with a good pull - not lose and not overly tight. I used high strength 5 minute epoxy. I have fished the rod a number of times this summer and the ferrules seem to be working OK. That has been my experience to date.  (Frank Paul)