anyone tried that all-titanium spinner yet?

[bobber]

there was chatter here (and on the other site) back in the Spring and early summer about a new all TITANIUM spinning reel being made by someone who fishes around chatham (for SBFT's I presume). it seems like it fell off the radar since that time- was just wondering if anything ever came of it?? do they really exist??

[GattaFish]

Any pics?
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[chefchris401]

Mike at m and ds was suppose to be a killer if I remember correctly.

Think the price was $450-500

Funny thing is in the pics for the website the guy is using a vs bailed reel while landing and fighting his tuna on the kayak
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[chefchris401]

Brand is called fortitude.

http://fortitudefishing.com/reels.pdf
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[chefchris401]

I would love to try one, but haven't much from them or about them since that first push in the spring
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[puppet]

The reel seems to have never made it beyond concept. The images on the site are cg renderings. Supposedly the reel was supposed to hit the market this fall...crickets.
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[johnny ducketts]

Wifey claims she's getting me one, who am I to complain.
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[ProfessorM]

No idea if they are out yet but I chimed in on the other site about it after guys started talking about titanium, which most were miss informed, and I guess they said it could be out sometime in near future. To be honest it is a pretty ugly looking reel if we are talking about the same reel. I would be skeptical of titanium gears too and this, proprietary titanium technology, has me thinking it is grade 2 titanium and not grade 5.

[bobber]

the idea sounds great- whether or not it'll ever be a reality remains to be seen. $400 for a full titanium reel would sure put a dent in the Stella/Saltiga/VS sales

[parker23]

Concept to fruition always takes longer than anticipated.

OTW has an awesome video of him tight to a BFT for 4 plus hours. Towed him 15 miles in a kayak. He has much larger nads than I.

[ProfessorM]

Is this guy making the reel a Cape Cod guy? I would luv to speak with him.
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[bobber]

I had seen some info from back in the Spring on SOL- there was a pic of the guy fight a SBFT (with a VS I think) I seem to remember he fishes around Chatham, but (possibly) lives in Boston.....

maybe a weekend guy?

[ProfessorM]

Thanks, I'll have to look into this a little deeper

[numbskull]

Don't do that, the guy will have you building prototypes for free.

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

Dave's family has a house on the Cape,he doesn't live on the Cape. He was coming in the shop where i work the last few years,didn't see or talk to him this season,possibly because the tuna never showed up in the Ptown area.if his reel is anything like the other equipment he designed and built i am sure it will be top quality

[ProfessorM]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Don't do that, the guy will have you building prototypes for free.

LOL. I'm not looking for work I'm just interested in the material choices and specifics. Just curious. Not a reel I would probably use. I just like to see what guys think up and I hope the end result works out for him.

[Raven]

he's always looking for work because he's a mad scientist

[johnny ducketts]

I thought I heard spring 2014 it was coming out.
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[wdmso]

1 ton = 907.185 kilograms titanium sheet grade 2 sell between 16-32 dollars a ton or $ 14,400 at 16 bucks a Kilogram add production cost's 400.00 bucks seem low

but I wish them luck

[johnny ducketts]

I thought I heard spring 2014 it was coming out.
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[ProfessorM]

seems low to me too when they get like 300 for pliers nowadays but compared to a decade ago it has come down a lot. Grade 2 is a little cheaper and a little easier to machine than grade 5 which I prefer and mostly use at work but still seems too low but heck maybe he has a good Russian connection and the statement of proprietary titanium technology has me curious. I guess they are using grade 2 because of the bending, forming, aspect of one of the parts. It has a lot of that formed part machined away so it would be easier to bend and I have no real experience with bending the material only machining it so I am just speculating. If you can make a fancy reel out of aluminum you can make it out of Ti. just have to adjust your process and price. Not really any more difficult. We do it all the time. I guess my 2 questions is the durability of a titanium drive train, gears, and this proprietary titanium technology but if he is coming out with it he must have these issues solved and he is probably a hell of lot smarter than me. I say good luck with your idea. I would love nothing better than to make something that I created. Hope he makes it work for him.

[fishonnelsons]

I believe, in talking to Dave, a major part of the lower cost is a new, proprietary way to process the titanium, what that is I don't know but supposedly their cost for the material was going to be significantly lower than normal. Have not talked to him for a while, maybe I'll e-mail him and see what's happening, etc.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

No idea if they are out yet but I chimed in on the other site about it after guys started talking about titanium, which most were miss informed, and I guess they said it could be out sometime in near future. To be honest it is a pretty ugly looking reel if we are talking about the same reel. I would be skeptical of titanium gears too and this, proprietary titanium technology, has me thinking it is grade 2 titanium and not grade 5.

He got beat up pretty hard on one of the tuna sites by engineers. Its grade 5 Ti6Al4V.

Lots of chatter in spring, was gonna be at ICAST, available in Nov (this month) etc. etc.
Stopped posting.
Never heard from again.

[bobber]

seems like some of the guys on here are familiar with the guy- hopefully we get a little "straight -from-the-horse's-mouth" information (rather than internet bull$h!t)

I'd be first in line for an all-Ti spinning reel!

[Uncle Rob]

I'd really like to see one in person. Hope they put some out at the shows this year.

[wader-dad]

I was looking into this reel- quite the mystery. There are articles in Forbes magazine and trade magazines that the reel will be produced and is not a hoax. But I find no patent applications whatsover for him, Fortitude or the parent company Amalgamated Titanium. There has been no update to their facebook page since last June. But people are saying on Linked in that they are regional sales reps for the reels. One anounced regional sales rep for Mass has a store that sells specialty smoked fish, And this place is selling them on their site from Louisana under reels for $399 ??? What ??? Totally Bizzare.

http://ocrcustomtackle.com/store/

[ProfessorM]

My best friend lives in Lafayette La. I should have him go over there and look at it, but he doesn't fish. The more I look at that reel the uglier it gets to my eye.

[mikecc]

Met with the guys from fortitude this fall. I'm suppose to be a retailer for them. Could not show me any product just computer generated pictures. I have emailed & called them for over 5 month and no replies.

[fishonnelsons]

I talked to Dave about a month ago.

Supposedly......the demand/interest for it really took off on the international fishing scene, and then they began getting a lot of interest from other people looking to use the new process titanium for other, non-fishing related fishing products. Long story short I believe, as in a lot of new business start-up's, they are trying to figure out their exact direction/niche, and also to ensure their operations/manufacturing side are in place so once they really "release" anything, they will be able to keep up with demand.

Strange that they have not at least kept up with the website nor facebook page - doesn't take a lot of time to do that and you can at least keep people looking.