There are more and more of you out there fixing up old rods, even fixing upnot so old rods. Your high-end graphite fly rods, spin rods, plug castingrods, etc., are not noted for their ruggedness or durability. They are notedfor their delightful handling characteristics and their not so delightfulcost. It almost seems as though the higher the cost - the easier they break.The manufacturers of these rods usually have an unconditional warranty.Stomp on it, run over it with your pickup - whatever - they will replace it.But the replacement is not always a painless process. If it gets broken on aweekend and you want to go fishing the next weekend, you had better have asubstitute rod or two on hand, or else you will find yourself staying homeand thinking about the nice trip you might have had if only . . .
I'm finding more and more of these high end rods that are repaired - sorta -then I get them after the repair needs repairing. Ordinarily if a rod isdamaged and the damage is repaired, the manufacturer will not honor thewarranty because it has been altered. So you make your choice - send it back- or have it repaired. But you don't have it repaired for next week'slong-planned trip, then send it to the manufacturer when you return. It's aneither/or situation, not both.
For some reason more of the older rods are being repaired. I have repairedlots and lots of rods where the cost of the repair was substantially greaterthan what it would have been to replace the rod with a far better one.Sentimentality is usually involved here and I have no quarrel with that, aslong as all the facts are laid on the table. The repairman must present allthe facts of the poor economics of such, and the repairee must be of legalage and sound mind.
Quite a few of older rods are also being "re-worked" or "re-furbished", andthe expertise necessary to properly accomplish this job falls within therepair category. Once a guy has fished with the same rod for 30 years,caught many a memory and developed a feel for that particular stick - hedoesn't listen to all the hype about the reel seat being rusty and loose,the handle squishy and half gone, the guides mostly taped on. These thingsare irrelevant. He even goes with family and friends to local sports shopsand handles literally dozens of new modern rods of a similar makeup - butnothing FEELS right. Then he learns about this guy that can make the old rodnew again - at about twice the price of those he looked at in the shop!
Repair SkillThe skills involved in repairing a rod can be more demanding than the skillsinvolved in building a rod. This statement, of course, will be challenged bythe many fine craftsmen engaged in producing the excellent custom rods soprevalent in our fishing society, especially by those who have masteredthread art and specialize in beautiful butt wraps. However, from many ofthese fine craftsmen I see a lack of understanding of basic structuralprincipals as well as a lack of knowledge of rudimentary rod blankconstruction. From very competent rod builders I have seen atrociousattempts at repair of the rod that they so expertly created. I think that alot of this has to do with where the heart lies. If your heart isn't in it -forget it - don't clobber it up just to get it out of your hair. Probablyone of the most common of repair jobs that any of us are asked to perform isthe simple procedure of putting back together two pieces of a rod - usuallytip sections - that were inadvertently separated. I have a few of these jobsin my shop at the present time, so let's go through the repair of some ofthem and analyze the reasoning behind each one. I have selected some thatare very common to all of us, simple tip sections of fly rods and light spinrods - and progressive in their complexity. All are of graphiteconstruction.
1. A 4-weight fly rod, broken in the center of the guide adjacent to thetip.
2. A 6-weight fly rod, broken about a foot from the tip, between the secondand third guide.
3. Another 4-weight fly rod, broken about 9 inches from the ferrule.
4. A medium-weight spin rod, crushed forward of the gathering guide.
5. A crushed ferrule on a very cheap discount store special fly rod.
OBJECTIVEWhen we join two separated sections of a rod, the intent is that thecompleted repair be as structurally sound as the original and that itperform, feel and act as it did before it became disjointed. Therefore itfollows that our repair materiel should represent as closely as possible theproperties that are inherent in the original rod, i.e., have the samestiffness, flex etc, but it is more important that we maintain theproperties of the ROD itself. It must retain the same balance, the sameflexure, the same power, the same overall properties inherent in theoriginal design. The only logical manner in which to join these broken rodtips is to use a tapered tubular section of similar materiel and make asplice. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've removed from repairsthat went sour. Piano wire, small nails, wooden dowels, aluminum tubing,brass tubing, steel tubing, solid plastic rods like pieces of plastic chopsticks - you name it. Let's take the repair examples one at a time andanalyze their differences and sameness.
Number 1 - Click For Larger View
The fly rod tip broken in the center of the lastguide is a verycommon break area. I'm not sure why, maybe the guide was wrapped too tightlyand caused the section to go oval in shape under flex. For whatever thecause, this is a very common repair area in high modulus fly rods. First wemust remove the guide in such a manner as not to damage or alter the area tobe joined. Not only must the guide be removed, we also must remove allresidual thread finish (epoxy). We must work with a clean section ofgraphite in order to obtain a satisfactory splice. This break is quite cleanand all we have to do is a gentle squaring off of the ends. This is donewith a sandpaper block of about 220 grit. The OD of each piece must match asclosely as possible. At this point on the rod, the ID is a nonentity. OK,now we have two pieces to splice together. What do we splice it with?Remember that our goal is to maintain the original properties, therefore wemust use the same materiel that is in the rod, right? So we scrounge up apiece of graphite from an old scrap fly rod and very carefully fashion anice fitting sleeve splice, bond it together, and tie the guide in place.When completed we admire the handiwork and give it a test flex and promptlybreak the tip again just forward of the original repair.
What happened?
Our goal is to maintain the 'properties of the rod'; this doesn't mean thatwe have to use the same materiel as is in the rod. When we made a graphitesleeve, we increased the OD of the rod at the repair point. This increasedthe "I" moment - stiffness, at that point, and the area on both sides of thesleeve are subjected to a bending force far beyond their capability. So if agraphite sleeve won't work on graphite, what do we use? The answer issimple. Keep in mind that whenever we use a sleeve, we are increasing the ODof the rod at that point. If we use a materiel of the same modulus, we areincreasing the stiffness to an unacceptable level and inducing a breakadjacent to the sleeve area. The answer is to use a materiel of LOWERMODULUS so as not to increase stiffness, and that materiel just happens tobe our fiberglass rods. When repairing any graphite section with an externalsleeve, always use a lower modulus materiel. Modulus is defined as STRESSdivided by STRAIN. Think of it as relative stiffness. Now let's do oursplicing correctly.
SPLICINGWe have cleaned the repair area of the two pieces to be spliced, amicrometer shows us that the two pieces are the same diameter, furthermiking shows us that there is very little taper at this point on the rod.Obtain a piece of fiberglass fly rod tip section, cut it to fit snugly overthe end of the main rod section. You will start the joining with a sectionabout 1&1/2 inch long. Once you are sure that both pieces fit snugly, reducethe section by tapering the ends to about a 15 degree angle. You will wantto wind up with an overlap of both pieces of about 1/2 inch, the taper willconsume about 1/8 inch, so your structure is about 3/8 inch overlap on bothpieces approximately 1 inch long total. At this point, the taper of the rodhas little or no bearing on our repair procedure. It is very significant onother sections of the rod. The idea now is to join the two pieces by using asuitable paste epoxy (what is more suitable than RodBond?). We left the tipin place so be sure it is aligned properly; set it aside to cure.When cured, we need to re-install the guide that was in that area, but atthe same time since this is on the tip of a light rod, we do not wish toincrease the mass anymore than what is absolutely necessary. We mustreinforce our sleeve by wrapping it with size A thread but we do not wish todouble wrap it when adding the guide. Tape the guide in place, mark theinside area where the thread will end, remove the guide and wrap the insidearea between your two marks. Put the guide in place again and wrap the feet.Your wrap should end where the inside wrap ends, and they should blend whenthe finish is applied. Nobody will be the wiser and I'll never tell. I usedan epoxy finish on this one, but a lighter (Urethane) finish should be thechoice here. Now try your flexure tests, bend it and observe how it bendsprogressively - - it merely follows the path of the graphite, and dutifullyholds the structure together.
Number 2 - Click For Larger View
The break shown last time was in an area that willnot see muchflexure or bending. Under heavy load, the rod at this point will be mostlystraight, except when casting the line. The act of casting is probably thepeak load that this repair will ever see. As we go further up the rod thebending becomes more severe. The break in No. 2 is about 14 inches from thetip. The bending moment is more pronounced in this area. Your sleeve needsto be slightly longer in order to accommodate the longer moment arm andslightly stiffer sections being joined. So increase the length of thissleeve to about 1 & 1/2 inch to 1 & 3/4 inch over all, which will mean thatabout 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch on each end will be structure. Don't forget thetapered ends. The bend moment on this area will be quite severe. Maybeenough for the graphite sections to rupture the low modulus sleeve eventhough it is wrapped and coated. To counter this shearing force, we willinstall a very small piece of either fiberglass or graphite on the INSIDE.This piece must fit snugly, and be about 1/4 inch long. If it is any longerit will be involved in the bending force and we don't want that. Be surethat this piece is in place before you position the outer sleeve. When theadhesive is cured, the sleeve is cleaned up and wrapped and finished likeany guide or ferrule. Grasp the rod about a foot on each side of the repairsleeve and bend it into an arc with the repair in the center of the arc. Thearc should be constant - no noticeable flat spot at the sleeve location. Ifthere is a noticeable flat spot, then your sleeve is either too long or tooheavy, i.e., too thick a wall section.
TAPER TROUBLEAt this area on most any fly rod is where you will have to start allowingfor the taper of the blank when fitting a sleeve. The further back we go,the worse the problem becomes. No problem fitting the rear section - thelargest OD - but depending upon the degree of taper - the front section canbe quite challenging . This particular area is still so far toward the tipthat the problem is very minimal. Your sleeve will fit very nicely over therear section, but to fit it on the forward section you will find that the IDof the sleeve is smaller than the OD of the section that it must cover. Somerepairs on fast taper rods require the removal of all guides and the tip inorder to slide the sleeve into place. But what we have here is merely a snugfit. The sleeve must be pushed a tad but that's all.
Number 3 - Click For Larger View
Now that we are into real structure, this one has tobe good inevery aspect or the rod is doomed. This is in the area of greatest flexwhich means greatest bend load and fatigue factor. But mostly, it is an areaof sensitivity. You FEEL the rod in this general area and you want tomaintain that feel. You don't want a 6-weight fly rod to feel like a4-weight or an 8-weight. It will feel like a 4-weight if we use the samepattern of structure that we used in #2, because that design does not havesufficient stiffness to work with the bend load of the graphite in thisarea. To increase the stiffness using the same materiel, we merely have toincrease the 'T moment, and this is easily accomplished by adding aninternal doubler. Calculating the amount of overlap for this internaldoubler or plug can be rather tricky. Too long and it will impede the flexof the graphite and change the feel of the rod. Too short and it will notsupport the external sleeve, making the rod feel wimpy and sluggish and itwill probably break after very little usage. I wish I knew of some simpleformula to apply here, but it dwindles down to a gut feeling combined withexperience plus a little logic thrown in for good measure. Any aerospacestress engineer experienced in calculating design loads for wing structurescould whip out his Slide Rule, (whoops, that one dated me) er, I meancalculator, and give you firm answers. But in the absence of calculabledirection, let's find out where logic leads us and if there are anyaerospace stress engineers out there - sound off.
Take another piece of graphite tip section of this same approximate weightand flex the same area where we are making our repair. Flex it over a linearscale - 12 inch ruler will do fine. As you flex the rod, note on the scaleand ask yourself the question, "If a piece were inside, how long (length)could it be before it resisted the flexing?" I judged this one to be about 2inches, but past experience has taught me that about 1&1/2 inches is best inthis location for this weight of rod.
Nevertheless I inadvertently went ahead and made the internal plug 2 incheslong. Another way to determine this length is to figure that the overlap forthe doubler will be between 3 and 4 times the diameter. Remember now, thisplug is made of fiberglass and it is a smaller diameter than the rod, whichmeans that by itself it will effect the graphite about as much as a wetnoodle. However, combined with the external sleeve which we are about toconstruct, the graphite will have met its match. See photo above. This plugis acting exactly like the plug 'ferrules' on those rod blanks which designthis type of ferrule such as Fisher, Scott, etc. After all, a ferrule ismerely a joint and that is what we are doing here - making a joint. If itwere going to be a ferrule, we would have to beef up that area of the blankwhere the ferrule is inserted, both ends. Then leave the end with thedecreasing taper free to insert and disjoint at will. But since this jointis not intended to be a ferrule, it must be supported with an externalsleeve similar to those we used in #1 and #2.
EXTERNAL SLEEVEThe external sleeve must ALWAYS overlap the internal plug. A general rule ofthumb for the overlap is twice the diameter at the overlap point. I like toround things out to nice even numbers, so I used a 1/2 inch overlap in thisinstance. Then add almost another 1/4 inch on each end for the taper and youhave a sleeve about 3 & 1/2 inches long. This overlap is critical to theintegrity of the joint, much more so when the plug is graphite, but even asfiberglass it will exert stresses that could rupture the rod blank if theload is not properly distributed. Remember now, there is maximum bend atthis point.
Your internal plug will be sized by inserting the selected piece offiberglass through the nearby ferrule and out the broken end. The brokenends will have been smoothed and squared off prior to this point. Carefullymark and cut the piece so that you wind up with a plug with 1 inch insidethe ferrule end and 1 inch extending, that will fit snugly inside the tipend. As you do more and more of this type of repair on different sizes andtypes of rods it will become apparent to you that the forward section shouldhave a little less plug length than the rear section and this ratio willvary with the wall thickness, degree of taper, and location on the rod. Inour example here, the optimum is about 13/16 inch, but let's not quibble andjust make it 1 inch for now. With your plug cut and sized, be sure andradius the ends. Round them off with a file at about a 45 degree angle. Thiswill prevent a sharp edge from gouging into the rod wall.
CONSTRUCTING THE SLEEVESelect a piece of fiberglass rod section from what appears to be of the sameor similar taper, and preferably non-painted. The painted fiberglass rodsare the cheapies with thick walls and very coarse glass cloth construction.These make very poor external sleeves. Match your selected piece with thebutt end of your joint - the larger end. Cut your fiberglass so that it willfit over the end and extend past your internal plug about an inch, whichmakes it about 2 inches total. Now trim your piece so that you have an equalamount for the other end. You should have a piece for a potential sleevewhich is about 4 inches long at this point. Now you've got a problem. How doyou get that tapered sleeve over the tapered tip section when the ID of thesleeve end is smaller than the OD of the rod end? You can take off all theguides and slide it on from the tip. There are 6 guides and the tip top andthis is almost always the quality way to do it. So now it becomes a judgmentcall because there is a quicker (and easier) method which does the job quitenicely. (Just don't let that stress engineer from the wing group know whatwe're doing, cause he might get out his slide rule and squash the wholedeal.) First, size the sleeve to a net fit on the butt end, which means thatyou will trim it to about 1&5/8 inch overlap. Next, trim it to the samedimensions for the tip end. Touch the end of the sleeve to the tip sectionend and see if the sleeve will slide over and onto the tip section. It hadbetter not! It easily slides over the butt section, so put it there for now.The taper in the rod makes a mismatch in diameters between the section ofthe tip end and the reinforcing sleeve. The end of the sleeve will match therod some 1&1/2 inches inboard - which is where we want it to wind up. Buthow to get it there? Try this - bevel the end of the sleeve that attaches tothe tip section to about a 15 degree angle, or as shallow as you can handle.A power disk sander or belt sander is ideal for this operation. Rotate thesleeve in your fingers as you bevel and grind the end to zero. This beveledend will be quite flimsy, so match it to the tip section again and this timeforce the tip section into the beveled sleeve. Enter at a slight angle thenpush the rod section further into the beveled area which will split thesleeve at this point. This splitting will facilitate further movement untilthe sleeve is fully installed on the tip section. The other end of thesleeve which attaches to the butt section can now be beveled to the samedegree. The splitting of the sleeve has done nothing to impede itsstructural integrity. The split is usually 1/4 to 1/2 of the length and isneutralized when the area is bonded, wrapped and finish applied. This isconsiderably faster than removing and replacing 6 guides and a tip top!
BONDINGThe external surfaces of all pieces are prepared for bonding in the usualmanner, i.e., light abrasion of the surfaces with Scotchbrite or 400 gritsandpaper. The inside of the rod pieces must be cleaned of loose particlesby swabbing them out with a small bottle brush, a doubled up pipe cleaner orsome similar instrument. Sometimes I use a small round file and on thelarger blanks - a small notched dowel with a piece of sandpaper insertedinto the notch and the other end chucked in my winding lathe jaws androtated inside the blank. You will need a piece of rod or a stick of somekind to poke the internal plug all the way through the butt piece. Cover itwith the paste epoxy and insert it in the ferrule end and push it throughwith your stick. Be sure and clean out the ferrule immediately. With theplug snugly in place, add more epoxy to the exposed end and bond in placethe tip section The sleeve is loosely attached to this section, so slide thesleeve toward the tip and away from the repair area - then liberally coatthe area toward the butt with epoxy, slide the sleeve over this epoxy androtate it several times in order to thoroughly coat the inside of thesleeve. Now apply another thin coat of epoxy in the area of the repair andslide the sleeve into its position. Wipe off the epoxy that is forward ofthe sleeve, using IPA. With the sleeve in position, it must be wrapped. Thewrap will be a temporary one, as its only purpose is to hold all partssnugly together while the epoxy cures. Since it must be wrapped very tight,I normally use D thread. The split end will close and epoxy will be squeezedout. When the epoxy has cured, there will be cleanup to do in the area ofthe split and at each of the beveled ends. When the cleanup is completed,apply your final wrap with a nice A thread to match the color scheme of therod and finish off with your favorite epoxy wrap finish.
Number 3 - Click For Larger View
This repair is more in the category of reconstructionas a goodlypiece of the very heart of the rod had to be removed. A heavy tackle box lidslammed shut with the rod in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was nocontest. The damage to the rod extended a little more than an inch in bothdirections from the impact area. It is very important to determine preciselywhere the damage ends, so careful examination with the aid of whatevermagnification you have available is in order.
REMOVING DAMAGED AREASThe first step is to remove the guide that just happens to be next to thedamage. This must be accomplished very carefully so as not to expand thedamaged area. Next, we have to remove all the damage. Once the extent of thedamage is identified, mark each end where the damage stops. Wrap a piece of1/2 inch masking tape around the rod at that point, add another 1/10 inch orso just to be sure. You need to remove this part of the rod and that meanstwo cuts which must be clean cuts or you will extend the damage further. Iuse a Dremel tool with the flexible shaft and attach a 1 inch rotaryabrasive cut off disk. Used properly this makes a very clean cut. In theabsence of a power tool, you will need a triangle file. DO NOT USE A SAW OFANY KIND. Graphite will ruin any saw that I know of and saw teeth tend todelaminate the fibers and fray the ends. Diamond wheels or any of the smallabrasive cutting wheels are the way to go. A triangle file is just as good.Use the edge of your tape as a cutting guide, make a groove all the wayaround the blank and keep making the groove deeper until it is parted. Oncethe damage is removed, you will have to square off both ends. With thedamage removed (I took out a piece 2 & 1/4 inches long) and two pieces ofrod needing to get back together, you can join the two pieces at theirrespective ends which will mean shortening the rod by the length of theremoved portion - or you can maintain the original length of the rod. Thelatter is a bit more difficult, but it is the better choice in this case. Inyour scrap box, find a piece of the same taper as our patient and drop itthrough the butt end . It must protrude about 5 or 6 inches to be of anyvalue. This piece should be graphite, not fiberglass. Slip the protrudingend of the plug into the tip and measure the distance between the two rodsections. Ideally this distance will be 2 & 1/4 inches as that is the amountthat we removed, but ideally is something that is non-existent in my world.This distance was 4 inches and I couldn't find a piece with any better fit.The piece I chose was from a non-sanded blank - a rough out - so I had alittle tolerance to play with. Light sanding on the tip end closed the gapto 3 inches. Any more sanding would have touched the graphite fibers so Isettled for this. The overlap on the butt end was established at 1 & 1/2inches and 1 & 1/4 inches on the tip end. Now you have an internal plugwhich joins the pieces, the piece is of smaller diameter than the originalwhich means it is not as stiff even though it is also graphite, but weexpect to add some stiffness with our outer sleeve. However, we cannot puton our outer sleeve over this 3 inch gap. This gap is filled with a 'spacer'made from fiberglass, not graphite, and cut to fit snugly over the graphiteplug. The OD of the spacer must be net or slightly less than the OD of therod at this point. Otherwise it will interfere with the outer sleeve. Withthe spacer made and in place we can now construct the outer sleeve.
When a large area of damage is removed, the remaining pieces will not mateproperly due to variances in diameter. (Photo above) Thus it is necessary tofabricate a 'spacer' to restore the area that was removed, making itpossible to then utilize an internal plug and external sleeve in restoringthe rod to good usuable condition.
OUTER SLEEVE CONSTRUCTIONThis sleeve is made the same as in #3. We have a 5 & 3/4 inches inner plugand need about 1/2 inch overlap on each end so we need a sleeve about 6 &3/4 inches long. Size the butt end first but size it with the spacer inplace, then taper the other end and fit it over the tip section splitting asnecessary as we did in #3. Now you have 5 pieces of rod section ready tobond together - as in picture #4. The outer sleeve must be slipped onto thetip section, the inner plug gooped and poked through the end of the buttsection. Now install the spacer onto the plug and the plug into the other(tip) section. The sleeve can now be slipped into place with a liberalamount of epoxy and wrapped tightly for curing. After the epoxy cures, thetemporary wrap is removed, the area cleaned up and the permanent wrapinstalled with your favorite finish. In our illustrated example we removed aguide which must be replaced. The proper position for the guide falls on theaft end of the outer sleeve. This is no problem. Simply wrap the sleeve inentirety, position the guide in its proper location and wrap it in the usualway - bare thread to bare thread. Now you must be selective with yourfinish, the popular so-called high build epoxies will not hack it here. Youneed a high penetrating epoxy such as DuraGloss LS or other similar finish.Otherwise you must wrap the sleeve, apply your epoxy and allow it to cure,wrap the guide, and apply another coat of epoxy over the whole thing.Whichever method you choose to follow you should wind up with a finished rodas in picture #5 and the rod will act and feel like it did before theaccident.
In this type of repair I have attempted several times to make the inner plugfrom fiberglass instead of graphite, and the rod always feels mushy. If wehad chosen to shorten the rod by joining the two pieces with no gap to befilled between them, then fiberglass seems to be satisfactory for the innerplug. But whenever there is this extension a graphite plug for a graphiterod is necessary.
Number 5 - Click For Larger View
This cheapie should have been thrown away butsentimentalityoverruled mentality. Somebody stepped on the ferrule and that sorta putthings out of round, and that somebody wants to pay for it - so here we go.Picture of original break got lost, but it showed the ferrule with manypieces separated and damage extending about 1 &1/2 inches inboard from theend. This is a male ferrule so we want to restore the original OD as near aspossible. I selected a piece of fiberglass that fit into the ferrule and cutit to extend 2&1/2 inches into the ferrule and rod. I left about 4 inchesexcess for the rod wrapping chuck. I applied a liberal quantity of RodBondto the reinforcing piece and to the inside of the damage. The piece wasinserted in position and the frayed damage of the original carefullypositioned around it. The ferrule was now wrapped with 'D' thread verytightly. Wrapping is very slow as the frayed pieces have to be positioned asyou go along. There will be lots of squeeze out which should be distributedliberally along the entire damaged area. When the RodBond is fully hardened,remove the thread and clean off the excess adhesive. Install it in your rodwrapper again and work the surface to a smooth finish with fine files and320 to 400 grit abrasive paper. Wrapping the broken pieces around the insertshould insure a good round OD, but final smoothing will be necessary. Nowyou can test your handiwork by inserting it into its intended place in life- the female part of the joint. When you are close to a final fit, cut offthe excess and finish it by hand.
FINISHINGThe final act will be to coat the entire ferrule with 1 coat of Permagloss,or an equivalent Urethane. Why Urethane? Because urethanes have the bestabrasion resistance of all the possible coatings that are available to you.After the Urethane is cured I always coat ferrules with U-40 Ferrule Lubeand they will last much longer as this teflon product eliminates thefriction and wear of a fiber to fiber ferrule and the ferrules will fit muchtighter. And all this for a $9.95 Wal Mart special! Don't expect to getrich.
CONCLUSIONAs many of you have concluded by now, repair work is a labor of love. And Ihave found it a lonesome labor. I can find all sorts of builders withtalents far beyond mine, that will readily engage in discussions aboutfinishes, spine, handle shapes, guides, thread art, (I hate it) any subjectpertaining to building a better and/or prettier rod. But as soon as I broachthe subject of repair I'm looked at like I'm some sort of weirdo that shouldcrawl back under the rock from whence I came. The conversation now changesfrom enthusiasm to boredom with a faint trace of hostility thrown in forgood measure. And not surprisingly, it is from these very same talentedartisans that some of the most pitifully inadequate attempts at repair haveoriginated. We as rod builders are usually judged as a group. If one veryexcellent rod is known to have been constructed by a custom rod builder, thegeneral public sees ALL custom rod builders as producing the same thing. Ifone botched up repair job is known to have been botched by a custom rodbuilder, then ALL custom rod builders botch repair jobs.
Repair is certainly not the most glamorous aspect of the custom rodbuilders' art, but it is becoming increasingly more in demand so it behoovesus to recognize this fact and learn to do it correctly - or at leastacceptably. ~
Ralph O'Quinn
