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My Rod Restoration Project


Rusty

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Well I’ve made a start on the rod and so far everything’s gone to plan. Largely because last time I re-ringed it I just gave it a quick coat of spray varnish. This time it’ll be different but for now that approach made life a lot easier.

 

Goodbye to my homemade line clips (which worked very well actually).

 

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…and the strip commences.

 

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I don’t think this damage has worsened since I added the support whipping so I’ll probably just re-whip. If I can think of a way to repair it cosmetically I will but I think the whipping will be sufficient.

 

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A bare ring seat, again not too much varnish residue.

 

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The tip ring was troublesome, heat wouldn’t shift it so I had to carefully Dremel away enough to weaken the tube. This was a bit of a nervy operation, I’d broken the tip off previously and didn’t really want to shorten the rod again by cutting off the tip ring.

 

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Eventually it succumbed

 

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The final whipping to be removed was an original that I hadn’t replaced so under this should be a good indication of how the rod was originally finished.

 

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This was very pleasing, I don’t think that the blank has been painted. The matt finish just above the handle is how the blank would have been manufactured and the purple colour I guess is brought out by the varnish . This means that I don’t have to match a paint colour, I can aim for the matt finish on the whole rod and rely on the varnish to do its job. Those are Fuji rings in the background, my paper round must’ve been well paid.

 

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A quick scrub with the washing up liquid produced surprising results. I’m looking forward to finishing the handle properly.

 

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So that’s it for the moment, painless so far but the hard work is about to begin. I’m going to try and make a couple of trestles with wheels to rest the blank on. It’ll make sanding a lot easier and will be useful for the twiddling phase.

Edited by Rusty

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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Nice one mate Im going to enjoy watching this progress.Any problems you encounter hopefully I will be able to resolve.May I suggest the following for the damaged end on that female ferrule-

 

Trim off the damaged area and make the end square.Take of as little as you can. There will then be less chance of a split developing and running. For cutting most blanks Ive long preferred to use a triangular file rather than a hacksaw or knife. Far less chance of the blank splitting.

 

Instead of using varnish to seal the new whipping (which you want to run as hear to the end as possible) use Araldite! Budgies gone mad I hear you thinking! But trust me you can get a great "hi-build" quality Finnish with it if done properly. If you plan to use a traditional varnish rather than a hi-build on the rest of the whippings then at least do the Reinforcing whippings with Araldite to strengthen this dodgy area and make them look all the same.

 

I was hoping to do that carp rod today but as Ive now got to go to Hastings and was busy this morning it looks unlikely.If it doesn't happen tonight it will have to happen tomorrow as it needs to be out of here by Monday! What I will do though is use Araldite rather than Hi-build so you can see the technique and the resulting finish.

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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Trim off the damaged area and make the end square.Take of as little as you can. There will then be less chance of a split developing and running. For cutting most blanks Ive long preferred to use a triangular file rather than a hacksaw or knife. Far less chance of the blank splitting.

 

Instead of using varnish to seal the new whipping (which you want to run as hear to the end as possible) use Araldite! Budgies gone mad I hear you thinking! But trust me you can get a great "hi-build" quality Finnish with it if done properly. If you plan to use a traditional varnish rather than a hi-build on the rest of the whippings then at least do the Reinforcing whippings with Araldite to strengthen this dodgy area and make them look all the same.

 

I've always gone for a junior hacksaw myself, but I can see that a sharp sawfile (triangular file) would work.

 

I never use varnish on whippings: *Super Epoxy* for me, made by the Plastic Padding people is a two part epoxy similar to araldite but it dries completely clear.

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I've always gone for a junior hacksaw myself, but I can see that a sharp sawfile (triangular file) would work.

 

I never use varnish on whippings: *Super Epoxy* for me, made by the Plastic Padding people is a two part epoxy similar to araldite but it dries completely clear.

 

Araldite does as well as long as you use the "Standard" (or "Slow" as I believe they call it now) and not the Rapid.Also needs to be applied properly but then so do all two part resin products.

 

I to agree that varnish is a thing of the past for whippings.

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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I did a bit more yesterday afternoon.

 

First I made up this very rudimentary rest for the rod. Four 80p castors from the local hardware shop, a work surface off cut and a large blob of thick superglue on each castor swivel to stop it swivelling. It works a treat and enables me to turn the rod with one hand whilst sanding /scraping with the other.

 

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Varnish removal started in earnest with wet & dry paper being the first choice. I used a very fine grade and to be honest wasn’t making much headway. The old varnish seems to have gone very brittle with age and although it would eventually come off it was difficult to tell if I was going through to the fibreglass.

 

A much better way on this rod I found was to gently scrape the old varnish off with a sharp disposable knife. I bought mine from the pound shop (for two quid?), you get five in a pack and they’re ideal for this but not much cop for anything else.

 

It was still slow work but the advantage of this method was that I could easily see where the varnish remained on the blank.

 

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An hour or so of scraping and I’m getting somewhere.

 

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Until finally a varnish free butt section.

 

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Once the other sections are done they’ll all be sanded with fine wet & dry (used wet) until I think they’re good enough for varnishing. The blanks won’t be painted, I dampened the butt section with a cloth and the colour really does come out, it should look nice with a new coat of varnish.

 

Next on the list is to buy the finishing materials and the rod rings. Also I mustn’t forget about the damaged middle section, I don’t have a small triangular file so can’t do that just yet.

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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I love the idea of the castors Rusty,

 

 

Den

"When through the woods and forest glades I wanderAnd hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,And hear the brook, and feel the breeze;and see the waves crash on the shore,Then sings my soul..................

for all you Spodders. https://youtu.be/XYxsY-FbSic

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great a bit of outside the box thinking, nice one.

 

A lot of anglers can learn a lot on here

From a spark a fire will flare up

English by birth, Cockney by the Grace of God

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An update on progress, pics to follow.

 

Scraping/sanding of all three blank sections is almost complete, a tedious task but necessary if the final finish is to be any good.

 

The cork handle was coated with washing up liquid, wrapped in cling film and after being left overnight given a good scrub. The results are remarkable and I was tempted to leave as is but there are lots of dings and ‘crevices’ so it’ll be filled and sanded back.

 

Where I’m a bit stuck is deciding which blank varnish to go for. Ideally I’d like a simple non-mix product that can be applied by brush, my local tackle shop suggested Humbrol enamel but there are a number of different products available. It’ll also need to be compatible with the whipping finish which’ll be slow Araldite.

 

Any ideas?

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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