# Question on an old rod



## Perchy101 (Apr 14, 2004)

I have a nice older St. Croix.... Pushing 10+ years old.... I use it as my daily all around rod.... 

The handle at the bottom has gotten beat up over the years and the cork has chipped in a few spots around where the pole/handle come together.

Is this something that can be fixed or just continue to use it until end of life?


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

I suppose you could cut the cork off and smooth up the blank and make a new handle. You can buy the cork in rings with holes and epoxy them back on the blank. Lots of rods are built that way if you look at them. You can see that they used rings. Just a thought.


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Check out mudhole.com or maybe jannsnetcraft.com

I would use a cork filler, sand it smooth and apply a cork sealer to repair it. 

It won't look like new, but removing the existing cork and trying to put a new cork handle on it would be impossible without stripping the rod down entirely. The reel seat would also need to be split/removed and replaced. Basically rebuilding the entire rod from the blank on up WITHOUT damaging the blank in the process.


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

turkeyt said:


> I suppose you could cut the cork off and smooth up the blank and make a new handle. You can buy the cork in rings with holes and epoxy them back on the blank. Lots of rods are built that way if you look at them. You can see that they used rings. Just a thought.


Not talking about the upper section just the end where it is damaged. Sorry for the confusion. If you don't want to replace any cork you can put a plastic cap or sleeve over the end. You could do as Bill said also and try a filler.


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Good point Turkeyt. I assumed that it was a single piece rod. Two piece would only require one guide to be stripped. Easy enough to re-wrap and glue.

Just thought of something else to add.

St Croix is real good about catering to custom rodmaking. You can purchase their bare blanks and numerous pre-cut, pre-shaped cork handle kits (seat, fore/rear grips and seat bushings). The only trick would be getting the proper sized tapered reamer to prep the ID of the long cork handle section. Replacing a handle is time-consuming careful work, but do-able.

Perchy - If you've never built a rod before, definitely check out mudhole.com. They have step by step instructions on rodbuilding.


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## turkeyt (Apr 13, 2006)

billk said:


> Good point Turkeyt. I assumed that it was a single piece rod. Two piece would only require one guide to be stripped. Easy enough to re-wrap and glue.
> 
> Just thought of something else to add.
> 
> ...



BILLK, He is talking about the handle where the cork is boogered up at the end and some pieces chipped up close to the reel seat. I was thinking he could strip a couple inches of cork off the end and replace with cork rings or cap the end.

Mudhole usually has St.Croix blanks and building a rod is interesting and a good project.


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## billk (Feb 2, 2008)

Hey Perchy - 

I think between Turkeyt and myself, one of us could guide you through this repair.

Got any pics?


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## grub_man (Feb 28, 2005)

Perchy,

Like the guys have said, a proper repair would require a full strip and rebuild, but you have some options, depending on where and how bad the damage is.

If the damage is in the fore grip, and you don't use the fore grip, the fore grip can be removed and a few things done in front of the reel seat to make the transition look clean, reshape the last couple cork rings in the fore grip, add an epoxy ramp, decorative wrap, etc.

If the damage is minor, a temporary fix is to fill the cork, but that won't last forever.

Another option is to replace only the offending rings. You can carefully use a razor blade or exacto knife to cut at the edge of the torn up rings and only remove those rings, a pair of pliers will pull them off just fine. Next you need to clean up the epoxy mess on the blank as well as possible. Get a good measurement of the diameter of the blank in the area, and glue as many cork rings together as you need to fill the space, and ream them out to the appropriate diameter. Then cut the rings in half so you can sandwich them on the blank. Put some epoxy on the blank, and a little on the edges of the rings, and clamp them together. After it's dry, you can sand the grip to reshape the it back to its original form. You may notice the glue line if you are too generous with the epoxy, but you will have a comfortable grip to use.

If the offending area is on the butt of the handle, and you or a rod building friend is equipped to turn the whole rod, you can turn down the butt grip to a consistent diameter, and bore a new butt grip to that ID and slide the grip on from the rear. If you aren't equipped to turn the whole rod, you can remove the whole grip and install from the rear, but you will need to use tape to make arbors for a snug fit near the reel seat.

You have plenty of options depending on where and how bad the damage is, as well as how important the aesthetics of the rod are to you.

Joe


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