I’ve never done any of my own repairs before and need some help. It’s not a biggie, but I have a 1 inch long scrape chip about 3 inches below the tip top on my 7.5 foot 4 weight graphite. I looked pretty closely and it looks like only the finish and not the graphite was damaged. This is the main rod I use for trout, so I’m thinking about having a professional do it instead if there’s a chance of doing further damage.
Thanks for any help.
If it really is just a scrape in the finish, and not a nick in the actual blank matrix, it should be easy to repair.
A scrape in the finish coat is only ‘cosmetic’ damage and won’t do any harm if left untreated. If you wanted to fill it in I would recommend touching it up with rod wrap finish and a small paint brush or tooth pick. The challenge will be to use a thin enough coat that the edges of the repair will blend into the rest of the rod finish. U-40 ‘Perma-Gloss’ is a urethane based finish with the consistancy of water, it flows well off the brush and doesn’t have much of a ridge at the edges. If you use an epoxy based finish try the thin versions (such as flex-coat lite) and use heat from a hair dryer to help it flow.
A nick in the substrate is a bigger deal. Left untreated it may cause a stress concentration that can snap the rod when it’s under load. This type of damage requires a reinforcing thread wrap (if it’s a small nick) or a splint made from an old rod blank (for a deeper wound.) Using white thread the wrap will almost disappear when finished. The splint will leave an unsightly bulge, but insures the rod won’t snap in the future.
There is a nice step by step example of the splint in the FOAL archives…