I know this has been asked before, but…anyhow I fire away.
On my new Sage VT2 two of the ferrules are stuck together.
I have tried “everything”, had someone pull at the other end and twisting.
Tried hot water, cold water.
They just don’t go apart.
I don’t want to use too much force of course.
Any ideas?
I don’t use candle wax on the ferrules because my problem is that they often go apart when I’m casting, maybe it’s because of my casting style?
I was wandering if I should try to use candle wax and maybe also tape the ferrules to hold them together!
Do many of you do that (tape or wax)?
One thing that worked for me for sticking sections was putting an ice pack around the ferrule that is stuck for about 15 minutes, then it came apart relatively easily.
I have used ferrule wax specifically (it is probably just paraffin, bought it at FeatherCraft in St. Louis) and it works wonders! It doesn’t make the ferrules sticky nor slippery, it fills in the little gaps between the two parts of the rod so that when you cast it it won’t wiggle. When rods come apart while casting it’s due to the repeated casting cause the rod sections to wiggle slightly back and forth almost imperceptibly until suddenly it will wiggle itself right off the rod with one strong cast.
Try cleaning out the ferrules and ends of your rod really well and then rub a little solid paraffin on the ends, you just need a thin layer, like the wax of an apple. Just see if it makes a difference and either way, let us know. Or, try it on a non-fly rod first. I tried it first with a cheap Shakespeare and I stopped casting my rod tip along with my bait!
Go to Best Buy or an office supply store and get some “canned air”, for example Belkin Blaster. Turn the can UPSIDE DOWN and spray the fluid right on the male part of the ferrule. Frost will form on the ferrule. Now pull apart. If that does not work, spray on the entire ferrule, then pull.
I carry an uncolored white birthday candle in my vest and use it on the made end of the rod ferrules.
I have used plastic electricians tape to tape a ferrule together, as it had a habit of coming apart when casting. I just put the rod together as per normal, and then put a wrap of the tape around the joint. The rod is yellow, and I bought some yellow tape to use. It seemed to work great.
If they are still stuck together you might want to wrap tape around the pieces to build up a little better hand hold to pull them apart. I also would follow the advice of not twisting them.
You people are great, so many advices for my little problem.
The parts are too long for my fridge.
I tried the ice, it didn’t work. Put them on ice again and built the extra handles with tape, pulled (straight) and it worked
Interesting what AlbaSurf sais about the parts wiggling apart if you don’t use wax.
I thougt it would be worse if I used wax.
I’m defenently going to find a good wax and try it out.
And consider using tape on the joints if they go apart.
And clean them of course.
Didn’t see the video until they were apart.
Thank you all, this has been irretating me for weeks!
Thorarinn.
The reason the ferrules stick is that a vacuum develops in the stuck section of the rod. You put the rod together in the morning when the air is cool. There is air trapped in the hollow section of fly rod above the stuck ferrule. It heats up during the day and the air expands and leaks out of the hollow rod section.
You might put the rod in the shade while you stop for lunch, or worse, dip it into the cold river. The air inside rod section contracts, pulling the ferrule tight and sealing it. Now there is a sealed vacuum in the rod section keeping the ferrule locked.
Ice the ferrule and you make the female and male sections of the ferrule suddenly shrink. They shrink at different rates and the vacuum seal is broken.
I use a small bar of soap to lubricate the ferrules, if stuck apply a hot cloth to the female ferrule wrapped tight, replace the wrapped cloth with replacement hot cloth, letting the female ferrule to expand in diameter from the heat, then the ferrules can be separated. I use a bar of soap, on the male ferrules, because it is easier to clean out the inside of the female ferrel with a Q-Tip that has been immersed in some very hot water to clean out all the buildup gunk inside
Or…
You can wrap the male ferrule in dry cloth and add a protective wrap of saran wrap, then run hot water on the female ferrule, to allow it to expand in diameter. Keep the male cool, let the female get hot…
Glad you got your rod unstuck without breaking it.
Regardless of what you do going forward, it isn’t a bad idea to check your joints during the course of the day. I do that just to make sure nothing is loose because I don’t use wax on my rods since the manufacturer doesn’t recommend it.
I only had stuck ferrules once and that was on a day where is was really cold in the morning but very warm in the afternoon. Ice cured my problem that day but because of that, when I am fishing in similar circumstances I make a point to loosen and refit the ferrules once it warms up. It has never happened since.
My understading is that you cannot buy a blank that is not plugged.
These blanks are hollow as they come out of the oven and off the mandrel. BUT they are then plugged on the male end at the factory. It prevents crushing of the male side of the ferrule when placed into the female side. But it also allows a vacuum, to develop only in individual sections. I would not try to drill out the plug. That is for a tip over butt ferrule. For spigot ferrules, the spigot is the plug.
The rod builder doesn’t do it, they come that way.
I check the joints many times a day, very often they are loose. I check them by pushing them together, maybe I should take them apart?
The plug in the male end is soft, at least in my rod, so I think it’s more of a cosmetic than protection. But I would never take it out, it’s just a thougth.
“Keep the male cool, let the female get hot…”, aren’t we all trying to do that
That’s the way i do it Thorarinn, when i check them later so they don’t get stuck as the day warms, i take them apart and put them back together, letting in ‘new’ air. Here’s something…when you check the joints so they don’t get stuck, put them back together by offsetting the guides by a quarter turn then slide the sections together and lightly twist at the same time, finishing with the guides lined up as the last move in the same twisting direction. Hope you understand my poor account of that !
Ane yep, some kind of wax. One small white birthday candle will last a long time as you only need to make a few lines here and there on the male ferrule.
I don’t know about you guys but I can tell when a ferrule is getting loose. The fly rod just doesn’t feel “right”. It loses what I would call “crispness” and takes more effort to cast.
Also you may notice that the guides are slightly rotated off axis from each other. Most folks will flip the rod over and sight down the guide side of the fly rod. I sight down the rod with the guides on the bottom. You should see an equal amount of guide projecting on each side of the blank. It seems easier for me to notice very slight rotation of one rod section from another using this method. Since you hold the rod this way anyway, you can do it quickly.
Basically though, whenever I feel that change in the castability of the fly rod, I reseat the every ferrule.
