I have two tip sections for an old Fenwick World Class fly rod that are for a 9 1/2 foot rod. ( The line weight is probably 8 or 9. ) They came from an @#$%& purchase along with the wrong butt section. I have been unable to find a matching World Class butt section through Fenwick or other sources. I'd like to create a butt section for use with these tip sections by using pieces of blanks from scrapped rods that I bought to practice my rod building skills with. Is this project likely to be doomed because matching the inner taper on the tip sections with a section of blank that was not meant for the tips is asking to break something ?

I have also not yet tried to match the butt section that the tip sevtions came with to any tip sections of my salvaged blanks.

I'd appreciate any ideas for putting these sections into good use.

Phil

Phil,

I'm sure you'll get a bunch of varying thoughts on this, but here's my experience:

I've done exactly what you described, several times, and had great success. You just need to match the taper as close as possible. It's not necessary to match the length, but I would try to match material, although I've seen some really nice graphite/fiberglass hybrids that worked quite well.

Take care,

Chris

Thanks for letting me know that someone has had some success doing what occuried to me.

I wonder if there are methods for measuring the inner taper of a blank. One idea that came to me is to use drill bits.

A bit that enters the tip section to a depth of 2 1/2 inches and another bit that just enters the tip section should yield helpful information about the taper.

Any other thoughts ?

Another thought is to find a butt section that would work with the tip
and just fabricating a solid glass "spigot" to slip inside the Female tip ferrule.
You can sand from a larger OD to fit inside the butt section and then sand again to match the ID of the tip ferrule.
Might need to have it made up so the "spigot" slides into the butt section from the top down,
instead of from the bottom up.
And then epoxy in the butt.
And your drill bit idea is good, actually anything that would give you the ID sizing.
That way you can use within reason any butt section that you feel will compliment the tip section,
not being concerned with the "taper" of the butt section.

Best wishes,
Ron Schneider
Schneider's Rod Shop
Mountain Home, Arkansas
[www.schneidersrods.com]
mtnron40@yahoo.com
870-424-3381

Thanks Ron ! Your idea sounds really good.

Phil

Man, we have some talented folks on this forum.