Next project will be the rebuild (not a restoration but a rebuild) of a Granger Champion 3 piece 4 weight. The bamboo and reel seat are sound but everything else is failing or failed.

Thinking about using 3M's Safest Stripper to remove the old varnish. Anyone with hands on experience with the 3M product? Any tips or tricks to share for its use? It seems that it ought to be easy enough; put it on, let it work, gently remove so as not to damage or round over the corners, then rinse, dry and repeat as needed.

there is a forum that deals with Bamboo rods of all types, they might have better info on your project, just an idea

William Sidney
AK

you have to be careful as some of the strippers can dissolve the glue to join the sections to make the blank
The old school way was to scrape the blank with small glass slides or a carpenters steel scrape IE a piece of old saw blade the flat edge not the toothed edge at a 90 degree angle to the blank and work a section till you get to the ferrule or if you can lay it on a flat surface and the section has a flat face up then just lightly clamp it to the surface and scrape just till you get to the bamboo and repeat till you have scraped all sides. Then apply new finish to each section and let cure before wrapping then finish the wraps.

here is a link [www.trails.com]

The best day to be alive is always tomorrow !!
Think out side the box when all else fails !!!
Wi.

Donald,
While certainly not as qualified as veteran builders on this site, I don’t think you can go wrong with Matthew’s suggestion. I have found scraping a blank with a razor blade held 90* to the surface to be the most effective, cost effective, least messy, and quickest of any other methods for the 15 or so old FG rods (even a neglected 10 year old Phenix Black Diamond) I have needed to strip and refinish. I was hesitant at first, but the process really works great and there is a minimal chance of damaging the blank, at least for anyone intelligent enough to seek and use this forum.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.