First, here is what I have been doing with installing the ferrule portion onto the blank. I have used various methods including drywall tape to make up the difference between blank diameter and the id of the ferrule.
My latest builds, I have used a piece of blank from another old rod and found one that will fit over the rod blank and can be fitted to the id of the ferrule. I've glued both the blank and the ferrule with rod bond after
making sure of a good tight fit all around. I think that this is the strongest bond that I can make but it is time consuming locating the correct sized blank and sanding to make a good tight fit. Just wondering if there
are other methods that will ensure that I get the strongest bond possible.

If it were me I would do what you did or make shims from dry wall tape only about 2 squares wide and wrap them on the blank end about 1/4 inch apart after that I would mix up some gel type epoxy and coat them and fill in the gaps of the shims and let them cure and then do a final fit and glue up of the butt it will be rock solid

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

What you're doing is excellent, maybe even the best way. But what Matthew suggests appears to be more than sufficient and has been used successfully by thousands of builders on thousands of rods.

...........

Thank you very much. It just is becoming harder to find just the right size blank to fill the gaps. Then the sanding to fit.
I have tried the dry wall tape but it has too much give until the epoxy dries and have to be careful that the rod is straight
to the butt.

That is why I recommended the process of making the shims narrow and spacing them about 1/4 inch apart pre gluing them with gel epoxy and sand fitting them to the ferule after and then the final glue up.
in essence your building up the blank the same as you would with a cut off piece of scrap it is just a bit more labor intensive and not a hurry through process but the end result is a rock solid fit.
other wise you could do as I have seen it done is to fill the ferule to the top with epoxy or JB weld and then drill it to fit the blank and then finish with more epoxy

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

I do the same thing with narrow shims made from masking tape with about a 1/16th to 1/8th inch gap between the shims. The solid connection of epoxy from the ferrule to the blank is rock solid and the tape keeps things easily centered up, as the epoxy dries.

I simply don't see any particular advantage over using dry wall tape compared to using masking tape with gaps between the rows of shims to create a rock solid joint and connection. The masking tape is plenty solid to insure that things stay centered up, as the epoxy cures and creates the final fit and connection.


Be safe

Mel, you might consider seeing what you can buy at McMaster Carr (or other places). Likely you can get carbon tubing in a wider range of sizes. Fiberglass will likely require some sanding/grinding. Funny how folks mention drywall tape but I almost never hear of anyone using fiberglass cloth.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Fiberglass cloth will work just heavier, but with a heavy off shore rod a little extra weight will not make that much difference.
Norm

First, thank you all for your suggestions. I have completed about 10 rods all using the same blank and components now. I started out with the 1/4" masking tape shims leaving 1/2" gap between each shim and filling the gaps with rod bond. Did not have any failures using this method but I wanted something stronger. I used the dry wall tape next but I did not make shims but instead used the whole width to make up the gap. That got really messy and was hard to do but it did the job also without failure. I wanted something stronger so i then went to using pieces of blank to fill the gap. I liked this the best but I spent a lot of time looking for the right piece that would fill the gap. Typically, I could only use one or two pieces of section of blank from the same scrap blank as the taper would be too small or too big so this method required me to do a lot of searching. The idea of carbon tubing may work but I have found that in my area, there are still lots of old surf rods that people no longer want so it may be easier to just hunt those down. Anyways, I think that the use of the scrap blanks is still the best way so I will continue doing it this way. Thanks for your help.

Just a further update to this question. I looked into the Granger suggestion for carbon tubing but found that they are too expensive. Just thought to try that @#$%& site and found some sold from China that were much cheaper so decided to try it. Only thing is the wait time for shipping from China.