Recently I decided to strip the guides off of a rod that has served me well for nearly fifteen years. It’s a Sage RPL that I built early on using a two-part thread wrap coating that hardens solidly. When I removed the snake guides I scraped at the edges of my original wraps and cause some scuffing to the rod surfaced. These scuffs did not look much better after coating the blank with Permagloss, so I had to look for a way to hide the scuff marks.

I considered underwrapping the guides, but wanted to avoid adding weight. So I experimented with a wrap that is similar to the Forhan locking wrap used on single foot guides. I wrapped up the leg of the snake guide and when I reached around four turns before the point where I would normally end my wrap, I inserted a tie-off loop. I then wrapped up to the usual end point and held my wrap in place while I cut my thread from the spool allowing around nine inches to continue wrapping with. The next several wraps were made in front of where the guide spirals up, hand feeding the thread end under the snake guide.

This technique hid all flaws, with little added weight. I’ll be coating with a low build epoxy, so I should have no trouble soaking epoxy into the tunnels despite having them somewhat closed off by my last five to six turns.

Have others used this technique to cover blemishes?

Jeff Shafer

I have extended the wrap out just a bit farther or done a little spiral wind like the old rods from the 70's used to have. That's about it for me.

good job Jeff! A fast fix to a Problem.I take it that the scuff marks were between the feet? could have measured and made a short wrap to cover that area

Thanks Barry,

Yes, while scraping off the old finish I created scuff marks inside the feet which would have been noticeable without extending the wraps inside the feet. Last night I posted an image of the test wraps - no finish applied.

No need to measure this way, as the wrap is one continuous wrap.

Jeff