I recently took a rod building course and in it built my first rod. (I am thoroughly bitten by the bug) I believed I was building a 9 ft 4 wt 2 pc rod. After completing it at home (applied the finish at home) I purchased a sleeve and tube for it and in doing so discovered the rod is actually 9ft 5 inches. Is this common? I measured out the 9 foot winstons I own and they measure 9 feet (go figure). Just curious for future building.
Thanks in advance for your insights,

Howard

Did you install a seat with a fighting butt? That would add some extra length.

Then again, you may have gotten a 9' 6" blank by mistake. Exactly what is the model number?

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Nope no fighting but......

as to serial number..the gentleman who taught the course is a local commercial rod maker whose shop has "proprietary blanks" so I have no way to find out who made it or to what specs. This was not a high end rod by any means, but i did learn the basics to get me started.

Thanks,
H

The first few digits usually indicate the overall length of the blank. I think I would go back and ask him about any discrepancy in length. At least he should know what you have there.

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Thanks Tom...I Gather that it is an unusual situation and that I should be able to expect a rod to be the length of the blank

The finished rod can't be longer than the original blank, unless you mount a seat or a tip on there that extends past either end of the blank.

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right and my mistake was not measuring the blank prior to building..which is a good lesson in and of itself

Howard,

Did you measure the blank put together? Did you take into account that when you break a rod down to fit for a tube, you take the length, divide by the numebr of sections, and add 2.5" for the ferrules? I'm betting that's the part you missed. Now that you see each section is 56.5", you're assuming that the rod length is 5" longer when in fact the ferrule overlap is there.

Measure the rod put together and let us know what happens.

Thanks,
Rick