where is a good place to look for 2nd quality fly rod blanks (cosmetic blems)?

Shanon

i'm just curious... why do you want cosmetically blemished fly rod blanks?

eric
fresno, ca.
(your email is hidden, otherwise i would have asked this privately)

Shanon:

Try Neals, he's on the left side of this forum. He might have what your looking for.

Randy

Though I am not certain about this I think I may have seen such blanks in Mudhole's website.

These cheap blanks are great for building kid's rods, "guest" rods, or inexpensive "backup" rods. You can cut them up for repair parts too.

Lou

thanks, I want them for cheap "guest" rods and I work at a group home and would like to build some rods for my kids.

Shanon

hi shanon,
try dick@comcast.net

( jimmy mac)

shanon... i asked because i just bought a couple of nice fly blanks, first quality, one was $14. you can get blems for cheaper, but $14's already insanely cheap and believe me, i AM cheap ;-)

good luck

eric
fresno, ca.

eric,

which blank did you get for $14? The biggest difference is that sometimes you can get a wonderful rod that doesn't look so great for super cheap vs. a good looking rod that's a dog, for $14.

Shanon

eric zamora Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i'm just curious... why do you want cosmetically
> blemished fly rod blanks?
>
> eric
> fresno, ca.
> (your email is hidden, otherwise i would have
> asked this privately)

When you can get blems for around $1/foot, you would be crazy not to! Usually the mfg doesn't want disclosure but it doesn't take much to figure out that you just made a kilin'. These blanks produce quality, affordable rods.

ed, rod blanks for $1 a foot sounds great, i can easily see why someone would jump at something like that. but we're talking about blemished blanks of which i have zero experience.

what kind of blemishes are usually encountered?

a blank for under $20 guaranteed as top quality from that particular manufacturer (or the dealer) sounds great to me when it comes with a basic understanding that what i would receive is top quality. although there are instances of surprises with new, top quality blanks (st croix stands out in my mind), the added insurance and piece of mind for not using blemished blanks is worth about $10 more. keep in mind, these are low priced blanks i have experience with. low priced but good quality.

call it fear of the unknown for me. how many use blemished blanks and what kind of blemishes are usually encountered?

eric
fresno, ca.

Most cosmetic blems that you will get will have slight color changes over the length of the blank. Other times you see paint/color sags or drips that can be removed if they need to be, usually at the tip section. Sometimes (but rarely) there may be a slight bend to the tip section, usually not as bad as bamboo rods often have though. Blanks that have big bends don't make it out of the factory. I build on blems quite often and when speaking to someone who sold blems was told that he is careful with them and only sells ones that are truely usable because his reputation is on the line and he didn't want to deal with annoyed customers who won't come back because of a $10 blank.

2cents,
Tim