OK I have been lurking for some time and reading (by my mistake not listing to the great advice). I'm refinishing a 6'6" browning rod I had to save my butt off to buy in 1986. Any ways I was taking the old guides off and taking off old epoxy when I nicked a small sliver of graphite from the blank. It now in between guides (exposed) after I rewrapped. This is not a custom show rod; it is just a great rod from my past that I want to be able to keep fishing. My thoughts were to just wrap thread and epoxy (it is at the upper end of the blank).

Did you actually get into the graphite or just the clear coat finish? If all you did take a nick out of the clear coat, or tinted coat, it shouldn't be a big deal. If the sliver actually contains graphite fibers the rod had been compromised and could break at any time, usually when you least want it to do that.

It looks like a graphite fiber about 1/2 or a 1/4 as thick as "A" thread and about 1/4" long. I'm just sick about it! When I run my fingers over the spot I can feel a small grove

I don't really know, but I'm not sure you could see a single graphite fiber. If what you're describing is the total piece of "whatever" that came off the rod, I sort of doubt that you got into the graphite. But, there are a lot of people around here smarter about that than I am.

Howard,

If you think you knicked the graphite and weakened the rod I'd place a fiberglass sleeve on the effected area. If the knick is located in a small diameter area use an over sleeve - If in a large diameter area cut the blank where the damage is and use an inner sleeve. Either way use Fiberglass for the sleeve material not graphite.

Hank
On The Rocks Fishing
Wells, ME.

I have had this happen to me, and this is what tempered the advice I gave on a previous post on this topic.

It is easy to lift a sliver of material off the blank. In one instance I epoxied the graphite sliver back on and wrapped it tightly with thread. Some time later I removed the thread and lightly sanded the area smooth - repair is invisible under a guide underwrap and has held fine up over the years., even while placing severe loads on the rod ;-).

Had yet another rod in the shop that had similar damage cause when the owner "did me a favor" and removed the guides himself. A 3-inch long shallow sliver of grahite had come off when he knicked the material with a razor while removing the guides. I re-wrapped the rod without paying any attention to the nick, and that rod has also held up ok - it has not broken after several years of use, even with the missing graphite. .

Of course these were shallow nicks, some material was lost, but not alot. I agree that less material, a nick in this case, makes the rod weaker at that point. How much weaker I dont know. The two rods with nicks I have worked on are still being fished to this day, so damage was not bad enough to limit normal fishing.

Personally, I would leave well enough alone and would only sleeve it only if it breaks. Maybe in the meantime you can consider an underwrap to help support the blank in that area.

Lou

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Howard, A few years back, I rebuilt a GLoomis GL2 HS1023, which I think is on par with IM6, though not quite sure. Anyway, I litterally hacked the heck out of the rod while removing the guides, removing slivers of rod everywhere. An old pro I spoke to told me that the modulus in IM6 and lower are thickly encased with resin, requiring some pretty deep hacking to cut graphite fibers. I don't know what you felt when you ran your finger over it, but it is pretty unlikely you felt a graphite strand. I fish that hacked-up rod every season and haven't experienced a failure, yet.
I hope yours fishes the same. Good luck.

Patrick Vernacchio



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2005 07:52PM by Patrick Vernacchio.

Thanks for the advise, like I said it was a very shallow sliver. The rod is a browning medalist light action rod, I remeber the rod list for $60 at a store in 1985 I waited and waited until the price dropped and picked it up, that rod has been all over North America with me and I want to keep on using until one of us breaks. I decided to wrap over the nick and epoxied it last night. If any of my budies ask me about the wrap with no guide on it I will say it is a custom wrap.