I have a bad luck rod that I have decided to throw in the towel. This is a St Croix LU 905-4 that I have broken four times. I have never had breakage problems with my other dozen or more fly rods, so i assume this one just has bad karma and I have no desire to repair or replace the butt section. I would, however like to salvage the REC nickle silver hardware, ambonya burl seat and the cork if possible. I am open to ideas. My own was to heat the seat cap for removal as well as cutting off the blank at the winding check and then drilling out the grafite blank and hopefully using them on another project. Have any of you pros done this and is there a best way? Any ideas welcome.

Thanks in advance

Bill

Since you are not going to use the blank, I have cut them off, then drill them out Nice and easy. Don't use to large a drill bit to quick Move up in size slowly

DITTO,,, I also have reused cork grips and the reel seats.. Try heating reel seat in VERY HOT water 1 st.
to see if you can get it off. Another source for heat is a hair dryer. The last one I had to replace the blank, I just took a good hold of the cork and the reel seat and started to twist in opposite directions, like opening a bottle. The blank shattered and I had two pieces.. worked out well. Or as stated above cut blank at the winding check and drill out, using larger and larger drill bits. Hopefully you can heat the cap and drill from both ends if the seat doesn't come off..

Good luck.

Art

I have had fairly good success with the boiling method. Use a dishtowel or something to get a good grip on the blank, then TWIST rather than pulling.

Yes, boiling water. Dip the reelseat in and get it off first then work on the cork. If the butt cap is removed the water will heat from the inside too. Good Luck. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.