Does anyone know how to get the reel seat and cork handle off of a bamboo blank to start the refinishing process?

Andy,
You're going to have to cut off the cork with a blade, proceed carfully. The reel seat should come off with heat. Use a paint stipping gun and again proceed carefully.
First you should consider if you should remove it or not, if it is a rod that is in fair shape and has trademarks visable you could lose any value by changing anything from original. You should get a good book on refinishing bamboo rods. Also there a lot of help in the sponsers listed at the left especially Golden Witch. They are very helpful with advice and will even match the original thread if you send them a sample.
Old bamboo rods are a pleasure to rebuild but always be careful that you are not ruining a classic. Good luck and enjoy your rod.

Wait.. First off who made rod?? Some bamboo rods the handle is made out of wood and then the bamboo is is only stuck about 3 inches into handle.. Also if reelseat is still good then dont take it off if it's plastic, the plastic seats are hard to salvage.. Let me know who maker is and then I can tell you what to do..

Thanks Dave

Ditto on the above also, many of the makers did not use what we call blank thru construction. Many have a wood dowel about 10" long at the butt end, they glue the reel seat on the one end, and drill a 3/8" hole about 2" deep in the other end, and glue in the bamboo butt section, then add the cork to the dowel. I don't know what they were saving at the time, or maybe it was the latest craze in manufacturing, but there are lots of them out there. If the rod is a "run of the mill" rod, just razor blade the cork and you will see that the reel seat is either glued or pinned to the wood dowel, if there are no cracks in the dowel where the rod is glued in, then just reverse the process. Glue on the new reel seat, glue on the cork rings, set it in you lathe, cut the cork down to what shape you want and go from there. Butt section is good as new and no one is the wiser. If the dowel is cracked and the butt section is loose, just buy a hardwood dowel and do the same thing to it. I have found that most of the dowels used were mohogany, a hard wood by species, but a soft wood to work with. I like to replace with oak or birch.

Any questions feel free to email me.

Tight lines,
Art

mrparramoure@yahoo.com