I have a hairline crack 1/4" long on the ferrule end of my tip section (2 piece high modulus graphite rod). It is visible in the wrap finish and thread. Is it possible to repair this or do something to prevent the crack from lengthening? My idea is to remove the finish and put an under wrap of Kevlar thread down then my finish wrap over top of that. Any ideas if this will work or other ideas. Thanks.

Paul

golden witch has some small nickle silver bands. phillipson used something similar on the ferruls of his glass rods and ron kusse uses them on the graphite rods that he makes. they come in 64ths and
you place them at the very edge of the female ferrul. the epoxy holds it in place and it might be sufficient
reinforcement to do the job.

Paul, I repair lots of rods with that sort of crack. My best advice is to cut off the split ferrule slightly beyond the point the crack extends to. This is best determined by removing the old threads and epoxy, cleaning the surface with your fingernail and wiping with alcohol in a good light. I've found the best way to cut blanks without tearing the graphite is with a thin bladed, finely toothed knife - lightly score around the outside of the blank and slowly work the cut deeper as you rotate the blank. Eventually the piece will just fall off. Lightly pull the cut-off apart to double check you've got beyond the crack (if yes, it shouldn't just open without some resistance). Square off the 'new' ferrule edge by standing it vertically on very fine sandpaper and rubbing lightly (you might even want to bevel the outside edge slightly afterwards by rotating it accross the sandpaper on an angle). Bind the ferrule at least twice the length of its diameter and epoxy. All of this assumes that cutting 1/4" plus off the ferrule still gives you sufficient overlap with the bottom section of the rod. If that's not the case, you can restore most of the overlap by carefully rolling up some fine sandpaper (eg 400 grit) and carefully rotating it within the female ferrule working deeper as you go, but in most cases that's unnecessary and is risky if you are not used to fitting ferrules. If you leave the crack I guarantee it will continue to extend up the blank, however well you think you have reinforced it - so it needs to be removed! Good luck, Jim