A friend gave me a broken butt section of a nice Loomis spin rod. The cork grip and reel seat are in great condition. I would love to have them for building a custom rod for one of my boys. What is the best way to get them off without damaging them? Thanks Steve

Steve,
What I do instead of taking them off of the blank if there is at least 4'' in front of the foregrip I take that and slide it up inside another blank. Now if it is to large and the inside diameter is the right size for the blank you choose I bevel the front edge of the blank that is attached to the handle so it has a taper and once it is glued over the other blank I then wrap thread up over it and you will almost not see the splice when done. I have built many rods like this and not had any failure.
It is very hard to remove cork from a blank and depending on the type of material of the reel seat has the same problems.

I would think hot water.
Put it in a baggy. Don't let the cork get wet. It may take several times to get it off, try from the small end, foregrip end. I tried to drill a handle out once - will not do it again, real pain.

maybe drilling out with a lath ?? to keep the drill centered.

Some guy's are making saws for this, by using brass or aluminum tubing that is just larger than the blank piece, Then filing teeth on one end, then chucking it up in a drill to saw through the cork and any adhesive holding the handles and reel seat on. I haven't tried it yet, but have purchased different sizes of aluminum tubing to try it. They say it works quite well.

Bill in WV

William I can't quite picture what this device looks like and how it works. But it sounds very intriguing to me. Hope someone will bring one to the rod show. Thanks Steve

just a tube with teeth cut into one end. It slids over the end of the blank and is turned into the seat. As it turns the teeth cut into the glue of the seat.
The teeth can also be mis-aligned so as to cut like a saw blade.