I finished wrapping a rod recently, and it turned out great except for the hook keeper wrap. The wrap extends from the winding check up about 5 inches or so on the blank. The finish didn't go on very well, and I want to remove it and start over. I'm not real high on sanding the existing finish and re-coating, since the finish didn't penetrate evenly and damage to the threads would be unavoidable.

What is the best way to go about leveling the blank once I remove the threads and some of the finish? There is about a 1-inch gap between where the winding check is and the wrapping starts, and this area is covered with finish. My hopes were to remove the threads, sand the area down slightly to smooth it out, and apply a coat of flex light to even the area out before wrapping. When I say even, I mean the areas where the threads were wrapped that seem to inevitably make an impression on the blank finish.

Then, I will start the wrap just after the winding check and wrap to cover the area completely. Instead of using a wire hook keeper with two feet, I'll place a one-footed Fuji hook keeper at the end of the wrap. I'll then re-coat with a few coats of flex light.

Does this sound feasible? Is it critical to sand the whole area down to a certain level, or only remove the old finish and threads and get flush with the rest of the blank? What should I use to sand, if that's the best option?

Thanks in advance for your help.

If you used color preserver, the old threads should come up fairly easily only what is applied to the blank needs carefull attention. Then some light minor scraping with an exacto knife should smooth things up enough, clean with denatured alcohol prior to re wrapping. Pack the threads well, don't wrap more revolutions than you can easily move/pack, then burnish well before applying color preserver. I would not worry too much about leveling and uniformity, the flex coat is for the most part self leveling given a everything is level its being applied to. I'd apply two thin coatsot flexcoat, knocking down any burrs with an exacto knife and a very light wet sanding between coats if days have elapsed between coats, if coated shortly after the1st coat cures just knock down the burrs if any, and apply 2nd lite coat