A friend was careless with using my rod for surf fishing. Some sand had gotten into the female ferrule before the rod was assembled. So, when he placed the female ferrule over the male ferrule, and then giving the rod sections the bayonet twist to firmly lock them together, the finish on the male ferrule was scratched by the sand. I'm sure that the interior of the female ferrule was also scratched.

Is this worth trying to fix, or should I just let it be? I suppose that if I tried to place a coating over the scratched male ferrule, to hide/cover the scratches, the fit between the two sections might become too tight after the coating dries.

how deep are the scratches????? personally i would leave them as they will wear themselves in (or out) over time (it also allows somewhere for any "crud" to go like an oil track and will not bind the ferrule up

Leaonard,

I surf fish a lot. What has happened is a typical scinario. You have to expect this sort of thing in the evoironment that you are fishing in. Ok as a rule I blow into the blank to remove any sand that may be lurking and always give the male section of the joint a quick wipe over before asembly but you nearly always get some sand up there.

Now it seriuosly is not worth trying to remove or fill these scratches. You will end up with far worse problems believe me. Except them as battle scars they will have very little effect and just take a bit more care in future is the best advice I can offer you. I get the same problem with my rather expensive surf fly rods and heck I have grown to accept it now. In the heat of battle as in a Striper blitze and you are faced with assembling a fly rod well any rod, the red mist comes down and the last thing on earth you are, or should be thinking about is a bit of sand in the joint.

Don't worry our rods are tough cookies.