i have built several rods on the lamiglas honey colored e glass fly rod blanks. my newest project is to build the 7' 3wt 3piece and extend it to either 7'6" or 7' 9" by inserting and epoxying an extension into the butt section. i have two scrap blanks i can use. one is graphite and one is glass. i would prefer to use the graphite. the piece will extend the blank 9" and also extend into the blank to about 1" in front of the cork. i could extend it up to six inches in front of the cork and my theory is that it will stiffen the butt section and act much like the swelled butt on a bamboo rod. any ideas or caviats?

Don't insert anything, oversleeve it. Use glass piece and slide it down over the current butt piece.

You have to be careful when you "stiffen" anything like that. You need some continuity of properties or the sudden increase in stiffenss at that point will result in a shear area and breakage can be the result.

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i was concerned about that shear stress issue. i do have some stock i can use to oversleave it. will see how that works out. does the fact that the reel seat and handle will be on the extension (and overlap part of the original blank) have any impact on any of this? what about using aluminum tubing? ( i know there was an article, how do i order a back issue?)

can you tell me which back issue volumn and date i need to order for blank extending?

Go the magazine website and check over the back issue page. It was in volume 6, I believe.

I wouldn't use aluminum tubing up to any area where you still expect flex. That would also create a sheer point.

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Larry, you could consider doing a ferruled handle to extend this blank. Build your handle with the female end of a metal ferrule at the top of your handle, it will be hidden by your cork, then put the male end on your blank butt. You can wrap over this and hide it also. You can have the length of an extension and the ease of a breakdown handle and not sacrifice the strength. Just a thought, I have built a lot of these for different rods and have always liked the way they work.

sam, thanks for the tip. it sounds like something that would work but i think i will do the glued up instalation. then i am going to make ferrul plugs of the correct lenght for the two tip sections (this is a three piece rod) so that the sections are equal lenght in the rod bag and tube. kind of novel and adds another element of creativity.