Hi all, I’ve got a guideless rod that I stripped all the rusty old ones off of. It is a 2pc. 8’ steelie drift rod, (probably in the 8-12lb. test ballpark) and all it has on it now is the cork and reelseat. The clearcoat finish on the rod is quite beat up looking so I was thinking of sanding it down to a matte finish with 600 grit or finer. Will this hurt the blank much? Also, the tip section is the male part of the ferrule. Is there anything special I need to know about this odd configuration? Was this typical at some point? I assume I still need to do a (3 times the diameter) ferrule wrap on the butt (female) section, and will do so, unless I hear otherwise……Thanks to all in advance…….Jim

Jim,
Butt over tip have been used before, last time I'm aware of was on the silver Shimano steelhead rods they came out with a few years before they bought G Loomis. Nice blanks, decent build, but the silver paint on the blank and wraps was butt ugly. This type ferrule looks like it would get loose and fail over time, while the tip over butt design can make up for a certain amount of wear as time goes by.
Sanding the finish, but not the blank works fine, I use ScothBrite extra fine as it has less of a chance damaging the blank while used. Acts more like steel wool in use. Ferrule wrap need to be at least 1 1/2 times the ferrule diameter, you can use what you want past that.