I was just given an old Lamiglas 12'surf blank (1 piece)that has no finish,paint or anything on it past the old butt wrap. The blank appears to have been worked on previously and has no guides. The rod has the outside fibers slicking up everywhere giving it a very fuzzy appearance and feel. The rod is dark brown in color and the wrap lines very distinct. The fibers are fiberglass I'm sure and many are now in my fingers. Under the butt wrap has the original label and has the date of manufacture in 1963 I think(very hard to read). I've never seen a rod/Blank like this before. The Blank appears to be in good shape except for the fuzzyness. My question is: Does anyone identify with this rod and it's fuzzyness - Is the blank breaking down? Can the rod still be re-built, and if the rod can be rebuilt, how do I tackle those fuzzies?

I was asked to re-build the rod, but I thought I'd ask for help first. Can anyone assist? The Rod has also been cut in half. I'm sure I can build a Ferrel, but I don't know if the location of the cut is going to present a problem the Rod currently measures 12' and the cut is 4'2" from the butt. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks

I recomend you give Todd a call at Lamiglass. It also sounds like the glass fibers are breaking down and it may not be worth the time and effort to re do the blank. If you want to try use a scotch brite scuff pad (gray in color) to remove all the old finishes make it smooth then wipe it down with denatured alchol. Then use U40 Rod Finish to cover the rod. Word of caution the rod is old and sounds like it was used a lot and may fail after you have put your time and care in to it ..
Keep a Tight Line Bob

Sorry I for got to give you Todd's email address
todd@lamiglas.com <[email protected]>
Todd also leaves messages on this board also
Keep that line tight and good luck .. Bob

I have a 12' one piece and a 10' heavy one piece in the shop now that were given to me in a trade. I have re-worked/finished several of these with good results and will get around to these one of these days.

First advise whoever you are doing this for that you cannot guarantee that the blank will not fail!

Suggestions:

Take it out in the yard and put it through it's paces with the same speed and power that you would use for casting. Next, put it under fish fighting stresses, bend it. If it passes those tests you are good to go.

To re-finish, first clean it with alcohol to remove all of the oils and nasties and look for any stress cracks. If you don't find any proceed with refinishing.

Use 300-400 grit sand paper, not steel wool or a scuff pad. They will leave fibers in the blank that you won't see until you re-finish. Clean really well with alcohol. Next, put an extremely thin (rub it on) coat of finish as a primer. Let that set up a couple of days. After that, sand it again the same way. More alcohol. Put another coat of finish on and let it set up for a week and you are good to go. If you want to change the colors, substitute epoxy paint for the rod finish. You will have to use 3 or 4 light coats to do it properly. DO NOT TOUCH THE BLANK WITH YOUR BARE FINGERS BEFORE YOU REFINISH IT! Skin oils will transfer to the blank.

I have used this method successfully many times with good results.

Dude send the blank back with an I'm sorry. I can just about guarantee you that I know what has caused the fibers to rise and separate. Somewhere along the life of the rod someone went to refinish it and used a paint/varnish remover on it. I know because I tried to refinish a rod many years ago before I knew what I was doing and used paint stripper on it. Well anyone whose been at this for a while knows what happened so I won't go into the embarrassing details but lets just say that i ruined a nice old fishing rod and it looked exactly the way you describe before it started to completely delaminate. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so, thats one SNAFU I'm not likely to ever forget. Good Luck! Warren

Dwayne
If you are sure of that date of manufacture 1963, then chances are very good that what you have is a phenolic blank. Todd Vivian should be able to research the Lamiglass records and see if they were producing phenolic at that date. You say the blank is cut in half 4ft 2in, from the butt. Look at the cross section at the cut. Does the wall thickness appear to be quite thick, thicker than what you are used to? If it is thick and the blank appears to be heavy then you definitely have an old phenolic blank. These blanks were unifomly brown in color, therefore always painted. Someone removed the paint with a chemical solvent --Acetone, or paint stripper--and the overall fuzziness is the result. However the old phenolics would exhibit a lot of fizziness when unpainted and just sitting around for years. The fuzziness is because of the very coarse glass cloth that was used to impregnate the phenolics. I would not be the least bit fearful of the structural integrity of the blank, even if the paint was stripped with paint stripper. Phenolic is very resistant to chemical damage, much more so than the modern polyesters and epoxies. You can sand the exposed fibers with about a 320 grit sandpaper, then apply several coats of a good urethane coating. Don't get trapped into coating it with an epoxy rod finish, you will be sorry in a year or two if you do. These rods had the distinct advantage of being very rugged, they were simply not subject to physical damage. Step on them, kick em---whatever, you could seldom hurt the blank itself. They were also comparatively heavy, and had limited design features.

You will have something of a problem in making a ferrule. You will need a piece of fiberglass rod with a very heavy wall section in order to maintain the original casting power in the blank. You may want to consider a double ferrule --spigot in the butt section, tip over on the tip section. This design gives more power for casting, lifting etc.
But first find out for sure if it truly is a phenolic
Ralph

What is the diameter of the blank where it was cut?

What is the diameter where you want to cut it?

You may be able to move the cut up farther and install a chrome plated brass ferrule.

This is alot of information y'all suppied, I sincerely appreciate it. I've examined the blank carefully again last night and performed a Stress test the best I could of the upper most section of the rod. It seems to have it's original strength and is uniform throught the flex. I spoke with the owner and said the blank may not be good. With him there, I applied alot of pressure (actually trying to break the blank)and brought it past 90 degrees from where I was holding it. The Butt section is extremely strong. I feel the rod is going to be OK. The Diameter of the walls are not thick and the rod is fairly light. I also lightly sanded a small section and the fuzzyness smoothed out. I can still feel the prickly fibers thou. The diameter of the blank is Approx. 1.25" at the cut. I'm going to apply some urethane on the sanded section tonight a see what results. The butt section presents another problem however. The butt was wrapped at some point(maybe original- I don't know)with Cork tape. The cork is falling off the blank and has hardened. Underneath is the original finish (not paint). It has left spiral marks that are darker (and has a reddish tint) than the blank and don't seem to sand out. It seems this is going to be a problem since these spiral marks extend past the cut. I don't want to sand it any further. I'll try to speak with Mr. Vivian
Thanks again for your help. I'll keep you posted. I envision a very beautiful dark brown (Natural fiber) rod. I hope the sanding and urethane bring it back.

Dwayne, as Ralph stated that blank was built using Phenolic resin. I would also agree that it would tend to be more likely to be useable than the poly or epoxy resin's of today. This type of finish was very typical of the phenolic resin systems and was partly the reason for development of new, that and the fact that they put off some nasty fumes while curing.
You have received plenty of excellent information about how to turn this blank into a productive tool once again.
So......good luck and feel free to contact me if necessary, but I think the experts here like Ralph have given you all the information you need.

Todd

And thank you Ralph, I appreciate your expert opinions. Your knowledge of these types of things are invaluable.

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