I'm fairly new to rod building & recently purchsed both Clemen's books. In both he refers to placing small scratches on the blank to mark for butt wraps axis etc. Is that still the proper method. If not what would you recommend?

I will do that sometimes on a gloss finish blank. You do not want to put a deep gouge in - just a light scratch. On a matte blank I use a fine pencil. In the past I have tried a white china marker, white-out on a toothpick, etc and could never get a small enough mark. There is another method that I have used but I found it frustrating. Tape a length of NCP white thread down on the axis and put your marks on the thread. After a few X wraps you can pull this marker thread out. I'm sure someone will chime in with the proper way to use the NCP thread method.

Chuck

I use a pencil. The mark is faint but once the centers start to build you can remeasure and make adjustments using the light reflection method.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

You can also mark a white NCP thread and tape it to your cross axis. After making the first few passes and making sure everything is aligned nicely, cut the ends of your alignment thread and pull it out from under your developing cross wrap.

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Scratching a graphite blank can cause a blank failure if the scratch cuts into the graphite fibers.
Good Wraps Bob

I use a mechanical pencil with coloured leads.

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Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

I use a small A mechanical pencil
Good Wraps Bob

Thanks guys for all your imput. I was concerned about using the scratch method on graphite blanks. I found that Sharpie has now come out with an extra fine point marker. Has anyone used this new marker. It is a permanent marker. Do you think I would get any bleed thru using it.

Be careful, some inks will bleed through or dissolve when hit with CP or epoxy. I think I'd go the mechanical wax marker route before I'd use the Sharpie. Or... tiny dots of white or black india ink.

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I do this...light scotchbrite scuff to kill the glare....and so you can see the fine dot from a fine point black Sharpie...(water based or denatured thinned CP's have yet to cause a problem for me and dissolved bleeds)