The article about custom rods really being custom got me thinking. How far does the blank on a spinning or casting rod need to go into the handle? Does it have to reach the butt cap or could it just reach the end of a split grip handle just after the reel seat?

Just thinking out loud.

Ash

Then just thinking, how would you mount the reast of the split grip and whatever butt cap there is? Only thing I can see is you would be extending the blank to get that part of the handle on the rod. But the extension would have to be solid enough to handle fighting the fish. So to me, unless you want an extended rod, just use the blank all the way through.

The blank doesnt extend thru on rods with pistol grips.

I have taken a lot of factory rods apart and many have the blank stopping in the foregrip. The handles look they are built on a different piece of graphite or some other shaft. If the bond is good and the joint strong I see no reason that the blank does have to go all the way to the butt. Many of the old boat and pier rods only had the blank going into the front of the reel seat. Behind that was a butt of solid hickory. Just my thoughts but I may be missing something.

my two penneth is that the rod extending through the blank surely will transmit vibration better than a glued joint onto a different material due to the resonance of the rod being all the same

But then what do I know about american rods I from UK

Something has to go all the way through to the butt, either the blank or something else. In most cases it's better to use the blank if you can, since almost nothing else easily obtainable is going to be as stout and as light or lighter than the blank in that area.

A well assembled joint between 2 pieces will certainly affect the sensivity, but I doubt it would be anywhere near enough that the human hand could detect it.

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We extend the blanks all the way through the handle region to with'n 1/4" of the bottom cork end.

Jason