I have a 3-piece White River 4wt, 5'8" long, that a customer broke about 4" north of the hookkeeper. I'm wondering if because it is such a light rod, can I get by with just inserting a sleeve inside the blank and regluing it, and doing a long wrap over the break. Will that be strong enough, or do I need to put a sleeve over the break as well? It will look cleaner if I don't put the sleeve over it, but can I trust the repair's integrity? This far down the blank, it's not a question of action. Opinions?

The larger concern on such a rod is that because it is quite light it can be expected to flex deeply into the butt area. For this reason whatever you do the repair must not interfere with the rod's normal flex in that area. Don't worry about making it "strong," worry about what will happen if you make it too stiff in that area. If you put what amounts to a rigid splint there, you're likely to have a failure at one end of the other of the sleeve.

I would oversleeve it with glass. If you prefer to go inside, use a piece of glass but choose a piece with a little thicker walls, just a hair bit over, what you have there in the graphite blank at that area.

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Thanks, Tom. Makes sense to me. I can oversleeve it. It would have looked better with an inner sleeve, but I see your point about the extra stiffness.

An internal sleeve won't be stiffer, in fact, when done also in glass it will be less stiff than the same thing as on oversleeve owing to the smaller diameter. You can certainly give it a try - just make sure the blank continues to be able to flex across the repaired area. You just don't want a rigid splint there.

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I'll add this to Tom's point.....I would make sure that the internal sleeve goes AT LEAST 1 1/2 to 3/4 inchs maybe even a bit longer, to either side of the break. Also I agree to use fiberglass.

Bill in WV