Never seen this before, got a rod in for repair and he wants the butt wrap and bottom guides refinished, pretty common request BUT in this case the reason is the finish is split, he said he used Flex Coat when he made the rod a few years ago and now the finish is cracking or I should say splitting on the butt wrap and bottom two guides.

The splits run length wise nearly two-three inches on the butt wrap with a 1/8th inch gap leading to the tie off, the thread is exposed , on the guides a rough edge not completely split about 1/8 inch from the guide feet and around 1 inch in length. The upper guides are all fine some minor cracking at the guide feet; rod is well maintained not abused any thoughts on what might cause this
John

Years ago I know a guy who used flex coat on a rod, but caused a problem because the Finish and the Epoxy bottles looked quite similar and in his haste, grabbed the epoxy by mistake and applied it to the threads. This would have made a more brittle thread covering although I imagine it would have affected the guide wraps in the more flexable areas of the rod. Just a thought.

John,
Although interesting, you know what to do. Clean up the rod, remove the old, rewrap the guides, refinish with a quality product and move on.
Sounds like it should be a simple refit.

Take care
Roger

John I have a few that looked like this - over five years old - I suspect caused by heavy torch use at the time! I heated the bottom of the application plate to remove bubbles - had very short application time and buzzed the finish to get it to flow.

Over heating (torching) can certainly cause this sort of thing in many cases but in my experience it's more often caused by a builder who alters the 1 to 1 ratio of the epoxy components. I know many builders that like to add "a touch more hardener" than resin to cause it to "kick off faster." What it usually does, however, is create a more brittle product that I've seen split lengthwise over long finished area,s such as butt wraps, when a rod is flexed heavily into the butt. What you're seeing isn't at all uncommon.

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Makes sense but it was uncommon to me. I have seen heat boil finish another type mess but all indications are you being correct it definitely must be more brittle, I am surprised the upper guides seem fine.
Note rod is glass about 30lb class with the old style perfection type boat rod guides, I really don't think he will be able to afford the repair at any rate LOL
thanks John