A customer wants me to extend his casting handle from a 12" inch handle to a 15" handle. These are all St. Croix musky rods(3 or them). I have never done this before. I assume that if it can be done the cork would be removed from the butt grip. A section of scrap blank (I would probably get St. Croix scrap) would be inserted into the hole in the blank a couple of inches and epoxied so it extends to the desired length. Cork rings would then be glued/clamped the entire length of the handle and turned on the lathe. Butt cap then put on.

Can this be done? Anyone ever do it before? Would the above method work? Does the Ralph O'Q rule of using just fiberglass regardless of a graphite or fiberglass blank apply here?


Considering the rod will be cast with two hands, and one of those hands will probably be close to where the scrap is epoxied into the blank, will this hold up?

Thanks,
Buzz

PS Possible future RodMaker article Tom?

Buzz,
Yes, you have the right idea. I've done this and it works.
Being at the extreme butt end I would insert more than a couple inches, mayb around 4". As for applying Ralph's rule, I woulnd't say you require the lower modulus at this place so much as further up the blank. I may get the rath of Ralph on this, but matching graphite piece to the graphite blank should be fine. Use rod bond for the join and with the turning of the rings you'll be in fine shape with the extension.

Not a huge deal, but the addition may throw off the balance just a weenie bit. In honesty, for a musky rod wt. will not make the difference that you would need to change the whole reel setup.

Got the right idea with the St. Croix blanks, for musky IMHO.

Good luck.

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel.

I think how you do this would depend on the type blank you are faced with. If it's heavy walled you could just leave on the cork that you have and put a stiff piece of blank in there a few inches and add new cork on to that. Sand and blend and go to town!

If it's a thin walled blank I might be inclined to put my extension all the way up to a point where it ended up under the reel seat area. And if you do this you wouldn't need a very heavy extension piece at all.

I have done this successfully on a few rods and it seems to hold up.

I believe the last rod maker magazine had an article with a very beautiful rod with a casting butt, could you add an extension and a tear dropped style butt cap similar to the picture in the magazine? No need for cork.