So I have a rod that I would like to remove the guides and rewrap with new ones. How do I strip off the old guides and what has worked for you?

Steve,
I use a heat gun to first soften the finish. But I am very careful to NOT to over heat the finish or rod.
Then, starting on the foot side of the guide, scrape down and cut the thread and finish from the guide foot. By using the razor knife on the metal part of the guide, you do not run any risk cutting into the blank. Normally, with the thread cut free of the guide foot, you can just peel the guide foot off of the blank. Then, if necessary add a touch more heat, and grab the loose end of the thread and finish with a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers and pull off the rest of the thread and finish in one piece.

Then, take the razor knife and scrape the remaining finish off of the rod. Use the razor knife as a scraper rather than a knife. i..e hold the knife at 90 degrees or perpendicular to the blank and just work it back and forth, scraping any remaining finish from the rod where the guide had been placed. Generally each guide takes about a minute or so to remove. The larger butt guides and or butt wraps take longer due to the longer length of the thread and finish.

CAUTION -- if you do use heat, use it very carefully. Especially in the tip area where the rod blank gets to a much smaller diameter. A little heat on a small rod blank - as near the tip - can have a much larger effect on the rod, than the same amount of heat near the butt section of the blank. It is best not to use any heat at all, but generally a bit of heat makes the job a lot easier.

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If you are just recovering the guides from a broken rod, go heavy with the heat and melt the blank if necessary for an extremely quick removal of the guides. But, if you do have a scrap blank, you can do some tests with heat to find the point where the heat affects the blank in a negative way. Then you will know how much heat to avoid.

Be safe

No need to soften the finish with heat. Check the FAQs page here for instructions on how to do the job.

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I also wind a piece of masking tape at the end of each old wrap so that if I slip, and you will, I don't mar the finish on the rod.

Just cut on top of the guide foot and peel away the tread. You can usually grab a loose tread end and unwrap the remaining tread. After removing the tread you can heat the epoxy to soften it and remove it with your finger nail or a plastic or wood edge, a metal edge may scratch the finish. Just be careful. if you are going to place a new guide in the same place just clean up a little and rewrap. If placing the guides in a different location, the clean up will need to be more extensive and may require refinishing. Hope this helps.
Norm

Best way I have found to do this is to use CITRISTRIP, put it on the epoxy and I wrap it in in a rubber surgical glove the next day it comes right off.