I am in the process of putting together a 2-piece Sage SP196 9'6" 4-10lb line weight blank as a drift rod for steelhead here in the Pacific Northwest. My question is:

How important is it to wrap the entire length of the ferrule with thread? Or can I just wrap part of the ferrule and be confident in knowing that the ferrule will not break on me?

The bottom section of the blank goes in about 2.25" into the ferrule. I have a double foot guide that sits at the end of the ferrule that will be wrapped 1" thick. This means that there will be 1.25" of ferrule that will not be wrapped with thread.

I have wrapped just the guides on the bottom end of ferrules on many rods in the past and have not had any ferrules fail on me. However these are usually heavier/stronger rods compared to this Sage SP196 blank. Given that I will be spending a lot of time on this blank and it will be used for steelhead I wanted to make sure that the ferrule doesn't break on me when I have a trophy acrobatic steelhead on. I don't mind wrapping the whole ferrule if it's needed but I would rather wrap just the double foot guide only if I can get away with it for aesthetic reasons.

Thank you in advance.....

All the thread wrap does is prevent a split-out from starting at the very edge of the ferrule opening, so once you go much further along the ferrule than that you'd doing something that isn't necessary and doesn't actually provide any additional strength to the ferrule.

Most companies these days include an internal reinforcement in their lay-up so thread wraps are becoming somewhat obsolete. We did an article on this in the magazine a few years back and about 2/3rds of the companies we spoke with said they did not require any additional ferrule reinforcement on their blanks.

If you want to do it for peace of mind, try making a wrap on the ferrule, starting very close to the open end and with very snug thread tension, and wrap back a distance equal to about 1-1/2 to 2 times the ferrule diameter. So if the female ferrule opening is, say, 1/4 inch, wrap back about 1/2 inch.

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Lam,
If you are putting a guide that is virtually next to the joint, who not wrap the guide starting from the joint?

Be safe

Lam,
As Tom says.

But depends on instx from manufacturer.
CTS requires no ferrule wrap. I do so for cosmetic sake. For 12'-13' two-handed fly rods where there is a lot of stress on the ferrules I make two wraps of about 1/2" and 1/2" apart. I do not like the look of long wraps. Especially ferrule wraps.
Now Gatti - an Italian blank manufacturer requires that you make a 15mm wrap on all ferrules for their warranty to be in force.
So check with Sage customer service.
Herb

Wrap the ferrule in a color that matches the blank and then wrap the guide with the color of your choice. I do this all the time and it make the rod look seamless.
Its a Sage, wrap it!

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Dennis,
Great idea!!
Herb

If you use a color that comes close to the blank color and do not use CP on it, it will almost disappear. I've not had much luck in matching blank colors, exc black.

Thank you for all the responses to my post. I find them all extremely helpful. After taking all of the above responses into account I have decided to just wrap the double-foot guide starting at the edge of the ferrule. I have wrapped several rods like this and to date have not hay any ferrules split/break on me.

As far as choosing a color that matches blank color, I too have had a hard time choosing a color that exactly matches blank color. And even when color comes close there is still the shiny epoxy look when you apply epoxy to it.

This build is gonna be fun!

Try white silk in a 00 size without CP. You'll swear you wrapped the area ,trying to convince someone you did.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)