Hi All,

I'm fairly new to rod building so all my rods that I built myself are fairly new but all my store bought rods have their finishes coming off one way or another. I stripped one all the way down to the reel seat and down to the raw graphite. What I'm wondering is can I just leave it that way or should I put finish or paint on it? I fish ALOT and in Florida saltwater but it seems to me that graphite should not be affected by the salt or the sun. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Daniel

You can certainly leave it bare, give it a little buffing and then coat it with some wax. It will be fine and actually gives you the highest stiffness to weight ratio.

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Many prefer no paint or other coatings on their blanks and i am one of them , i have a few blanks that i ordered raw with no coatings of any kind and i have the same blanks painted by the factory , i was very surprised just how much more the blank that was painted felt to me when comparing both . Uncoated blanks are perfectly fine and the elements will not harm it in any way . As Tom said a Carnauba based wax is advisable , if the blank has minor scratches a "Cleaner wax" could help but avoid the cleaner/wax types and just go with regular wax without the cleaner if the blanks are glossy without scratches .

Manufacturers have been selling that way for a good long time, my Loomis GLX rods are over 20 years old and still fine.

Thanks everyone!

I have built a lot of rods, with 0 finish on the blank.
I finish the blank by doing a final wet and dry sand with 600 grit paper and go build the rod. I do 0 maintenance or finish on the rod blank, except to wipe off the scales of the fish from the bait that I use and the fish that I catch.
Nothing of any sort is every required on the raw graphite or fiberglass.

For wet sanding, just use a 5 gallon bucket and fill it 1/2 way with warm water and go to town with wet and dry. Start with coarser paper and finish off with fine paper.

Good luck

Assuming you have a blank that is uncoated, what product would you use to coat it? And would you coat the whole blank? Would this just be for aesthetics?

wax

Bob,
Others may have different opinions, but for me any finish is just for aesthetics.

I guess what I am wondering is do some builders put some type of epoxy or other clear coat finish on the entire blank?

If you want to put a clear coat on the entire blank wipe on Permagloss. It is extremely light, hard, and durable. Never use finish epoxy to coat an entire blank, it is much heavier, not as durable, and harder to apply. Do a search here on how to apply it.
Norm

Bob Ginther Wrote:
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" I guess what I am wondering is do some builders put some type of epoxy or other clear coat finish on the entire blank"

Most do not put anything on an unfinished blank , it's not needed and and a blank will perform to it's max potential WITHOUT any finish or coating of any kind applied.

If you must apply something then what Norm recommended is the way to go but most leave the blank alone and add nothing .