Fortunately my number of confirmed kills of rods is rather small. Latest was earlier today. First time I seen it or hear of it. Had a rod leaning against a chair. Tapped it with my foot it fell over. The rod had a 2000 size reel on it not a whole lot of weight. Anyways the rod hit a wire self. Rod fell about two feet before contact.Point of impact was between the tip and the first guide. Rod barely flexed if at all. Tip snapped like a twig and went flying. Have not been able to find the tip piece yet to do an autopsy. Rod end broke clean but about an inch or so of fibers is flared out. I have dropped rods over the year in a similar fashion kicked them over in the boat and such. They always just flex a bit and slide left or right off whatever they hit against.

Of course the rod was one of my first builds. The first one I was actually happy with overall. Lots of fish on that rod.

If the rod hit a shelf edge, there was a lot of force placed on a tiny area. Sort of the same reason why you can put a nail in a board with a hammer - a bunch of force all concentrated on a single small area of contact.

.................

Michael,
Consider a concerted effort to not attempt discovering any more “new ways to break a rod” LOL. Sorry about the rod.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Find the tip, repair it as outlined in the rod building forum library and go fishing.

You will enjoy the rod. A good repair will do very little to change the action or sensitivity or power of the rod.

Good luck

I found a new way. Get snagged in shallow rocky water, then get the line tangled in the trolling motor, and with boat drifting and the line not breaking, not wanting to start the trolling motor which would chew up the rod, get the rod stressed the rod at an incredibly sharp angle.

But, you know what? It didn't break. Point Blank 731MXF. I'm not suggesting that you abuse your Point Blanks, but they appear tome to be pretty tough. This one was incredibly tough. When I looked at the mess I thought I was looking at two pieces, but no, it survived.

roger wilson Wrote:
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> Find the tip, repair it as outlined in the rod
> building forum library and go fishing.
>
> You will enjoy the rod. A good repair will do
> very little to change the action or sensitivity or
> power of the rod.
>
> Good luck

Thought of a repair. I have repaired a few in the past very successfully.This is a light rod any repair I think would really hinder the action of the tip. I could cut the tip back another inch or so to get to solid blank. Would end up rearranging guides then. Losing about six inches of the tip is sure to change the way the blank bends. For the amount of work I could put into this rod starting new is not much more work. Be a nice upgrade anyways. Lot better components today than when I built the rod.

Michael,
Normally, for a soft tipped rod, losing even an inch can completely ruin the rod for the purpose for which it was originally designed.

Often the most work on a blank - is in the grips and reel seat. i.e. most cost and most time to install.

Another way to repair such a blank, is to obtain a 2nd bland and cut the current blank so that it is about 1/2 as long as original. Then, start cutting the new blank from the butt. the idea is to find the sweet spot on the blank where you can simply slip it over the top end of your trimmed blank. You want to creep in in such a location, because if you trim too much, you will no longer be able to slip the tip section over the cut blank that contains your grips and reel seat.

You will end up with a rod that will be about 6 -10 inches longer than the original blank, because there will be no flare the blank section that slips over the trimmed butt section - but you will have a virtually an identical rod that you started with - albeit a bit longer.