I just got my mudhole carbon fiber handle tubing in and to be honest it looks pretty terrible. It has a line spiraling up it but it also has a handful of dips in the tube. I'm building my first rod and I can't really see myself being happy with this handle. Am I able to put a coat of Finnish on it or something like that? Is the tube supposed to be like that?

Contact Mudhole.

Just did. This annoys me more because I'm going to be home for at least the rest of the week because I got my appendix out last night.

This stuff?

[mudhole.com]

There should be no dips in the tubing. It should be a uniform diameter.

The outer woven layer on this type of handle is decorative only. When the tube is made, I believe it is wrapped in cellophane-type tape and cured under heat. When the tape is removed, it will leave a ridge. On rod blanks, the ridge usually gets sanded off, but you can still see the line under a high gloss finish. With the decorative layer being so thin, you can't sand off the ridge without damaging the weave layer. Although, it doesn't show up very strong in the images on MH site, you can see the ridge spacing.

Until I had the equipment to sleeve my own carbon fiber grips, I used similar tubing for my grips. I've been more than happy with the result on rods that have been in service for the last ~15 years.

If the grips are the ones made of carbon fiber sleeving over top of a foam core, the shape should be consistent with its intended shape without major divots. A little twisting of the fiber can happen during the lay up process, but it shouldn't look bad. For these grips, yes you can apply a coat or two of finish on them. The finish can be rod finish. After the first coat, sand it smooth and get close to the CF. Then you can put a final finish on as a thin coat of rod finish, a few coats of Permagloss, or even a spray on spar urethane.

Joe, that is the tubing I bought. It is almost like there is an impact divot in the tube. I contacted mudhole but it'll probably be a hot minute before they get back to me.

Call them! Mudhole’s refund/exchange policy is excellent, they will certainly refund or exchange the grip for you. I’ve never had a problem with their customer service, they always tried their best to make sure I was happy.
Norm

As Norman said, Mud Hole has great customer service. It stinks that you'll have to wait a little longer to get started, but if they have it in stock, they will get you taken care of in a jiffy.

What I do not understand regarding this post, is what members here are supposed to do about it. As with most of the vendors listed here, the issue is generally corrected in a timely matter with just a simple phone call to them.

Ron,
I was just asking what I should do about it or if I could do something like put a coat of finish over it. I don't expect anyone to do anything about it. I probably didn't need to ask but I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to quickly fix it while I'm stuck home for the next few days.

Update, called mudhole as suggested and they were extremely helpful. The customer service rep was so nice he wouldn't even need candy to get me into the van. They had me destroy the handle and are sending a new one out.

There was no need to try to “fix” a defective handle. Mudhole took care of the problem and as was stated , a call to them in the first place was the better option than trying to fix it.

It's a QC issue somewhere along the line. Pretty simple carbon tube however long. Should not have made it into stock., much less shipped. I know, I'm miserable! LOL