New to fly rods and not sure best practices for graphite ferrules.

First, building on a graphite NFC LMX blank, so the blank has light ribbing in texture and then the ferrule sections have a ridged transition into a smooth male ferrule insert section.

So a couple questions: 1. Not crazy about the ridge where it transitions to the ferrule insert. The ridge, when assembled with its mating blank section, is about 1/2” away from the end of the female ferrule. Should I just wrap this section and put an alignment dot on it? Also, tips on expecting alignment dots?

On the smooth ferrule insert section, do I need to do anything special there? I’ve seen some rods that epoxy finish this insert section, have also seen some info on ferrule wax. Any general, beginner pointers on ferrules welcome. Sorry in advance if I’m missing a resource on this somewhere. Thanks.

First, don’t put anything on the ferrules, wax or epoxy, not needed, just keep them clean like any other ferrule.

The “smooth” area of female ferrule is something that several blank manufactures are doing now with blanks that still have the spiral ridge left on them. Seems like more blank companies are moving in that direction. Some say it allows for a better fit, little bit of wear over time and in the grand scheme of things ( my opinion here ) it probably allows for cutting down on labor for cutting and fitting blanks once the sections come of the mandrels. Personally I really don’t care for the look, but it is what it is for certain blanks.

A thread wrap on the female end with an alignment dot, totally up to you, it will add a minimal amount of weight, but really not enough to effect blank recovery. A wrap on the male end, some blanks don’t require them, each manufacturer will say if they are necessary. I wrap the male ends on all tip over butt type ferrules, more of traditional and personal thing with me. Typically I’ll put a wrap 1/2” to 5/8” depending on line weight. Spigot type ferrules, I put a wrap on both sections.

Alignment dots, personal again, I’ll put them on if a customer requests them, and I don’t get many requests for them.

I believe NFC is machining, for a better word with no coffee yet, the male ends so that they custom fit the ferrules, this will allow them to just ask which blank piece broke and supply you with an exact fit replacement, no more shipping things back and forth to fit pieces.