On Wednesday 18 February 2004 12:53 pm, Mark Steudel monotonically droned on: > So when I built my rod, I was totally new at fly fishing, and it had the > standard cheap rod handle. After fishing other types of handles, I now > want to swap the handle out. Is this possible without lots of expereince > building rods?
First, quit hijacking threads! I read my email threaded, and this email and the previous one are part of "RE: Hard water at the Lenice opener?" Just start a new email instead of replying to an old topic, and deleting the contents. As to replacing the handle, are you going to refurbish the whole rod, or just replace the handle? Handles on fly rods are inserted from the top, so that the taper catches the handle and it is held snugly against the blank. If you cut off the guides, and rewrap them you can replace this. If you don't want to you will need to remove the reel seat and the handle off the butt, which usually damages the reel seat. And then there will be an epoxy layer between the handle and the blank which will reduce overall strength and sensitivity of the rod. The danger of all this is breaking the blank, as they are rather thin walled, and the epoxy is very strong. Probably the best way to remove a handle is by careful cutting and sanding it off. Cork sands easily. Rob -- In my family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. Norman Maclean
