Ferrule Wear

D

DavidFin

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Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
450
I have 20 year old TMF that casts great, but the female section appears to have some very minor, hairline-esque wear marks on the inside, and two pretty minor marks on the finish. These marks don't touch the wraps and I've seen similar marks on the inside in other rods I've fished just fine.

The Ferrule distance is just less than a quarter of an inch.

Again, the rod casts great, but I'm considering to preemptively send it back to Winston to have it cleaned up, if you will. I definitely don't want to spend the money, but I also don't want to potentially have a time bomb here.

Any thoughts? Maybe let it ride and only if it wears more send it in?
 
Do you ever wax them?
 
My TMF has about the same gap and fishes fine but calling Winston can't hurt.

BTW - Winston does NOT recommend wax on spigot ferrules.
 
I have a lot of old rods with spigots, mostly Scotts and TNTs but also some others. You should be good with that gap. If you hear a click in the ferrule when you cast that's a warning sign. I'd keep fishing it.

I have a couple rods including a 2-hander where if I try I can jam the ferrules together so there is no gap. On these rods, I use a light coat of beeswax which builds up the male ferrule and creates a gap in the ferrule. This is a very light coat where I rub some on then immediately rub it off with my fingers.

Again the rule I go by with these ferrules is decent gap/no click, fish. No gap, add beeswax then fish. I've never actually had any that I had to send back for repair.
 
Can't hurt sending it back TMF is an excellent rod that still commands a respectable price in the used market.
 
What would they do if you send it back?
 
Refinish the female ferrule.
 
How are you going to deal with parting from your TMF though? I can't imagine letting mine out of my sight for 15 minutes.
 
oh god, mistakes have been made. That's all I can say....
 
Some learned advice for those who have never shipped a rod.... overpack it. Put foam inside the rod tube, don't let the rod have any travel room.

Put the rod tube inside another tube, cap the ends securely. Put foam in BOTH ends.

You need to over pack everything. USPS and UPS will destroy it. I have had it happen to me with a beautiful custom built Orvis rod that I sent out. Someone decided to harpoon the package, it smashed the tip-and I had it well packaged. To make it worse, USPS will not give you full replacement cost, they pay you to FIX it if they can.... you will lose.

I was told by a USPS employee... mark your item FRAGILE CONTAINS GLASS. Then and only then will they handle it more carefully.
 
If you are considering sending it back to Winston, call FIRST and ask what the repair will consist of.

Believe it or not, the fix sometime involves cutting a 1/8" or so from the female end and re-wrapping. You would probably never notice but...

Also, NEVER, EVER, EVER write on a shipping manifest or tell a UPS or USPS worker that you are sending a rod in for repair if they ask. They will use that info to try to deny you the full value on any claim you make on any insurance you buy on the rod you are shipping if it is damaged in transit.

Case-in-point: I once used UPS to ship a rod to Winston to have a reelseat swapped out with another I was furnishing to them. I insured it for the full value of the rod as it was brand new and never used. The clerk asked me what the contents were when I bought the insurance and I told him what I just said, new rod going in to have the reelseat replaced…

On the way home from the UPS depot, I read my receipt and it said: “rod already broken, going in for repair”. Needless to say, I blew a gasket since I PAID for the insurance and the rod was packed in its own tube with that inside of PVC and the PVC tube in a cardboard box. They were obviously covering their arse in case something was damaged in transit and the clerk took it upon himself to try and save UPS a few $$$

I called UPS to complain and have never used them again for my own personal shipping.
 
Good tips on shipping.

I spoke with Winston, I'll be photographing the damage.

Interesting side note, they expressed that those lines I described aren't unusual and don't risk the integrity of the rod.

How cool is it that Winston is so available? Are there other rod companies who have/encourage that kind of relationship?
 
Winston is good. I also have had good experiences with Scott and Sage. Orvis is also known to be very good. I just sent a 25+ year old Scott rod back to have a mid section replaced. They are repairing it for $100. I'll pay that gladly.

Did any of the advice given here cause you to break the rod?
 
DavidFin wrote:
Good tips on shipping.

I spoke with Winston, I'll be photographing the damage.

Interesting side note, they expressed that those lines I described aren't unusual and don't risk the integrity of the rod.

How cool is it that Winston is so available? Are there other rod companies who have/encourage that kind of relationship?
Click to expand...

Winston service is excellent, at least it has been for me.

I one broke a Winston Retro glass rod IN HALF the second time using it. It snapped while casting so essentially it should have been a warranty repair however at the time, the rods was NOS, several years old and discontinued by Winston for at least 5 - 6 years when it broke.

I went to GREAT lengths to get this rod so I was about in tears when it snapped. Conveniently I had Winston's phone number in my cell so I called them from the creek to ask if they still had Retro blanks for warranty repairs.

The answer was YES which made my day despite the fact the fishing was done. I got the rod repaired under warranty shortly after that unfortunate event and it's good as new.
 
Scott and I believe Winston will actually roll NOS blanks for repairs as long as they have the raw materials. Sage may do the same too, but when I broke an SP they offered me an XP.
 
Winston won't roll new blanks for discontinued rod models if they have no inventory in stock and won't even build a complete new rod from old stock if the rod line is discontinued like for example:

The DL4

Certain discontinued WT's

The Retro

The 8'0" 4wt Stalker

LTX

BIIx

BIIMx

And certain discontinued LT-5's among others.

Trust me, I asked...
 
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