Bamboo Tips - Tips Area
Hardware - Ferrules - Straightening

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Just finished up a rod and found a glaring error when I put it together for testing.  Seems somehow either the male of female ferrule was installed crooked.  Now, I know none of you have ever done anything like that <g>, but I wonder if I should try to repair it -- and if so, how -- or just junk the rod.  (Harry Boyd)

Is it crooked on all flats, in other words if you rotate the blank in one of the ferrules does it line up on any of them? Also, try rotating the male ferrule in the female and see if they line up any better. I have had this happen on one rod I recently ferruled and I found at least one configuration that was straight as an arrow. Someone also mentioned on the board about a month ago when this question came up that not all ferrules are perfect either so it may not be the blanks.  (Larry Puckett)

Can't you just heat up the ferrule station and straighten?  (Marty DeSapio)

I don't have a good solution for you, but if it is a 2-tip rod you should be able to discern if it is a male or female problem; it's unlikely both tips would be off in the same way.  Once you have determined that, hopefully someone else can steer you in the right direction as far as a fix.  Of course if it is the butt-mid joint in a 3 piece then that goes out the window!  (Carl DiNardo)

Well, Harry, this is result of method I am sure. This is why the naked-in-front-of-the-tv-at-1am method works so well. All my ferrules have been square with the rod ever since employing Dave's method.   (Timothy Troester)

I've never had this problem before <G> but I know of a fellow that was able to straighten the ferrule station by applying heat and using a ferrule puller to apply pressure in the proper direction.  This fellow seems to attribute the ferrule problem with removing too much wood from the blank.  (Bill Taylor)

Been there, done that! My problem started with too loose a fit between ferrule and bamboo. To fix it I had to remove both ferrules, build up both ferrule seats with epoxy, turn the seats on the lathe and reinstall the ferrules. In order to do this of course, I had to remove the stripper from the butt section and two guides from the tip section to get the sections in the lathe. After reinstalling the guides and refinishing the sections the rod was finally finished. This may sound like a complicated, time consuming solution, but for me it sure beat junking the rod.  (Will Jette)

I had a rod I was fixing up for a friend.  The ferrules were loose as a goose, did about the same thing except I added bamboo dust to the epoxy to make a wet paste. Rolled the ferrule ends of the rod in the paste till it was oversize. Let it harden overnight and then cut it with a ferrule station cutter. Used two ton epoxy.  The rod has been in use for two years and still holding up very well. Harry, You might try this rather than chucking the rod.  (Tony Spezio)

I did one skunk hollow style once with one of my own rods. I put the male ferrule into a collet and bent the ferrule a touch with the cross slide. I've never admitted it out loud before.  (Dave Norling)

I have restored a lot of rods that had a crooked ferrule and what I did was heat up the Female and then insert tip section make sure guides are aligned then bend back opposite way to straighten.  Then seems to work for me.  (Dave Henney)

One of the advantages of using Ferrule-Tite hot melt glue. If your ferrule is crooked, a little heat and pressure in the right direction, and it is straight. Cooled, and the bond is just as strong as before. I would be uneasy about doing the same thing to any other glue seeing as how heating and cooling makes epoxy let go.  (Darryl Hayashida)

P.S. I have been using Ferrule-Tite or Gudebrod tip top hot melt glue for 3 years, and haven't had a failure yet.

I had crooked an "oversized" ferrule in quad rod glued with hot melt glue. I heated the ferrule and had a straight junction, wrapped and was happy. After 2 weeks when casting I heard a small click - the ferrule was loosen! I had to heat to loose the ferrule and glued it again with hot melt. In quad rod there is a large space to glue and this caused both the crook and the failure.  (Tapani Salmi)

I recently bought a set of ferrules and once I started installing the female, I could not get the ferrule straight on the blank, or so it seemed. I triple checked my blank and finally found that the female ferrule was not straight. Not having experience in any kind of metal working, I'm curious if crooked ferrule was a simple mistake that could have been made by anyone or if it was simply due to the fact that the ferrules were poorly made and that is why they were inexpensive? Any thoughts would be appreciated. (John Smith)

For clarification, I should have said the female is "bent" instead of "crooked". Thanks for the replies!  (John Smith)

Who made your ferrules? It is tubing. I can't see how it is crooked or bent unless the bamboo to metal fit is very loose. Contact the manufacturer and they should make it right if it is indeed defective. If you roll it on a dead flat surface, you are saying there is a curvature to it? It would wobble if that were the case.

When you say these are inexpensive that sends up red flags. I buy my ferrules from Tony Larson and CSE. I don't understand why people cut corners on rod components. If you are making them yourself that is one thing, but when most guys get into making bamboo rods it isn't to copy a Montague or Chubb, it is to copy a Payne or Leonard.  (Scott Grady)