Sadly that'd do no good. I knew going in it was a close-out blank w/ no warranty, and that it was imported. The price was too good to pass up, and per the description, I figured I'd be OK. IM6 rods are usually resilient rods compared to the newer IM7 and IM8 stuff. I'm guessing now, that these rods were worse than typical factory seconds, and that's why the guy I bought them from got them so cheaply. He's still selling a crap ton of them on eBay. I think from now on, any rod builds I do are going to be on Batson blanks or better. Really disheartening for my first rod build to break before I even fish it. I really, really hope my 2nd rod is defect free. I finished it up today (well, all the finish work was done yesterday, today I pulled it off the drying motor)
After what happened to the first rod, I'm kind of leery about test-casting this one - it was the 2nd section (next in from the tip) that broke on the long rod. The short rod I made was built from just the two tip sections of a similar blank - same exact size and number of sections, most likely same maker, different taper and line rating. When doing some of the grip work, I noticed some odd streaks at the tip of the butt section of the small rod - spiraling streaks - so I shot some epoxy in the tip of that section as insurance against breakage (hopefully that won't CAUSE breakage).
I'm going to try getting out and fishing at least one of the new rods next week. Probably the short rod, on a small stream closer to home than the Wilson (which is where I wanted to break in the big rod). Valley cutthroat are just as spunky as their coastal brethren.
If nothing else - I've learned some good lessons from this whole mess - about not cheaping out on rod blanks (I really should've called WW Grigg to see if they had any blanks left they'd sell), and about component assembly, and even some rod repair work.
I've got enough Flex Coat left to do four or five more rods at least. I've got my eye on some other maker's blanks (Steffen comes to the top of the wish list) and I might make myself another rod as a birthday present to myself (I've got one month to the day before the big 3-0).
The short rod did come out a bit prettier than the long rod. I think I did a better wrapping job on it overall. The grip, while not as pretty as the pre-formed Full Wells on the big rod, is at least as comfortable for me - the one thing I don't like about most factory rods in the mid to light line class is the very slim Western/reversed half wells grips they all come with. It's not necessarily the grip shape - but the grip diameter that bugs me and causes my hand to feel pain after a while (I've got a bit of nerve damage in my hands and wrists, and sometimes my thumb on my right hand won't close, especially around narrow diameter items.) One of the most comfortable grips I ever had was actually on one of the cheapest fly rods I ever owned - the Pfleuger Summit 5 weight I bought - the first flyrod I ever bought with a cork grip - had a nice fat western grip. Every rod since then has come with thinner profile cork. That's one reason I opted for the full wells grip - they're generally fatter, and the flared end gave me a better purchase for my thumb. I've recently modified most of my fly rods grips to include a sculpted out thumb rest on top of the cork, so my thumb wouldn't slip from position, and would automatically position my hand in the most comfortable space on the grip. The only rods that don't have this feature now, are my Cabela's Wind River 4 wt, and my newly made 11' rod (the one that broke) - as their grips are fat enough, and comfortable enough not to require the divot on the grip.
That's why my small stream rod has a mostly straight grip, with very gentle curves, and a sculpted area for my thumb.
