I have a few custom rods that I rarely use and are in excellent condition. I thought that it would be a good idea to donate the rods to needy kids who would put them to good use. The problem is that they have split grips with my name on the exposed blank part of the handle. How hard would it be to put a full length cork handle on them in order to cover up my name? I have zero experience with rod building. Any advice would be appreciated.

It probably wouldn't require adding cork. It would most likely be possible to remove your name, and if for some reason it isn't, it could just be covered up and finished over. Donating the rods would be very thoughtful and generous of you, but I'm not sure how much your intended recipients would benefit from custom rods. What I would do in this case is sell the rods, and donate that money. Or use that money to buy items better suited to a children's organization. I don't know what kind of rods you have, but the sale of a Loomis blank could buy a lot of zebco 33's. Not to mention that whoever buys a custom rod would be able to appreciate it more than a kid who wouldn't know the difference.

It probably wouldn't require adding cork. It would most likely be possible to remove your name, and if for some reason it isn't, it could just be covered up and finished over. Donating the rods would be very thoughtful and generous of you, but I'm not sure how much your intended recipients would benefit from custom rods. What I would do in this case is sell the rods, and donate that money. Or use that money to buy items better suited to a children's organization. I don't know what kind of rods you have, but the sale of a Loomis blank could buy a lot of zebco 33's. Not to mention that whoever buys a custom rod would be able to appreciate it more than a kid who wouldn't know the difference.

I agree on both counts. I'd sell them as-is and if he new owner wants he can have them re-labled/covered up...

Guys, I appreciate you suggestions, but when I said that I wanted to give them to kids, I didn't necessarily mean children. I'm wanting to give them to some junior bass club members (teenagers) who have no interest in Zebco 33's. I should have been more specific in my original post.

If I could just remove my name, that would be great. Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? The blanks are unpainted, and it looks like the name is just s sticker or something under some kind of very thick lamination. A friend suggested that I try heating it with a heat gun, but I wasn't sure if that would compromise the strength of the blank.

not sure how its done, but I would guess your name is under a layer of the same epoxy that holds everything else together. so however people salvage blanks should take that epoxy off. Rod builders could explain the easiest way

The lable is under epoxy. What we do to remove epoxy from rods is to use a hair dryer to heat it up while slowly turning the rod. This will cause the epoxy to "melt" off and not damage the blank. Once you get the epoxy to start melting off you will be able to get the decal off. It might leave some spots on the blank. If this happens you can either use rod paint (found on mudholes website) and paint over it while turning the rod or you could do some kind of wrap with threat over the area and the re-epoxy the area. Its not that difficult but can be time consuming. What part of NEGA are you in? We might be able to help you out.

Thank you, Hound_dog. I'll give it a try.

Heat will help but the epoxy won't melt per say. It will soften enough for you to srape it off with a plastic scraper or edge of an old credit card. Be careful not to over heat the blank. A razor blade held perpendicular to the blank can be used to scrape off the remaining residue and denatured alcohol will help with residual decal adhesive. The result will likely look rough and need refinishing. You may be ahead of the game to just cover up the section in question and call it done.

Easier way would be to add some pigment that enhances the rods color scheme to rod finish and apply that directly over the portion that shows the name. Or even a simple wrap around the area then add finish.

If they were my rods I would not try to remove the epoxy, but would cover the area with paint or a stick-on decal that compliments the rod designs. I would retain the split grip design;it would be very difficult to undo it without messing up the rods. If you are good on the computer you can make decals on the Papilio decal media (http://www.papilio.com/inkjet%20waterproof%20adhesive%20film%20media.html), and they can be spectacular. I've even used photos on the decals. Images of fish skin work well if you stay with fish that don't have a lot of silver (won't print as silver) like bass, perch, bluegill, brown and brook trout. Decals can be covered first with a UV fast drying clear finish, then epoxy or clear spray finish (it's easy to mask the area you don't want covered). If you don't want to make a

design on the decal, you can just do the whole area in a color that works on the rod, like the major winding color.

If you want to try the decal method, let me know and I can do some decals if you want some help.