Repairs. 247 



cement it in place. But if your rod has dowelled ferrules 

 by which I mean those in which the upper ferrule is pro- 

 vided with a tenon to enter and fit a hole in the joint below 

 then, if your rod is a fine one, you are indeed in trouble. 

 Let us assume the break is above the " male," or entering 

 ferrule. You have now the accident in its least embar- 

 rassing form. For if you have means at hand to drive 

 out the fastening pin, you can burn out the broken piece, 

 and proceed as before. The construction of a new dowel 

 from the body of the joint itself should never be at- 

 tempted, since, aside from the difficulty of making it per- 

 fectly central and a good fit, it shortens the rod to a 

 degree not to be thought of, except in case of absolute 

 necessity. The maker will, on your return home, insert 

 a new piece, and the loss will be only equal to the length 

 of your ferrule. 



If, on the other hand, the break is below the female, or 

 outside ferrule, the accident is more serious. Assuming 

 you have cleared the ferrule of the broken portion, and 

 can replace it as before, how are you to bore the hole to 

 receive and fit the dowel ? This clearly requires a spe- 

 cial tool not readily found in the neighborhood of most 

 trout streams. The only practical recourse is, then, to 

 cut off the dowel from the male ferrule, replace the fe- 

 male ferrule as before, and use your rod without the 

 dowel, until you can put it in the maker's hands. 



If the dowel seems part of the metal of the male fer- 

 rule, as is generally the case in fine rods, you must file 

 or saw it off, only as a very last resort. It is usually 

 only united to the ferrule by soft solder, and if you heat 

 it well you can unsolder and remove it without injury. 



Some rods, however, are mounted with ferrules the 

 bore of which is smaller at the mouth than within. In 



