Repairs. 305 



have heard or can imagine on all sides of the question, I 

 cannot but think that both the dowel and the fastening 

 pin should be excluded from fly-rods. I have been driven 

 to this conclusion not merely because of difficulty of re- 

 pair, but by other considerations of equal or even greater 

 force, into the discussion of which we will not enter now. 



When the rod gives away at the ferrule, the break is 

 always short across. If you have no dowels to consider, 

 trim the broken end square with your knife, warm the 

 ferrule and push out the broken portion, and replace the 

 ferrule on the joint, using some of your cobbler's wax to 

 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 

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