Restoration

[babbs]

I am restoring my Dads old rod and want to know what I can put on the wooden handle to preserve it besides varnish Thanks Marie

[EdBerg]

You could sand the wooden handle back and then give it a coat or two of 2 pack epoxy, is it a surf rod by any chance? If it is and you stick the handle into the sand at the beach instead of a rod holder then the epoxy will scratch and wear off in places so you may be just better off to use varnish, epoxy takes a few hours to set so you will have to keeping turning it slowly for an hour or two otherwise it will sag and drip off. The smallest pack of epoxy I think is about $15-$20

If it is a normal fishing rod and not going into sand, then epoxy will give a nicer finish but as I said before, it is a pain to keep turning the rod for 1-2 hours. It may be of benefit to take it to a rod repairer who will coat it and just stick it into a rod turning rotisserie till the epoxy sets. Don't know what that will cost though!

Just my 2 cents worth.

[Volvo]

Any chance of uploading a pic of it ??.