What the heck are ferrule wraps and do I need them?

Yes you do need them and what they do, is simply add hoop strength around the blank on the female side. The reason for ferrule wraps is that when you insert the male side of the blank into the female side which is tapered you are trying to split the blank by inserting a tapered wedge into it. Sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Well, sometimes it is bad and you end up with a split ferrule. The ferrule wrap is intended to prevent the blank tube from splitting but it still happens. If so, we did a blog on repairing a split ferrule.

The tip over butt ferrule design (which most blank making companies use) eliminated the problems with the older spigot type ferrules which required a separate section to be inserted into the bottom blank section and fitted to the female end of the next section. Both sides of the spigot ferrule had to be wrapped and over time the ferrules would wear internally and close together. The tip over butt ferrule system eliminated this problem altogether.

There are two types of ferrule wraps. A free standing wrap and a ferrule wrap that was incorporated with a guide wrap. The image below show the free standing wrap on top and the guide/ferrule wraps are shown below that.

Ferrule wraps should be placed as close to the end of the blank as possible. Although some blank makers do not require ferrule wraps we highly recommend it and if you look at any top of the line factory rods you will see ferrule wraps such as the Sage rod pictured above.