Fishing rod handle replacement

Question
I have an old Fenwick 6' MH rod that the reel seat has broken on. I also have another identical rod that broke in half and I was wanting to swap the handles. The handles are foam, not cork. I talked to a repair shop and they said that the cost was not worth it, but the rod has a sentimental value to me. How do I go about doing this swap? The rod is about 20 years old and has an exposed blank in the handle. I do not know the model, but I am sure that it is cheaper rod. It is just something that I would like to try and if it works, great, if not, I'll throw both rods away. Thank you for any help.

Answer
Hi Charles,

I would say the advice you got is pretty good.  Both the foam handle and the reel seat are glued to the blank.  You might possibly salvage the reel seat with some effort and time.  However, most exposed blank reel seats are glued directly to the blank and it may not be possible to salvage it after all.  The handle will have to be cut and scraped off so it will be wasted.  In my opinion, it is not worth the cost involved to do the swap.

I assume this is either a casting or spinning rod with a rear grip below the reel seat and a fore grip above the reel seat. The best way to approach this fix is to remove the guides, the fore grip and the reel seat.  Then you install a new reel seat, a new fore grip and the guides.  You should check with the repair shop about the cost of doing this and then make your decision about keeping or trashing the rod.

It may also be possible to make the two rods into one rod by installing a ferrule thereby allowing you to use the upper section of one rod and the lower section of the other rod.  This may be the easiest and least expensive option.  I would also talk with the repair shop about this possibility.  A properly installed ferrule setup won't create any noticeable difference in the way your rod handles.

Thanks,  Joe