This rod belongs to a good friend of mine and the stripper guide was crushed some how so I am going to replace it for him.
The best way to remove a guide is to cut with a razor blade knife the thread on top of the guide’s metal feet and remove the guide.
once you have the end of last thread wrap that was cut you can unfurl the thread from under the finish and peel off most of the rest of the finish using your fingernail or a plastic table knife (as not to damage the Rod blank.)
Sometimes there’s a small ring of finish at the end of the wrap that was not under the thread this will be more difficult to remove.
Sometimes you need to use a hot blow drier to heat up the finish to soften it and peel it off.
once you have done all you can to remove all the finish then clean up the residue on the blank with Fingernail polish remover and a paper towel
Finding the same type of stripper guide is often difficult also with out placing a special order with your favorite rod builder supplier for the exact guide.
Not wanting my friend to wait for my next order I figured I could find a near match from something I had lying around the shop.
His old stripper guide was a Black low framed casting style guide with a size
12 mm hardloy ring.
I found a Black framed spinning style guide with a size 12 mm hardloy ring
Which should work just fine.
Now to match the thread
As you noticed in the first picture the thread was a green translusive and you could see the guide feet through it.
This is done by using standard thread and not putting color persevere on it before applying the finish
Now wrap the guide in place at the same spot you removed the damaged guide making sure to keep it lined up with the fixed reel seat hood and any other guide on the blank section
Notise how the thread I wrapped the new guide with looks like it dosn't match the darker wrapped guides on the rest of the rod?
(Not to worry) It will be a perfect match because by not putting Color Persevere on the thread it will take on a darker look from the dark colored rod blank.
It seams like a lot of work to just replace a guide, but some rods are worth the extra effort
OSD.