Hello
This is a sad state to see a rod in that is so highly regarded no doubt.
If the rod were of lesser value perhaps the damage wouldn't be as critical in terms of risk.
Let’s face it when you spend the money on a used rod your expectations are to be able to enjoy the rod without the worry that when casting to or playing the fish of a lifetime it may fail.
I'm certain the rod can be repaired however an invisible repair is unlikely given the nature of the damage, from what I have been told about the damage, the scratches/gouges are cylindrical they go all the way around the shaft in 3 places, I'm also told that at least one of the damaged areas when flexed you can feel the gouge separate.
That would indicate that the damage is not just superficial outer finish damage.
I have seen this type of damage in the past, when I encountered this problem it was as a result of the rod slipping out of the rollers on a rod turner, what happens is when the rod pops out of the supports the spring loaded roller metal arm comes in contact with the blank.
If it happens while you’re looking at the rod it's no problem you just readjust the supports and no damage occurs, however if the rod is on the turner unattended and say left to turn lights out, the metal roller supports will compromise the blank.
I have also seen this happen with poorly designed homemade rod support rollers.
Plastic casters are the worst because they have a parting line in the center of the roller formed when the caster was injection molded.
Naturally we have no way of really knowing how these cylindrical gouges were made, from years at the bench my observations are strictly an educated guess, I'm still learning new things so nothing would surprise me.
One of the most popular Cummings rod repairs usually includes flaking clear coat, the clear coat
Vince used did not stand the test of time in most cases, conservatively I'd say 50% of the ultimate's that find there way to my bench suffer from aged flaking clear coat.
From the pictures of this rod I see no clear coat present, what's stranger is there's no evidence
Of clear coat, this makes me wonder? if the damage might have occurred while the rod was being
Spun to remove flaking clear coat?
Of course without actually having the rod in hand it's impossible to make a accurate evaluation or repair action plan.
Sending the rod back was the safest bet, the rod was resold to another one of our crowd so the possibility that I may have the opportunity to repair the rod still exists?
When these types of situations occur it is important to give our fellow fiberglass enthusiast here a heads up so our problems are not passed on to another member, in this case that's unfortunately exactly what has happened.
Tight lines and cylindrical loops
Andy M