I'd just varnish it.

Varnish or a coat of epoxy finish might work for a while, but it looks like that guide is bent, possibly installed that way, or bent when it was loose. Its feet don't sit flush to the rod, inviting abrasion at the two concentrated pressure points (the very ends of each foot), and letting it rock left and right. It might have gotten that way because it loosened--a lot--or it loosened because it was that way. Regardless, short of a gob of epoxy, it is going to loosen again. For that reason alone, I'd want to remove that one, straighten the feet to sit flat, or just replace it. Then you could refinish with your product of choice. I'd inspect the others as well; they get to shifting around, they can wear the blank--brittle, too tight, or too loose wraps can all enable that shifting. Covering them with new finish can help, but if they are off as much as that one, replace and rewrap will yield a more durable outcome than just recoating the problem. If two or three more need attention, then it's almost as easy to do them all. That isn't a collector rod for which pure authenticity might make a difference. No, you may not be able to find the exact Fenwick brown thread, but you can get so close the difference won't be noticeable--and you will have better wraps and more carefully fitted guides than the original.

That's not pretty. A guide that poor fitting could punch a hole thru the rod blank.

At the very least that guide needs repair. Better still replacement as it looks rather like a trolling rod guide. Cut the thread and check the blank with a bright light to check for damage. If more than one guide looks like that, replace them all.

If you replace all the guide wraps at once, all the wraps will match. I've seen all of these colors identified as the Fenwick brown. So, your choice on the color.


Tom

Yes. But honestly, if you decide to replace all the guides and wraps, the additional advantage is that you can select the thread color(s) and trim, if any, that you want. A new, well fitted guide set is the main goal, but, even sticking with brown and white, the rod will look better than new.

So it's clear, those threads are all old stock Gudebrod. The colors are plain 396 Dark Brown, NCP 396 Dark Brown, NCP 541 Medium Brown, NCP 5274 Chestnut, and NCP 541 Medium Brown. The two spools of NCP 541 show how much color variation we get from age and different dye lots. To make matters worse, thread on the spool looks different than thread wrapped on a dark brown blank with 50 year old yellowed varnish on top. I think the #524 on the plastic spool was a Gudebrod stock number for thread spools sold through retail outlets.


Tom