Ouch! Carbon splinters from whisker pole.

[fredrussell]

Just to report back, I’ve ordered some large heat shrink tubing - though I fear the UV will make short work of that, so I will follow advice above and lightly sand and varnish/lacquer pole before applying heat shrink. A belt and braces approach.

 

[MikeBz]

Depending on how far you want to go the best solution would be to buy some braided sock (glassfibre would do and be cheapish, carbon/aramid for ultimate strength and impact resistance but more ££) , roughen the surface of the pole a bit, sock it and pull the ends (Chinese finger puzzle trick), saturate with epoxy (then bind with peel ply if you're really keen) and when it's all set tidy up the ends (remove the peel ply) and paint it with 2-pack for UV protection. This will add strength and make the pole less susceptible to be crushed. Examples of braided sock (you'd need to discuss which size would suit best):

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