Fellow Rod Builders:

I recently built my first fly rod. It's a bit sloppy, but I'm learning. I coated the rod wraps more than two weeks ago, and the coating is still tacky making the rod unusable. I built it out of a cabela's kit and use the wrap coating that they provided. What have I done wrong?
Live well, be safe
Rich

You mixed unequal parts of Part A & Part B. Or you mixed all PArt A, or all Part B. If it's just tacky, you can probably just put one more coat over it, but I'm not recommending that.

How cold is it where you are applying finish? If it's in abasement, and it's like 45 degrees - take teh rod into a warmer part of the house and see what happens. My basement yused to be very cold, I had no drying box, and it would take an extremely long time for properly mixed finish to set up.

If it has been 2 week, cold basement or not, the mixture was miss measured one way or the other, If you have another 2 part rod finish, mix it and apply another coat.. I know that Cabela's supplies the pre-packaged rod finish which is Flex Coat, so get some flex coat or order some more finish from Cabela's and measure it out carefully and re-apply a coat, should be fine...

Tight lines

Art
mrparramoure@yahoo.com

If your Cabelas finish came in the foil packages and you were careful to squeeze all of it out of both sides, then you should have equal parts of resin and hardener (more or less of one of the other is a prime cuprit of tacky finish). If that's the case, then it's likely you didn't stir it long enough. Mix slowly for at least 4 minutes on the clock.

A second thin coat, of proper amount and thouroughly mixed, should harden and take care of your problem.

.........

Thanks to all. I'm betting I didn't mix it long enough. I'll get some new and give it a good mixing before I put on the second coat.
Live well, be safe.
Rich