I've been experimenting with LS Supreme for a while and last night decided to use for the first coat on two guides on a 4 piece saltwater fly rod. I decided to try it because I wanted something that was thin and would really saturate the thread, Gudebord Candy Apple Red-no CP. I mixed it up, put some on foil, blew on it to eliminate the few bubbles there were and applied it with a palette knife. I took care of the tunnels first then drizzled a fair amount on top of the guide feet, let it run down, rotated the rod 180 degrees and drizzled some more on. After a couple of minutes I turned on the dryer motor and started removing the excess. I was shocked and really angry when I discovered that the only places where the thread turned a really nice dark garnet color was where I initially applied it. The areas of thread where it was spread to while the rod rotated never really got dark. The whole process took less than ten minutes. I has a scrap black blank with some tan thread wrapped over a cheap decal so I grabbed that and applied some LS to it as well. The same thing happened. The only place where the thread turned really transparent was where the finish was initially applied. After about 30 minutes with no change in the red thread, I scraped off as much as possible, saturated it with alcohol and stripped the threads off,

Over the years I've Flex Coat regular and Lite and have been using One Coat for the past several months. I've never had anything like this happen with those finishes.

Did I do something incorrectly or is this common with LS?

I use LS routinely and have never had that happen.


..........

The only time I've had something like that happen was with Hi Build LS Supreme... and that was only because I was taking way too much time to apply the finish on a long rod with lots of guides... the finish thickend up to the point where it didn't penetrate uniformly.

I've never had that happen with regular LS Supreme.

The way I apply finish is to flow it onto the threads in excess with a spatula while the rod is turning. Then I stop the rod and allow the finish to sag... then remove excess until sagging is minimized. Then I go back and make sure the tunnels are full and my lines are clean at the edges. Finally I'll remove bubbles if necessary.

When I use CP, I'll usually fill tunnels first while the finish is at its thinnest... but with no CP, tunnel filling is not always necessary as a separate activity because the finish penetrates the thread so well. Usually it is only in the larger guides where tunnels have to be filled separately when no CP is used.

Erik

Gerry,

Completely cover/saturate your wrap then let set until it sags on bottom then wick off, then 180 turn and let sag, wick again. I do that for about an hour then turn on my dryer( sometimes I never turn the dryer on. It gives me a smoother finish).
The only thing that I can think of is that you turned dryer on to fast and didn't cover the wrap enough. You should let it reast, sag and wick with the dryer off (in my opinion)

Mike

If you want the thinnest finish that will fully penetrate, try Aftcote. It's the only thing I use for guide wraps now. It's water thin, releases bubbles better than ANY finish, and it will take abuse from a flame without scorching at all. What I really like about it is that even though it is so very thin, if applied with a spatula you can still do a one coat finish. It's really amazing stuff to me.

Garry did you burnish and pack tight your threads. Sometimes when you do not do this the blank well bleed threw.
Good Wraps Bob

I pack my thread as tight as it can be packed without a hydraulic ram and burnish it really well. With the tan thread, I wanted the blank to show, the problem was that it did only in area.

Gary did you also wash your blank before you started wraping. I would also contact Trondak U-40
Good Wraps Bob

Did you wash the blank before you wapped?
Good Wraps Bob PS you can email me at warren334@myway.com

Clyde,

Since I just bought Aftcote for the 1st time, I'm glad to see/read your post, thanks!

DR

Gerr, I've had this hapen in the past with FC and LS...I choose to no longer pack, burnish, mess with the wraps any more than necessary. Seems to compact and flatten the thread a bit and I like the epoxy to soak right in, unpacked wraps do it better for me. Don't have problems with bubbles, never had a failure on fly or spinning rods from this. I like to apply LS "by the drop" and watch to see it is absorbed evenly and thoroughly. I may lightly poke and move the epoxy around with a tool to acheive uniform results.

Realize that any time you do more "work" on a wrap, the chances of getting oil, dirt, or other substances that can affect the epoxy application are increased.

I don't like the idea of unsaturated thread any where on a wrap, a bit paranoid that it's just waiting to suck-up some water as the epoxy weathers.
The blank shows through nicely on unpacked (virgin?) wraps, may want to try and see for yourself. If nothing else, it's less work.