Okay, lets try this again. Sorry about not reading the rules more carefully. Also forgive me if I do not repeat the other post word for wrord, I will try to get all the stuff in this post that I can remember.

I started building rods a year and a half ago, december 2003 I believe it was. All the rods that I had built up until my last one had been fly rods. I never really did any decorative butt wraps on the fly rods, I never saw any fly rods with diamond wraps or chevrons or anything so I figured it shouldnt be done.

This fathers day I built a spinning rod for my dad. On that rod I made a simple decorative diamond wrap using HT braid from gudebrod. That is my only experience to date doing decorative wraps.

My main question stems from a project I am going to tackle for fall. I bought a 10 ft 8/9 tiger eye blank for the fall salmon run. On this rod I want to put a chevron or some other decorative butt wrap on it, in a fall color scheme. ORanges, browns, red, yellow, you get the picture.

From what I have read I think I am going lay down a light colored base thread, apply color preserver to that and let it dry. Then come back and make my wrap over it. Does it matter what type of thread I use for all of this. I know standard rod building thread is nylon and silk, but the local sewing shop has a huge selection of colors in a 35 or 40 wt rayon thread, including twist combinations not available in rod building nylon threads. Will the color preserver still work with rayon thread? Has anyone had any experience with this?

John Ridderbos

John
You need some educational books, video's. Tom Kirtman's book is good. Clemon's books are also filled with a lot of info on wraps. FlexCoat has some stuff out.
Check out -ask - your supplier and see what materials he has. Most all on the left sell books and videos
Check out this site also [www.leapinbass.com]

John
be careful of some sewing threads they will give out fuzzeys. Your best bet is regular " A " nylon
Thy a search of this board for other suggestions on different threads



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2005 12:09AM by bill boettcher.

Hi John

I have experimented a bit with threads form the sewing shops in the past with mixed results. Your start sounds good although I dont always put a coat of color preserver on my base wrap, in fact I dont always use a base wrap. That is a lot of personal prefference. As to threads to use fortunately in decorative cross wraps you are not limited by anything. Use A to E and anything inbetween. As for the stuff in the store. I recomment you take a piece of dowel or blank and wrap anything you would like to try on it about 1/2" Put a couple coats of color preserver on it and put it in the sun for a few days. If you dont have a fading problem then you can probably get by with it. I know what you are saying about the selection, I especially go for the twist stuff. Remember though wrapping thread is usually round and sewing thread is frequently flat. Test and experiment - - that is how new things come about. Feel free to email me any time if you think I can help. The books above are a great source of info. Clemens custom Thread art book shows a lot of cross wrap combos but may be a little hard to understand at first. If you really get addicted to the cross wraps you might look into David Boyles DVD on Virtual Wrapping. GOOD LUCK

In the sewing threads available, and there are many brands - Mettler, Sulky, Madeira, and Robison-Anton to name a few- I'd shy away from any rayon thread. I have some, but haven't used it because of past posts on it here on Tom's great forum of information. Think I'll give that stuff to my embroidery-crazed sister...

Madeira can have some coatings on it that cause fisheyes and care needs to be taken with all of their threads. CP will solve that issue for you or you can opt to use different brands than their's; that's what I did in the non-rayon, regular threads. With the metallics on guide wraps, I've learned to live with Madeira because they have so many different colors than other brands. I just stick with it through the epoxy setting up and keep working it. So far (several rods), so good. Seems like every other spool of Madeira is coated that I've tried so far...

Putter
Williston, ND

If you do go with a light colored base wrap, with CP, be aware that that gives a lot of guys problems. It goes splotchy in places when you put the epoxy on, for two reasons: (1) threads not packed tight enough, so the dark blanks shows through, (2) not enough CP, or uneven application, consider putting on two coats of CP a day apart. Some actually paint the blank with white before putting on the base wrap. Also, many put a coat of epoxy on the base wrap before laying the design threads. My opinion: a base wrap, done nicely, improves the look of open wraps, and also helps control thread separation.

There is also a really nice look of a thread wrap called " Fogging " which is in one of the back issues of Rodbuilder magizine. Take a look a picture is on the cover of it.