would polyurathane work for a finish on a rod after paiting the blank?

Yes it would. Different techniques for application can be found in the archives, just do a search.

Don't use a polyurethane (indoors), use a Spar Urethane (outdoors) Minwax is good. IMO. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

I'm redoing alot of my old rods and chose a Plastikote auto paint, with Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane over it. With two very light coats of each, I'm very happy with the results. I've been bending the blanks and smacking them around a bit, and feel confident the'll hold up for a while. How long I don't know, but its much better than the beat up $200 blanks they used to be.

We are having a play on symantics here. Technically there is no such thing as SPAR URETHANE. This is merely a manufactures slang for his brand of Polyurethane finish. The word URETHANE is merely short slang for POLYURETHANE. Polyurethane finishes as a group are ALL excellent Outdoor finishes, but the common 'oil modified urethanes', (which this so called spar urethane is probably included) are somewhat cheapened for mass production purposes, and are not nearly as good a finish. The polyurethanes can be broken down into two major categories -- Aliphatic, non-yellowing -- and Aromatic, which will turn brown or yellow upon exposure to sunlight. It is the Aromatic urethanes that are considerd to be indoor finishes.

Ralph

...go with the outdoor type.

I recently took a size 16 mm reel seat and did some fancy metal leafing on it. To test the Minwax Helmsman "Spar" Urethane (their words, Ralph, not mine-LOL!), I put two coats over the metal leafing and threw the reel seat into my jacket pocket. Now I work in an office situation and only wear that jacket to work, at lunch, and on my way home plus a few quick jaunts here and there. None 'on-the-weekend' use at all.

After 3 or 4 weeks in there, it's not doing very good at all. There's several 'black' spots where the finish is all gone and the metal leafing is gone. The reel seat's black color is all that's left. I don't think I'll use this on rods. It doesn't seem to have wear resistance to me, anyhow.

Two coats of it should have given it enough protection, shouldn't it??

Putter
Williston, ND

i refininshed several old rods that i have had for years . repainted with krylon and then three lite
coats of the spar varnish .
the rods have been fished out of a john boat and off the bank with rod holders and the finish is not holdind up. paint is okay so far but the spar varnish has chips in after just a few weeks of fishing
will have to redo them again but will be using a different finish
just my .02

david williams

The plasti-kote auto paint is nice with permagloss over.
But recently I have been playing with Mon-O - War spar Marine varnish. Red can.
I find so far it is a bit better then the minwax. Clearer also.

Want the best go for the auto clears, thined and with flex additive in stead of spending money experimenting. Will be costly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2005 07:27AM by bill boettcher.