Started making fly rods after 30 plus years. Used to scuff surface and write with india ink and spray with a product made for fishing rods. worked fine. All rods are dark(brown, green and blue) that I am using. Any pens or suggestions appreciated and is the spray still available? Not interested in decals ,just want to put lenght and weight. (fly rods) thanks

I like Goldrite strips. I think nothing looks classier than havin the writting done in goldleaf. Its simple to do too. Put the strip on the rod, write on it with a bald point pen, peel off the strip and cover with your favorite finish. The only trick to it is to keep the writing pressure even all the time so that the width of the lines produces stays the same.

Dave

Where do you find goldrite strips?
Thanks in advance.
Hago!
Joe

A rapidograph technical pen looks great too, is easy to use, and ink comes in many colors. A have one that is Kohl-I-Nor brand in fine tip and use white Trans Mix ink. I never could come close to mastering the metal tip ink pens with the "nibs". They drove me nuts, but I probably just needed someone to teach me how to use them. There seems to be no learning curve with the rapidograph.

Bill,
If you will write on the rod with acrylic paint and a quill pen you will not need to put anything over it prior to applying the epoxy. It drys in 15 or 20 minutes and the epoxy can be applied directly over it. Any mistakes can be remove with a little alcohol. It is also nice because the acrylic paint comes in a very wide variety of colors at you local hobby shop.

Emory, if you mean the metal "nibs" (modern version of quill pen), I would love to know what I was doing wrong. It could never achieve success. I love the look and if you told me what to buy (nib number and paint type/brand) and how to do it, I would be very grateful.

Steve,
I use several different sizes of tips depending upon how bold I want the writing to be but I usually have to sand the tip a little with fine sand paper so that the tip does not scratch the blank when writing on it in case I want to remove all or part of what I have written.
You can very lightly rough up the area that you are going to be writting on and it will help the paint flow but I do not usually do this. What I do to get it to flow properly is to let the paint bottle sit until much of the pigment has settled to the bottom and the top portion, the part that I am going to put the pen in, is not as thick as would be the case if I mixed it up well. After the bottle has been sitting on my bench for awhile and most of the pigment has settled to the bottom I just shake the bottle once or twice so that the color is not too light but I do not shake it enough that it gets thick and will not flow from the pen well.
I can not remember the tip number but I have used several different brands of acrylic paint.
I hope I explained this clearly and it helps.

Steve,
I went into my shop and looked and the pen tip brand that I use is HUNT. I was able to find one that did not have paint all over it so I could read what was written on it. The model # of the one that I use the most is 512 Extra Fine and it also says Bowl Pointed on it but as I said I take some fine wet and dry and sand off any burrs or sharp edges. I have both Testers and Model Master paint and have found them to be about the same but I think the trick with the paint is to let much of the pigment settle out so that it is fairly thin.

Thanks for the details Emory. I'll have to give it another try.

Hi, Emory

Is the Model Master and Testor's you're using 'acrylic'? The Testor's that I have in acrylic doesn't settle out for me. I only have two colors of Testor's acrylic. They're still in the same cabinet as when I bought them over a year ago; still not settled out.

I have probably 40 or 50 Testor's enamels. Most of the enamels settle out, but even in those, a few don't separate until I centrifuge them a bit.

Could it be enamel Testor's and Model Master that you're using?

Putter
Williston, ND

Putter,
Yes, it is definitely acrylic. It does not seem to completely settle out to the point that the top of the container is clear like oil paints will do but the top portion of the container will be quite a bit thinner and the bottom of the container will be very thick. It will in time settle to the point that there is not enough pigment in the top portion and it must be shaken up a little. I have been using it like this for years and it has always reacted the same. I do not know what is different about what you have.

I'll look at mine again (acrylic), Emory, to see if it's just thin on top and thicker at the bottom. I just noticed it didn't get clear on the top.

Black Testor's enamel is like this, also. It never clears on the top as it settles out and without sticking a toothpick in to check the consistancy of the top 1/2 vs. the bottom 1/2, you'd think it was the same throughout, also.

Thanks, Emory

Putter
Williston, ND