I tried a new NCP thread yesterday. Color looks good but when I applied the first coat of finish I realized I had hundreds of tiny little fuzzies popping out everywhere. Does anybody have any suggestion on how to deal with them?

Thanks,

Jim

You can "flame" the wraps BEFORE you apply finish, this will take care of them. Once you have finish on, you can LIGHTLY sand the finish coat with 500grit sand paper and re-coat with another finish coat. Dont sand into the thread wraps, just knock off the top fuzzies and recoat.

DR

It sounds as though your means of applying tension to the thread is abrading it. If you are using a sewing machine type tension device change to one that puts the pressure on the spool. If that's not it check any eyelet that your thread is passing through to be sure there are no rough spots. If all is well there you may just have a bad spool of thread.

It happened to me on some Gudebrod NCP thread. Pull out a strip from the spool you were using and put it under the magnifying glass and if see tiny hairs sticking out like those those of caterpillars, throw away that spool and get a new one.

When you inspect a new spool pull tension of the section being inspected. The tension will make fibers stand straight up if the spool is bad. If it passes this test check our you tensioning system for a rough spot.

I have found from past experience that some colors seem to have a greater tendency to "Fuzz" more than others, and this seems to be even more prevalent with NCP-Gudebrods Golden Rod is one of my favorite colors, and sadly one of the worst in my experience, as is black NCP at times. I must add though that Gudebrod produce a first quality product that is in my opinion about the best in this business.
Yes, I do wrap with a fair bit of tension, so may be I generate a higher incidence of "Fuzzing". The above posts give good advice to avoid the "Fuzzies" and you'll do well to follow such advice.
However sometimes you just cant avoid it. I now live in a rod building dessert in the tropics that is completely surrounded by water and 7000 islands. This place is dryer than the Atticana when in comes to building rods-and I have to import all my thread at great cost, and it pays for me to buy in quantity. So I consolidate my orders and dont buy very often as I only build for myself. The downside is that when I get a bad batch I cant replace it at reasonable cost easily. I recently had two 1 oz spools of the same color that were almost impossible. Even just using your fingers to apply enough tension to control the thread was a disaster. I ended up building myself tensioners with cork disc drags-oh sooooo smooooth they are, but it did not stop the fuzz using this thread with even the lightest of tension. Now this thread is my go to for the sacrificial thread in tiger wraps !!! so I put my $15 to use in the end.
I think that the culprit is old stock alot of the time, laying around in the shop getting blasted with heat and UV from the sun(especially in the tropics, like here) or maybe its just a Friday nighter and a job rushed through in order to get home . Its unavoidable from time to time, especially if you buy by mail order.Try to buy by sight, and avoid shops that display where heat and light from the sun can get at it-if its dusty old stock then its probably best avoided. Allways store your thread in in a container to keep it in the dark, and away from excessive heat from the sun.
Just a final word. I did find here in this desert a shop that had some 2oz packs of Flexcoat !!! but, with the hardener the color of strong black tea and a price tag of over $10 per pack (its imported dont you know) I didn't buy any. I later found out that this stuff was over ten years old, They also had a few spools of "EE" size thread in the window.-well cooked !! I know of shops like this back in UK and Europe. I,m sure they exist in the US too-they are often a goldmine for hard to find bits and pieces and well worth a visit, but not for old thread !!! or epoxy !!!