Anyone have a cure for the fuzzes caused by thread fraying? I think it has to do with the fact that the thread is several strands and is easily frayed. Bill

Sometimes you get a bad spool of thread or your means of applying tension is causing your problem. Use a tension device that applies tension to the spool not the thread. You can try burning of the fuzz with an alcohol flame but be careful. The other way to do it is to apply a couple coats of finish and the sand off the nubs with 400 wet or dry paper and coat again. You may have to do that a couple of times. You may find it faster to to re-wrap. If you are using a tension device that applies the tension to the spool and a pig tail or eyelet you are running the thread through isn't causing your problem then I would try a different spool of thread. If that's good throw the other spool away or use it for something else like the throw away thread in a tiger wrap.

Hi Bill,

I used to have this problem. It was particularly acute with metallic threads. I changed from the tensioners where the thread runs through two disks and built a tension device in which the spool of thread is placed on a threaded rod and tension is supplied by tightening a a spring with a wing nut. I usually use a couple of nylon washers for smooth running. You can just take a piece of wood (1X6), drill a hole to mount the threaded rod (or bolt) and attach this piece of wood to another heavier piece (I used a couple of thicknesses of 2X8 oak to give some weight to it). I haven't had any fuzzies since I changed the type of tensioning device. You can find all the material you need at a home supply store. I hope this helps.

Mike Blomme

This keeps comming up I wonder if a certin manufacture put out some bad thread..

Karry check your stock. If you find bad thread send it back, raise cain and demand full credit and do not ship it out to builders. There is bad thread on the market - most is A Gudebrod regular nylon - pick it up and remove a piece from the spool hold it in front of a bright light with no tension and take a close look - looks OK to most - now pull some tension between your fingers - now look - if there are little clear looking fibers standing at attention then you are in for a mess trying to get a good finish with a couple of coats of finish - I have had to trash dark green and royal blue - one vendor knows about this problem and has quit handling certain colors due to complaints - had to go to NCP and have not seen any bad stuff YET! Fiddle with it all you want - not me - change color - no black has been bad. It just is not worth the trouble - what a shame the leader in the industry has dropped another ball on builders. You could always continue to mess with it and call the wrap Porcupine Quill. Alcohol lamps, cigarette lighters, razor blades, five coats of finish, sanding, spool tensioners, whacking and cursing are surely not the right solution to this real problem. If builders had any power with manufacuturers this kind of problem should be able to be resolved - it has been going on for over two years and is now getting worse.

Forward this to Gudebrod and see if you get an answer - I did not!

Gon Fishn

Bill if you run the thread through your fingers while wrapping for tension it may be your hands if they are rough from the day job like mine are.I sometimes have this concern when doing a butt wrap.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Yes it 's Gudebrod A Dark Green thread that I am using. So, it's just what I thought , the thread is the problem . I know that Winston uses this brand and has it custom dyed for them in bulk. Any suggestions for another brand of thread? Bill

Freddy my hands are lilly white because I use Michaels' Ivory Soap on my hands and not in my mouth. I am talking about a new piece of thread that has not been pulled through anything. It is bad! I got bad green from four different suppliers and finally gave up on it. I have substituted the green NCP that looks like John Deer Green. The stickups have now started appearing on blue. I think they have a machine that is malfunctioning and not properly twisting the fibers.

I've have several bad spools of Gudebrod lately. One is orange, and it has a puffy area about every foot on the whole spool. Another is a 950 yd spool of black that I bought for tiger wraps. I wrapped NCP white and this black together and when I applied CP I got some brownish colored bleeding onto the white. Not knowing what caused it, I tried again after tearing it all off and it did the same thing. I ended up pulling off about a hundred yards and throwing it away. I think it was contaminated somehow. I also had some fuzzy problems with a spool of the dark green. I'm getting nervous about Gudebrod and do not appreciate having to examine & test every spool of thread that I buy.

As mentioned earlier - tension the spool and not the thread. That can be the source of many problems.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2007 08:59AM by Chuck Mills.

Try Contacting Sue Cramsey at Gudebrod her emails is scramsey@gudebrod.com . I contacted her when Gudebrod announced it was going to stop making some of its colors to find out exactly what colors they were going to stop manufacturing. I can tell you Sue was very helpful with several emails and she even went out of her way and posted me a few new catalogues that cost over $10 in postage to send them to Australia.

I had the same problem that Bill and Chuck had. But, mine was Gudebrod A Garnet.

just finished a 10 inch butt wrap in size A gudebrod thread. I did a red diamond with a single black strand outline, then a metallic gold chevron with black outlines. the end wraps are 1" of black, 1" red, then 1/4" metallic gold. It turned out pretty nice. 2 coats of cp then started the finish and wow what a nasty disaster! everywhere there was black thread(gudebrod A 950 yds.), I had these lil tiny thorn looking things popping up. the red n gold was perfect but the black was really nasty. I continued putting coats of finish on hoping it would cover up, which it did some, but was still nasty. found out i could try shaving the stickups off with my exacto, then recoat. Thanks for the tip John. sofar so good, but the wrap is still not as nice as i was hoping for.
Lessons learned:
1. inspect the thread first
2. use ncp or coated thread like madeira
3. lol, shave or burn off the stickups before finishing.