I was reading a post on another board and a builder was talking about thinning one of the water based Color preservers with distilled water. I was of the opinion that most of the water based finishes were surface coatings and would not penetrate nylon thread and that all thinning did was wet the thread with water while most of the solids sat on top of the thread. I would like to know if I am right or wrong. I use gudebrod 840 in place of color preserver and have never thinned it. If I am wrong I may need to start thinning.

Thanks
Jim

As I recall --- Ralph O'Quinn will verbally skin anyone who thins

Well, you're correct for the most part. Nylon thread won't soak up CP nor epoxy. It doesn't absorb either. But you want the CP to completely penetrate all the tiny open areas that exist between the thread strands and underneath. If it doesn't, finish can seep in there and turn the thread dark in spots. You don't want that. The wrap needs to be encapsulated.

Most of the time thinning is absolutely unneccessary - most CP is already thin enough to do what it needs to do. And, adding more water really isn't doing anything anyway because that part of the formula just evaporates. So you'd just be reducing the percentage of solids in the stuff you're putting on the wraps and actually creating a situation where you may be doing more harm than good.

If you want to see if your current CP is completely encapsulating the threads, make a test wrap and allow a nice wet application of CP. Wait just a little bit and then unwind the thread. Do you see any CP on the blank? If so, you have no reason to thin it - it's already doing all it can do.

One last thing - the idea is sometimes that wraps with CP aren't as strong as wraps made with epoxy alone. Technically this is true, but from a practical standpoint it makes no difference. Wraps made with CP are more than strong enough to withstand any normal fishing situation. The old argument that they must be weak because one can cut off CP wraps with little to no difficulty versus an epoxy only wrap, does not in any way approximate what a guide wrap goes through under actual fishing situations... unless you know of a fish that carries around a knife and plans to come into your boat and start cutting your guide wraps off your rod. In that particular case, don't use CP.

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Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> Well, you're correct for the most part. Nylon
> thread won't soak up CP nor epoxy. It doesn't
> absorb either. > ..............

The CP doesn't soak into the thread? My dad & I were discussing this very subject a few days ago.
With a couple of "off brands" of thread he was using the CP just seemed to just sit on top of the
wraps and not penetrate at all and invariably some of those wraps would be the ones with blotches
or fish eyes. We both agreed that the threads that allowed the CP to "soak" or "wick" into them were
far better for our uses.

The threads do changes color slightly untill the CP dries. If the CP is not soaking into the threads
what is really happening? I don't follow.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

The CP may wick or soak into those areas between the tiny thread strands, but nylon doesn't really absorb anything.

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Ah, OK Duh! lol

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

If you want the CP to get between the tiny strands it would seem to me that thread tension would become an issue.

If the thread is "tight" there won't be much in the way of spaces between the tiny strands. But there will still be some and you can't keep the CP from reaching the blank with tension alone. Not to mention that we only so much tension on our guide wraps anyway.

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If the thread is "tight" there won't be much in the way of spaces between the tiny strands to fill. But there will still be some and you can't keep the CP from reaching the blank with tension alone. Not to mention that we only so much tension on our guide wraps anyway.

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