Have the article and just received my abalone. Was just wondering how small of a diameter this stuff can be bent into? Will it work for a butt section on a small, say 6-10lb bass rod? Or is it pretty restricted to heavier saltwater applications?

I have found that if I try to bend it around a rod any smaller then 1/2" it doesn't work for me. Scott

Phil,
You can bend it as tight as you want. When you use my method of bending it, the amount of soak time will depend on the circumference that you are looking for. If you are looking to bend it onto a larger blank (RT or stand up 50, 80 or larger) the directions outlined in the article will be fine. If you are looking to bend it onto a smaller blank, longer soak times are required.

What I would do is cut your piece (s) for the blank desired and then take a piece of scrap and soak it for 2 hours if using raw laminate and see how it works (WITHOUT REMOVING THE BACKING). If you have multiple pieces of scrap, soak one for 2 hours, one for 3 hours and that should cover your various soaks and give you a good idea how long to soak your good piece for. If using the thin lam, I would still soak it for the 3 days, but extend the boiling time to gurther loosen up the laminate and make it more pliable.

When allpying your veneer, if you do get a crack, don't stop, keep going. It will come out fine. Also, when applying it to small blanks, don't bite off more than you can chew! Bend small segments at a time and with some patience you will apply the entire piece.
Something to remember with the raw veneer is that the longer you soak the veneer, the more calcium you are removing from the shell and therefor the more color that will be removed from the shell.

Kevin Knox
Angler's Envy Costom Rods
kevin_a_knox@yahoo.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2008 01:32PM by kevin knox.

Nice photos BTW.

Question- does abalone occur naturally in all those different colors or are those dyed or tinted somehow?

Rod,
The aqua colored photo's are the natural colors. The blue green and red are the thin lam colors. Aqua Blue Maui has the ability to color the shell into over 400 different colors. What they do wit the thin lam is tint the front and back of the veneer and then sandwich the colors and the veneer between laminate in a proprietary process. They have the ability also to coat the back of the veneer in the unlaminated version calles "raw". That gives you a subtle coloring version.

Thanks for the kind words on the photo's. I spent a huge amount of time taking them for the article only to find out that my photo taking ability was less than stellar for print!!?!?!?!?
Kevin

The print medium is much more demanding that the internet. What looks good on a backlit computer or TV screen may look terribly grainy and coarse coming off a press onto a page where the light must move from eye to image and back to eye. The internet is a low resolution medium while the hard copy print world is a high resolution medium, at least if you expect things to look good.

These are some of things we hope to cover in a photography seminar at the Expo in February.


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And I will be sitting in the front of the class for that one! There is no sense in taking pictures that are poor quality. That comment wasnt meant to be anything against you, Tom, but a slight against myself....... It was a DUH moment for me!! It just showed me that to someone that didn't understand (ME) they look great. To someone that knows (YOU), they were sub par.

I know, just mentioning the difference. I get a lot of photos from folks that would like to have them printed in the magazine and when I tell them that I can't use them I think they sometimes get the impression that I'm making an excuse for not allowing their photos to be published there. It's rarely that - I just can't some of the ones I've sent into the magazine. The high quality and fine line screen we use only exacerbates any deficiencies in the photos. I don't want to make anyone's work look bad.

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