I got a hold of a sheet of green abalone veneer from XXXX XXXX, and am wondering the best way to apply it to the rod blank . It hasn't got any kind of glued backing like I recently saw on another product, so I'm going to have to come up with something that will hold this stuff in place, long enough to flex coat it. That plus try ing to flex the material around the blank has proven to be a problem because it does not flex well. On the material with the adhesive backing , the piece to be used was simply rolled around the blank first, flexing the veneer in the process, and actually cracking it into place, then removing the paper and applying it to the rod. I really would like to use the piece I have, it's good looking and the shell has a naturall design, but I need to get past the application problem first. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I tried to contact the supplier but never heard back

Have no idea who your supplier was, but Kevin Knox outlined his vinegar soak process in a RodMaker article last year. That's the key to making the abalone flexible without cracking it.

................

Is there any way I can download the article , I'd be happy to pay for it, just need access to the information.

I think Mud Hole had some articles on that stuff ?

Bill - willierods.com

No, I don't offer any downloads. Sorry. You would have to buy the back issue.

Kevin's DVD includes similar instructions which he wrote to go along with his line of abalone products.

You can also do a search here and see what you can turn up in the archives. It's been discussed quite a bit.

............

I would recommend either a thin 2 sided tape or the 3m mirror stick tape. Either will work.

John

I have some two sided very thin carpet tape that I got at a whole sale carpet supply not the big box stores that might work If it were me I would try that as it is very thin and super sticky on both sides. After I applied it to the back of the abalone I would use Kevin Knox's soak method to a small piece of scrap, if there is such a thing with abalone, piece of abalone to see if the tape sticks. If it does not stick I would try to soak it with out the tape, dry it well and then apply the tape and then go for the rod. You have to be very careful when placing on the rod go very SLOWLY when applying to the rod. It took me almost five minutes to put it on a small spinning rod. After you get it around the blank wrap with size D thread and let alone for24 hours this will place pressure to the abalone and make sure it is firmly glued to the blank. I hope that this helps. Good luck.

Early on with my abalone experimentation, I used a piece I had that had no backing - All you need is a good quality double sided tape.

On that rod, I marked and cut my abalone, then applied the double stick tape to the back of the shell, and allowed it to sit overnight so the glue could bond to the shell.

After that I tried both vineagar and crack and wrap methods. To this day I prefer the vineagar method.