I've never built a cane rod before, so this will be my first attempt. I read up on finishing the blanks with a variety of different sealers, and I think I will go with Tru-Oil. Anyone that uses it seems to love it. My question though, in reading up on the blank finishes, people are using Tru-oil for the blanks but then change to a varathane or the likes for the wraps. First, why are they changing, and second, not one person mentioned using epoxy. Is there a reason they are not using epoxy for the wraps.

Any help, advice, opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Harold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2009 07:24PM by Harold Dean.

Epoxy is not considered to provide the "right" look for traditional bamboo rods (it can be made to look like varnish, however).

Tru-Oil can be used to finish cane, but it is not the preferred product. Most cane rods are varnished by dipping or brushing.

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Tru Oil makes a good finish for your own rod, a rod built to be sold should have a traditional varnish finish because that's what the guying public expects for their money, varnish is perceived to be a better finish, certainly it's a lot more work, but I'm not sold on how much better it is than Tru Oil. Use multiple coats, TO is quite thin so it needs to be built enough to seal and protect the rod. It doesn't make for a good wrap finish because it alligators when you try to use it on thread, thread soaks up so much of it that it dries on the surface before it dries inside the thread, leading to problems with successive coats. Thinned epoxy works great for a first coat, it makes silk thread very transparent without the microbubbles(shimmers as we call them) you get a lot with varnish. It doesn't want to lay flat and follow the shape of a bamboo rod as varnish does tho, it wants to lay full round which looks terrible on a bamboo rod. What I do is put on one coats of Flex Coat Lite thinned 1/3rd with denatured alcohol , let the rod sit guides down overnite and then finish with several more coats of spar varnish, best of both worlds so to speak.
john

Thank-you John. I appreciate you taking the time to explain why not to use the products. This first rod is for me and I do like the TO finish better than the varnish on the reel seats I have done. And it is so much easier to apply, thus I was leaning towards the TruOil for the blank. Thank-you for explaing shimmering, I wasn't exactly sure what they were referring too.

cheers
Harold

Tru-oil will look fine for a while but after a few weeks it will alligator, that is it gets wrinkled and cracked. I have used it and had it happen. I still use it on the blak but use spar varnish or perma-gloss on the wraps. Perma-gloss is very thin and 2 or 3 coats gives you that classic cane rod look with nice transluscent thread if you do not use CP.

PermaGloss was actually designed as a bamboo blank and wrap coating. Few builders know this, but Ralph O'Quinn was a bamboo rod maker at one time. He developed PermaGloss because he wanted a lifetime finish on his bamboo and his silk wraps.

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Sam/Tom. Thanks for the permagloss tip. I never thought about using that for the wraps. I've started an experimental dowel last night using TruOil on one end and varnish on the other. This will give me an idea of both properties/finishes. I'll also be doing some wraps on these once I hit my desired finish. I'll use the permagloss on some of these sample wraps along with varnish on others.

Again, thank-you for the tips.

cheers
Harold