I suspect an epoxy or urethane finish on a rod blank decreases impact damage, and I do most of my fishing with a fly rod in water less than three feet deep. I avoid using a rod with a shiny, high-gloss finish for the same reason I don't wear a chrome helmet while fishing shallow water.
Until now I have used a gray abrasive pad to kill the flash from the rod blank, but this method produces uneven results. Can you suggest a satin, flat epoxy, or permagloss-type finish that would help shield a rod from impact, be less likely to spook fish, and provide a uniform finish?

Helmsman Spar Urethane in a satin finish does a pretty nice job.

jeremy

Such coatings aren't going to shield the rod from damaging impacts. In the thickness we'd be talking about, none of them are nearly as hard as the blank itself.

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That's very true Tom. The rod that I used the spar urethane on is my small trout rod that gets used very hard on small brushy streams. While the finish doesn't look beat up yet, there are definite signs of wear that many people would be unhappy with. Even though I put 4 thin spray coats on, I did not expect the spar urethane to hold up well to the abuse that the rod sees. For my purposes, it has done well.

Phil, if you are looking for something that will help shield the blank from damaging impacts, in my opinion, a urethane is not the answer.

jeremy

Why don't you just apply two-part epoxy as usual. After the final coat has dried to the touch, but not cured. Simply use a Testor's Paint Marker in flat black to "cover" your wraps ... instant non-glare.

[www3.towerhobbies.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. It's probably the case that the finish does little to protect the blank from clouser/beadhead damage, but I can hope . . . and I hope the finish spreads an impact over a larger area. So many blanks today come in a high gloss fisherman-attracting but fish-frightening finish that the wraps aren't the only or the main source of flash. I hope to discover a light and fairly durable flash-killing material that I can apply over a glossy blank to produce a more stealthy yet uniform and attractive
finished product.

I've done a lot of woodworking and one way to dull a glossy finish is to use some 0000 steel wool and lightly buff the surface.
This will take down the shine. Pumice and water rubbed lightly will also dull a glossy finish down.
I have not tried it on rod blanks or epoxy finish but it should work.

If you are using a matt blank already and the only glossy areas is the finish on the wraps, then you simply go very thin on the finish. What I have done on my small stream rod was put on a fair amount of finish and allow it to saturate the threads and then using a brush, took off as much as possible. The threads are locked in place and the final appearance looks like wet thread. Minimum weight, no glare, and in my opinion does not look half bad. My next 2wt will be done the same way except with silk instead of nylon.