I am a licensed Captain and must take a test every 5 years to insure I am not color blind. With this being said, I have never worried about this test until now. During my new venture into rod building it would seem that I can no longer differentiate between the colors. I think this may also (or more accurately) have something to do with the fact that for over thirty years, I have been able to operate off of the standard Crayola 8 color box. In my world things are simply red, blue, orange, yellow, green, brown, black or white. While this system may not be the most accurate, it has served me well up until this point in my life. Now, for the first time, I catch myself knowing what my girlfriend is actually saying when she uses words like taupe, cyan, magenta, and even in some of the more challenging two-word colors like, desert sand. So, with this little history of my sad and colorless life complete, let's move on to the question at hand.
Word of my newly found skills as a custom rod crafter have spread and thus delivered me an actual "paying customer." This fine gentleman has come to me in the hopes of receiving a custom "University of Alabama Color Schemed Speckled Trout Rod," in exchange for his hard earned cash. All was going well until I decided to order the thread. Red, it seems, is not good enough, and believe it or not, neither is crimson. So I ask you, fine rod crafters, What color "red" will i need to acquire to make this happen? I have only used NCP thread to this point but I will not limit myself to its use. I will also need a "gray" and a "white" for what I currently have in mind, but am open to any suggestions from those who may have "been down this road before." Thanks guys, and I hope such a "silly beginner" question is somehow made easier by the mild humor I have tried to weave into it.

Do some test wraps with the different reds. Coat them with epoxy and then decide on color. also try coating half the wrap with CP if you have some regular nylon thread. The thread will look different after finish is applied

Paul@soonercustomrod.com

You can obtain no less than two shades of red from each spool of red thread. One with CP, and one without it.

I think you want to try some regular red and/or crimson thread in nylon. Use CP with it. The new American Tackle Pro-Wrap thread series may have several shades of red. You can certainly find something to his liking, but I think you need to move away from NCP in order to do so.

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

Richard,

I can't help much with the closest Crimson Tide color choice but I might have somewhat of a solution for those who suffer from various degrees of color blindness.

I've worked in the Telecom Industry as a Voice & Data Tech which requires one to see colored wiring. Specifically, blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, & violet. A couple other Techs I've worked with had issues with differentiating between some of those colors. I very bad problem to have on the job but they were able to get the job done by using various transpartent colored pieces of plastic to look through when needed. To them, the brown , orange or red appeared to be the same wire with the naked eye but when viewed through a given colored piece of plastic one wire would dissappear and the other would be much darker.

For what it's worth,

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

Capt.

I can`t help you any, however I did enjoy your post.

I am in the process of building an Ohio State rod. I asked the board here for ideas for something a little different. I thought there may be some red,(Scarlet actually) and grey eva grips. It was suggested to flock them. Having never tried this I checked into how it was done and it is quite easy and gives very good results. The bright red is close enough and I had to settle for charcoal for grey. (I guess I could have mixed a some silver with the charcoal to achieve a lighter color).

This gives a very unique look to the rod and it may work for you. I also found a little trinket of their mascot "Brutus the Buckeye" . I inlaid it in the foregrip and flocked around it. It came out very nice and I know the guy will be thrilled with it. I`m trying to do a faded chevron butt wrap using different shades of reds and greys. That is a little harder and isn`t looking quite as nice. that is where I am having trouble matching the colors

Bill

Ohio Rod Builders

Canton, Ohio

Maybe this link will help. It is from the UA and lists the pantone numbers for the school colors.

[visualid.ua.edu]

Thread companies can match those numbers (209 for the red and warm grey 9). Painting the blank white, or a white NCP underwrap, might be required with light colors on a dark blank.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.