I am interested in those electronic, hand-held label makers for making my own rod labels. Any advice would be of great help. I have not yet bought one. Is one brand better for rodbuilders? What is a good method to attatch and finish the label?

I very well might own a better method now. I have a color ink jet printer, a black only hi-res laser printer and a library of over 1000 fonts in a graphics program. I don't know a thing about this method.

Thank You
Bill Doherty

Bill,

You are probably talking about the Brother P-Touch type systems. They have improved greatly in the past few years.

I do not own one and have never used one, but did take a look at a few of them at a local office supply store the other day. I was not impressed with the print quality, but have no experience with these units so what I saw may not have been the best they offer.

My personal preference for making custom rod inscriptions is custom dry transfer lettering. I have yet to see anything that looks better. Anyone with good pensmanship and a gel pen can get a very nice inscription as well, and something that is certainly personalized to a greater degree than with any other method.

Most ink jet printers do not have color fast inks - they fade in UV light, sometimes rather quickly. Epson's new "archival" inks are said to be a bit better in this regard. Take a look in the May/June '99 issue of RodMaker for some ideas on how to create your own "decals" and labels with computer software.

I'm sure you'll get plenty more advice from others on this board as we move into the first of the week.

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Mr. Kirk, thanks for your quick responce! A UV issue had not occured to me. Would the epoxy finish over the label stop the fading?NCP thread has UV problems that the epoxy layer prevents.

I have always hand labeled my rods with gel pens, technical pens, or thinned paint and a nib. After reading RODMAKER and visiting this site, I have been motivated to try somthing new, experiment!

Thank You
Bill Doherty

If the finish is clear, the UV light will penetrate it and do the same damage as before. I do not know exactly what you are referring to as far as NCP thread. The sun will fade it under a clear epoxy finish, just as easily as it will if it was not finished at all. Most epoxies that have been around for a while tend to turn slightly yellow or brown. This slight discoloration can prevent UV from penetrating quite as easily and may be why your NCP has not faded quite as quickly as it would otherwise.

Much is made of "UV inhibitors" in epoxy finish. I do not believe there is really any such thing. In order to protect from UV, the finish would have to be coated or covered with some manner of sacrificial layer - just as the black in asphalt, car tires and roofing is there to absorb UV and prevent premature aging of the item itself. There are a handful of epoxy finishes that do not react to UV light at least as far as turning yellow or brown. But it is not UV "inhibitors" that do the trick, it is the particular make up of the particular epoxy.

What I would suggest on the computer generated label, would be to knock out a few and then cover one with CP, one with CP and your normal finish, and one naked, and put them where they will be exposed to the sunlight for days on end. After a couple or three months you should have some idea what to expect over the long haul. I have found that black ink tends to "stick" pretty well. Reds, blues and yellows totally disappear after a few months.

If you stumble across any additional information from any tests you do, please reply back here and let us know. This computer generated label thing is still in the early going and we learn better techniques every day.

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I have tried to make rod labels with a Brother P-Touch. I wanted to put in the rod model and owner's name, using the smallest font and white lettering on closely trimmed black background (I also tried white on clear background). The edges of the label curl up a little under the epoxy. I tried adding a little epoxy adhesive to the edges, still curled.
-Dan

Thank you for the input Dan B. Based on what you and Tom K. have said, I believe I will look into the "dry transfer" method. I have used the LETRASET sheets a long time ago, but not on fishing rods. I will also try to get more info on the do-it-yourself computer printer sheets.

I see above that a big apology is in order. In my haste to thank Tom Kirkman for his help, I left the ending off of his last name. Sorry Mr. Kirkman. Just shows how "wrapped up" I can get in rodbuilding.

The UV problem I mentioned before with NCP thread, was somthing I read in a rodbuilding book. The author said UV would turn NCP thread brittle and it would easily break. Storing your thread in the dark and finishing the wrap with epoxy prevented this. He claimed nylon tread was not susceptible to this. The book did not address color fading or UV blockers. I am not an expert. I hope I did not misinterperate what the author ment.

Thank You
Bill Doherty

I have used NCP thread for years. On some rods that I know get laid on the boat deck and absorb lots of sunlight there is a tremendous color fade. Light blue fades very bad. I have one rod wrapped in light blue that still looks perfect on the bottom, but the thread on the top side is almost white! I find NCP will fade, finish or not. You didn't misinterpret the author's writing, it's just that he was wrong!

Next season I'm going to try smearing sunblock lotion on my rods and see if that keeps the thread from fading. Any reason I shouldn't do this? Anything in the sunblock concoctions that would damage my finish? Anyone?

UV (ultraviolet) light has a shorter wavelength than visible. IR (infrared) light has a higher wavelength than visible. Some materials are transparent in the visible, but may be opaque or reflective in the UV or IR. I have a set of IR mirrors for my optics lab at work, and they don't at all look like mirrors, but are extremely reflective in the near IR. Likewise, I have a set of visible mirrors that are very bad (transparent) in the IR. Unfortunately, I don't have a UV laser to check out the transparancies of various epoxies, but I might be able to put together a setup using white light and a monochromator. More later, especially if there is any interest in this subject.

After reading Mike B.'s experience with color fading, I started thinking about an up coming order for some king mackerel rods I am going to build for one of the SKA teams. One of the teams concerns is durability. These guys are fishing for money. The rods will be under heavy use, all season, under the sun. They don't want any rod failures. I don't think color fading would be much of an issue for these guys, but it sure would be good to know if UV does weaken some threads.

If Jeff T. wants to check this out, I think it would be very valuable information for all builders. At this point, I can't see delivering a guy six new rods and a bottle sun sreen! But, if I knew there are some colors I should avoid or use only for trim rings, I would use this information.

Thank You
Bill Doherty

The sunlight is going to weaken your threads, count on it. Sunlight weakens everything - take a look at your skin, your car's paint and interior, just about anything left in the sun will age and weaken.

But the good news is that the kind of thread weakening we are talking about is not going to cause your guides to come loose. The epoxy (which also weakens under UV exposure) keeps everything in place. I have built thousands of offshore trolling rods that have seen near daily service for well over a decade and they are still perfectly serviceable and functionable. Those with lighter colored threads have probably faded a bit compared to how they appeared when new. But the required strength is still there.

Let's not get too worried about degraded wraps and such. It's going to happen over time, but not fast enough or harsh enough to sacrifice the integrity of the rod. And if you are really serious about protecting your finish and thread from UV light, then you're just going to have to cover them so that UV light doesn't reach them.

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