I picked up a bunch of Gudebrod thread at ICRBE at a steep discount. I think I may have bought more than any one else. So I am doing a 2 piece rod right now and the bottom half has 2 guides on it. I get to the 2nd guide and my current spool runs out after doing the bottom foot of the guide. So I grab one of the spools I got at the show. It is clearly labeled Gudebrod black NCP...same as what I am using. I did think it felt a little different but being relatively new to this I figured it was no problem. Put my finish on a few hours ago and went to dinner with the wife. Come home and go to check for any air bubbles and the new thread has turned gray. It must have been regular nylon. So now not only am I going to have to strip and re-do....what a pita...but also all the other spools I have could be mis-labeled. And of course I don't have any other spools of Gudebrod ncp in size D and you know how hard that is to find nowadays. So I was ahead of schedule with this rod now I am going to be way behind.

Very Frustrating!!!

Jim, its not gray.Its light black. Thats normal for NCP black.You want black after finish,use raw nylon black.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Dennis okay. The new spool is lighter than the old spool. It should be the same. Both spools marked ncp BLACK. The new spool turned out to be nylon instead of ncp and so it turned a lighter color. I want to use ncp so I don't have to use cp

Regular nylon in black turns the truest black without the use of CP. It's the darkest, deepest black you can get. I suspect you had something else.

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

NCP black will be lighterr then regular black after applying epoxy as the NCP has chalk added to prevent the wraps becoming transparent. The blank color will also have an effect, less on NCP and more on regular.

It's not uncommon to have the 'same' color thread be from different dye lots and be totally different. I have 5 spools of Gudebrod Teal Nylon and every one is different.

What Tom K just said. With black you do not need CP Regular nylon black and just finish will be the best you can get.

Bill - willierods.com

I never understood why there is a black NCP in the first place.

Scott Hovanec Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's not uncommon to have the 'same' color thread
> be from different dye lots and be totally
> different. I have 5 spools of Gudebrod Teal Nylon
> and every one is different.

I agree with this 100%. I have seen the same. Problem here is the spool was labeled wrong because when finish was applied the mis-labeled spool turned a completely different color.....like a volcano ash gray

Jim,
1. It is always a good idea to have enough thread on a particular spool to finish a complete rod. It is possible to have thread color variations from spool to spool from any vendor.

2. Since you are somewhat unsure of what you know have, you might do the following:
a. Take a dial caliper and measure thread from each and every spool to verify the size of the thread. There is a significant difference in thread size between a, b, c, and d, and it is easily picked up by the use of a dial caliper.
Just take a piece of thread, turn the dial down for a firm fit on the thread and read the dial. Repeat for each spool of thread. This will verify the thread size.

3. Then, take each spool, and do a 1 inch wrap on a test blank , or a dowl or a broom stick. Then, after all of the wraps are complete, just do a heavy brushing of alchol over the blanks. The thread absorbs the alchol and changes color to essentially the finished color of the thread. The NCP threads absorb less alchol and change color less. The non NCP threads absorb more alchol and turn a darker and more transparent color.

The use of Alchol is a good way to verify the final color of the thread.

Take notes on each spool of thread and modify any labels that don't agree with what you find.

You can always put a coat of thread finish on the threads as well, but you end up with essentially the same color as the well saturated thread with alchol. Of course, once the alchol evaporates, the thread goes back to the color that you started with. In the case of the thread finish, the color stays the changed color.

As long as you are checking, it is always a good idea t take a new spool of thead, take a section of thread, and give it a very good stretch and hold it taunt. Then, when the thread is being held taunt, examine the thread under bright light and magnification for any spiky threads sticking off of the sides of the thread.

It seems that about every 100 spools of thread or so, you MAY run across a defective spool of thread, that tends to spike up under tension. This is what that particular spool of thread will do, as you wrap a rod. Bad thing to have thread to do. You will end up with the spikeys or fuzzies, after the wrap has been completed and is often not visible until the first coat of finish has been applied. Then, you end up having to sand or shave off the fuzzies, or cut the thread off and rewrap.

Bottom line, if, under tension, high magnificaiton and bright light, you see these little fuzzies popping off of the sides of the thread, you want to take that particular spool of thread and throw it into the garbage before you ever start to wrap with it.

It is generally always a good idea to test a new spool of thread for tension fuzzies, before ever using. You seldom find thread with this issue, but if you do, it can cause a lot of added work and heart ache.

Good luck and good wrapping.

Roger

Great idea ... I never considered checking for fuzzies. Thanks.