I have several winter projects that involve rod repairs, all guide replacements. How do you know or find out what color threads are used or manufactures of the thread. Most all of the repairs will be on high quality Bass rods. I am trying to get in on the boss's good side ;) I replaced the butt guide on my St. Croix -Premier flippin' rod and missed on the color. Just a little off color. The gold is different also the burgandy or maroon or what ever color it is. I can live with it but I want to prevent that in the future.
Any help is greatly appreciated,
Mark Schulte

Mark,
I repair close to 100 rods a year so I know where you are coming from. Remember with factory rods they don't use CP in most cases. Most of the time they are wrapped overseas so if you call the company in the US they won't have a clue as to the color or brand of thread used. I know, I have tried.

I have built color wands with all my thread colors using CP and no CP on it before putting on the finish. I also have the thread examples on black, white, brown, and green blank scraps so I can cover most of the blank and thread combos that I encounter. Your initial time spent will seem to be a lot but time after time when you come to matching thread on a repair, these wands are a life saver.

Reference St. Croix rods, just give them a call and provided the rod isn't real old they should be able to give you a color. Good luck and email me direct if I can help.
Buzz Butters
B & B Custom Flies and Rods
Ripon, WI

You can do several things. Most repair jobs involved thread that has at least faded somewhat over the years. Remove the damaged guide and note the color of the thread on its underside. This side has not been exposed to the sunlight and will usually retain the original shade. Match to that if you want the original color back.

If you just want your thread to match what is already there on the other wraps, faded or otherwise, you have to get a bit more creative. Remember that you can get several shades with nearly any color or thread by use of, or lack of, color preserver. Sometimes the shade of a particular color will vary slightly between size A and D. And sometimes a thread color that is different from the original, but used with or without the CP can more closely approximate the color of the thread that has seen some time in the sun.

Thread is pretty inexpensive. Gather up a good selection and just eyeball it to see what you can come up with. Most times you can get pretty close.

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

Sometimes you just can't match it. I have had rods wrapped at the same time have 3 different shades of the same color on the same rod. This was due to the guy storing the rod in front of a window.

Most newer rods are wrapped with darkgreen/green, black, red/burgandy and light brown/brown. Figure 2 shades darker without CP on anything but black. Most of your darker colors will become almost black without CP especially on a dark blank.

Guide feet will also show through except on the darkest of threads without CP.

If you think that the person will have a hissy fit, tell him up front that you can't match the colors. I've even quit doing that for factory rods.

On one of my repair jobs, I overwrapped the original wrap with thread and refinished. I only did this at the customer's request (to save money).

Since the original wraps were thin, it was impossible to tell the overwraps with the repairs.

This is OK on medium to heavy saltwater rods, but I wouldn't recommend it on lightweight rod.

Greg
[www.ReelsAndEels.com]

I agree with all coments. With any dyed faberic there at times color differances in color lots

Buzz has the right idea, IMHO,. The YLI Corp has a large selection of 3/0 silk thread to choose from, but their color chart really stinks. The thread is not expensive and "color sticks" can be readily made up on old blank parts.

I too have found that it can be next to impossible to match factory wraps. Personnally I just suggest to do the whole rod, explaining that it to hard to get the right color.

I must say Buzz has a lot more patience then I do and my customers have been willing to go the route, because I customise it for them.

Steve