I am wrapping a rust colored lamiglas blank and i wanted to have it look like i used clear thread. Is that just regular nylon thread with no CP on it to get that look? I want to see the snake guides clearly with no color. Thanks!

Kevin Gross
Many men will spend their whole life wondering if they made a difference. Marines dont have that problem - Ronald Regan

Use white silk thread, no CP and then finish.

What if you used mono fishing line? Has anyone tried that?

Unless you wrap the mono with really wide spaces between wraps, it will reflect light back , and be visible.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

Unless you wrap the mono with really wide spaces between wraps, it will reflect light back , and be visible.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

Its going to be a heavy duty rod so i dont want to use silk. 12wt fly rod for Salmon in Alaska.

Kevin Gross
Many men will spend their whole life wondering if they made a difference. Marines dont have that problem - Ronald Regan

you don't want to use mono either.
it will break down and weaken, eventually breaking just like it does when left on the real to long

Hello Kevin.

I've used white nylon with no CP and you can see through it but there is a bot of white haze or slightly milky (skim-1%) looking.
If this comes up the white has no CP and you can see through it, it just looks a little milky.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bob,

New Bern, NC.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2012 09:08AM by Robert A. Guist.

I don't think you will experience any failure using silk thread. This is from another board (fiberglass flyrodders):
[fiberglassflyrodders.com]

I've used white nylon "on cp" and not had a problem....
Give it a try...
Jeff

I'll agree with Ken, silk is pretty strong and I'm sure you'll be using double foot guides, so you will have 2 points of contact for each guide on the blank. If your looking for that "clear" look, white silk is really the only one that will totally give you that. Get a spool of silk and test the break strength with your hands and compare it with size A regular nylon.
Years back when only Bamboo was available to fisherman, those rods were wrapped with silk, many of them are still around, still in use, and saw service landing Kings. Doubt many guides popped off due to fighting fish.

Has anyone used transparent Nylon thread?

Silk is stronger than nylon! If you want crystal clear wraps, use silk and dilute the first coat of epoxy to thin it almost to water consistency, follow with regular finish coat. Mono is not the way to go! It stretches too much and breaks down with exposure to sunlight. Believe me, you will not have a strength issue using silk!

When you say rust colored blank, I am thing you mean an S-glass blank. Why not use rust colored thread with no CP. That would make it look like the guides were growing out of the blank/.

When you say rust colored blank, I am thing you mean an S-glass blank. Why not use rust colored thread with no CP. That would make it look like the guides were growing out of the blank/.

None of the so-called transparent threads turn out that way once epoxy is applied to them.

As others have said, white silk with warmed, thinned varnish is the only way to get an absolute clear appearance. It is possible to thin epoxy with denatured alcohol to obtain a very nearly transparency.

While adding solvents to an epoxy is not necessarily the best idea around, this is what you'll have to do to achieve what you want. The reason that denatured alcohol is preferred over acetone for this process is that it takes longer to evaporate than acetone and therefore increases the time for the epoxy to fully soak into the silk. However, some have used acetone for this process and had good results.

The photo page has many examples of clear guide wraps. Most include a formula for how the builder achieved it.

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

Phil Erickson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Silk is stronger than nylon! If you want crystal
> clear wraps, use silk and dilute the first coat of
> epoxy to thin it almost to water consistency,
> follow with regular finish coat. Mono is not the
> way to go! It stretches too much and breaks down
> with exposure to sunlight. Believe me, you will
> not have a strength issue using silk!

Absolutely correct. I have landed 150# tarpon with Gossamer silk binding Fuji MNSG guides. It won't be an issue.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Where can I purchase some Gossamer silk?

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane

[www.jsflyfishing.com]

Perfect, thanks Jim.

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane