Here is my question. I am building a saltwater rod and would like to use regular thread. I will need to use CP to keep the color of the thread. With this rod i will be using some larger guides and want to make sure the epoxy saturates the thread. What impact will CP have on how well the epoxy penetrates and over all strength of the wrap compared to not using CP?

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

There is not real difference between the strength of thread wraps with or without CP, in fact a CP only saturated guide is about as good as an epoxied one as far as strength. Perma Gloss has the penetration, adhesion quality and toughness you may want and you can epoxy over it.

Kevin, In tests with epoxy only and CP covered with epoxy, the former is found to be slightly stronger. However in either case the guide is destroyed before it breaks loose from the rod. I cannot think of a fish that could do that damage. I think you are more likely to step on your rod and break the guide before you lose the guide from fishing.

If you want to retain your colors you will need to use CP. The use of either epoxy or Permagloss alone will darken the threads and make them slightly translucence. Colors like red, green, and blue will appear almost black (at least in my tests).
Mike Blomme

Hi Kevin ,
I use madeira for all my builds and need to use cp. I had to strip one last year due to a problem and the epoxy adhesion was fine on all the guide wraps. I've always used cp no mattter what type of thread. From some I stripped a couple of years back I found the epoxy penetration was at least as good as those rods with just epoxy over ncp thread. I've never had an issue with guide strength on any rods that I've built. One thing I did find was that guidewraps with an underbinding had better epoxy adhesion than those without. Epoxy doesn't adhere to shiny blank surfaces all that well but it adheres much better to an underbinding whether or not it has been coated with cp.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

I'm wondering how long the finish over the CP will last. Will it want to chip off several years down the road.

No
I have redone many rods older ones from casting to spiral And some the finish was very hard to get off

Bill - willierods.com

The whole point of CP is to prevent epoxy from penetrating the thread. Otherwise the thread will turn semi-transparent and darken considerably.

CP does not hard adhesion of the epoxy, but it will prevent the epoxy from soaking into the thread. The CP fills that role.

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