I tried abalone for the first time today.

I used microflex abalone, with the intent of putting 1/4 sheet length jsut above the handle of a 4wt fly rod.

I watched Mud Hole's video on micro flex abalone using boiling water, however I found that the abalone cooled almost instantly when I took it out of the water, and cracked into a lot of tiny pieces when I tried rolling it onto the blank.

am I going to have to buy a heat gun? what did I do wrong?

First of all.....that is a very small diameter to try and bend the Abalone around.!Not sure your ever going to get it flexible enough for the job.

after further reasearch I've decided to try the crack-and-roll method.

thanks for the thought though!

I don't recommend it for that application. Fly rod blanks, let alone 4wt blanks, are thin walled and blank failure is a possibility with veneer on it.

Kevin Knox
ANGLER'S ENVY CUSTOM RODS
QUEEN ANNE, MD 21657
#_#_#_#_#
www.anglersenvy.com

Just a suggestion and I credit the late Mike Barkley for it. Scan the abalone into a photo program then print it onto decal paper such as that discussed here several times. It may be the solution t the small diameter cracking and alleviate the blank stress as Kevin noted.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Fred Yarmolowicz Wrote:
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> Just a suggestion and I credit the late Mike
> Barkley for it. Scan the abalone into a photo
> program then print it onto decal paper such as
> that discussed here several times. It may be the
> solution t the small diameter cracking and
> alleviate the blank stress as Kevin noted.

This is a great way to get the look of abalone on those realy small diameter blanks. You can use Metallic Silver instead of decal paper to really make the image pop.

The problem with printing abalone is that it will never really look like natural abalone. Close, maybe, but not quite. At least I've never been able to match it, and I 've tried the metallic silver media, too. Also, the metallic silver media is not the most compliant media, so getting the edges to stick will be a challenge. The best thing I've found to do that is to immediately run a thread rap the full length of the decal and leave it on for a day before taking it off. Or tightly wrap the decal with a piece of paper, then with tightly stretched electric tape. With a couple layers of it under a high stretch, the compression on the decal will be very high.

For media I suggest the Papillio glossy white vinyl, very thin, very compliant, makes a very bright image. In some colors of abalone, like the reds, oranges, greens, any color that doesn't have the natural irridescence (sp?) of the abalone, it will be pretty good.