Does color preserver reduce the strength of thread wraps by soaking into the thread and preventing the epoxy from soaking in through the thread? I put a bright bronzy brown thread on each of the ferruls and added a bright green band over the top and it looks very good but when I applied epoxy on a test wrap the brown went almost black and the green darkened so that neither color looked good. I know color fast thread is sold but does color fast mean that the thread holds its color even when epoxy is applied. Fuji has polyester thread and do they hold color after th epoxy is applied?

Wraps coated with CP are many times over strong enough to bind guides to a rod blank, even on heavy duty offshore rods intended for harsh use.

NCP and similar color fast threads do not require CP in order to hold their color. Regular nylon will turn somewhat transparent if you apply epoxy without using CP first.

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If you wanted to hold most of the colors, you needed to apply Color Preserver before the epoxy.

Do what you need to do to get the colors you desire and don't worry about wrap strength. It will be fine no matter what. Nylon is brighter and sparkly and NCP is more flat.

You will need color preserver to mount your feather inlays as well as solidifying your thread colors. Plenty of feathers last year at the expo/ show at the Vintage Tackle booth. Ask for Ken. He has written instructions for mounting the feathers and what kind of CP is best for use.

Robert

Even color fast / NCP (No Color Preserver needed) nylon and poly will hue shift just a bit, usually shifting to a richer / deeper / darker hue. The only way to know how much hue shift will occur is to make a test wrap.

And yes, the Fuji ploy thread is available in NCP.

I went to a fabric store and found some polyurethane called Dura Clear varnish. It is white at first but dries clear. It did darken the thread but only by a shade or two, actually closer to 2 shades but that was quite evident and not almost black. That is Dura Clear by Americana. Until I happen to find something better this varnish will do.

i forgot to mention that I thinned some elmers glue with water and tried that(shot in the dark) and it seemed only darken the thread the same as the poly. I applied epoxy to and color stayed the same when treated first with the poly and glue.