What is your preferred finish if making grips from hardwood?
I normally prefer to only use stabilized wood. I turned a grip from walnut with pecan inlays but it is not stabilized. It is already turned so I don't want to send it out to be stabilized now. Do you have any products/methods you've found to provide good, long-term protection?

Kurt

Try hand rubbing boiled linseed oil or tongue oil after setting follow with paste wax.

Over the life of the rod it may have to be refurbished like any other application.

Good luck

John

John

Kurt,
I keep it simple.
I use two coats of Flex coat thread finish, doing a fine sand between coats.

The last one that I did has been out in the sun for a very long time and it still looks like new.

Easy and simple and looks great.

Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil, a polymerized oil developed as an exterior coating for gun stocks.

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

Helmsman polyurethane, I did about 6 coats. I have done one with 1 coat of Lumi gloss and that has held up real well. Looks brand new! I like the one coat of lumigloss, I just have a hard time getting it out of the bottle to put on.

Tru-Oil as mentioned above, works great on burnt, burl, or colored cork, it really brings out the color.

I too use Tru-Oil. I do mostly exotic fly rod grips using hardwoods, especially rare burl woods. Tru-Oil can be finished to any luster you choose, and holds up really well to moisture and sunlight exposure.

X2 on Roger Wilson's comments

roger wilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kurt,
> I keep it simple.
> I use two coats of Flex coat thread finish, doing
> a fine sand between coats.
>
> The last one that I did has been out in the sun
> for a very long time and it still looks like new.
>
>
> Easy and simple and looks great.

That's fine if you enjoy a wavy finish on your grips, thread finish is very hard to sand then polish out for a smooth flat finish.

I've played with many different finishes and have found several that I WOULD NOT recommend, one is CA as that and UV rays don't play well (checks, fogs and cracks away over time) another is Clear Diamond, that takes forever to cure and is just a PIA. I have been playing with a couple of different finishes: one is Enduro from General finishes [www.rodbuilding.org] , 10 minutes between coats and can cut and buff in 24 hours, holds up well and can be reapplied as needed. Another is a low VOC automotive clear, still trying to find the best way to apply and it looks promising. Tru-Oil has merits and is easy to apply, but takes forever to build up a finish and in my experience isn't easy to handle and work with until a week has gone by. I've had Tru-Oil when green (or 24 hours old or less), while holding the grip trying to ream the hole with a file smear or become sticky because of the sweat on my hands. The trick with wood isn't so much the finish you use, but if you use your rod it will get nicked and scratched, you need to have a way to scuff and re-apply the finish, for that fact I would stay away from the 2 part epoxies and CA and stick to Tru-Oil or the Enduro, varnish type finishes.

Mark,
Do you get wavy finish on your guide wraps? I suspect that you do not. The reason is simple. You use thin finish and as ypu apply the finish you are rotating the guide wraps.

When I finish wood grips with thread finish, I do the same thing. i.e. I rotate the grips in the rod dryer for a glass smooth finish with little trouble:

[www.rodbuilding.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2018 09:37AM by roger wilson.

Roger, actually I do get a slight wave in my guide finish, not much, but it's there. I can see the waves in your finish in the photo provided, perhaps your definition of a perfectly flat finish is different than mine.

Mark, thanks for the input. I'm a fan of General finishes and have used the exterior oil as a seal coat (on wood and cork) and exterior poly as a topcoat. Looks fine and is durable but doesn't have the aged tone like I get in true tung based finishes such as their seal-a-cell and Arm-R-Seal on indoor projects.
I really don't like Linseed Oil based products because of the yellowing on lighter woods, but looks great on walnut. I've most recently used Epifanes, a true marine varnish, which gives a really nice tone as it's tung based, but it's expensive and so far seems to be a little soft as it's meant to be flexible to avoid cracking as wood expands and contracts. I need time with it in the elements so see how it holds up.
I'll check out Enduro but since it's water based I thought it might have that pale look.

John Shear
Chippewa Falls, WI