Is wrapping thread the same as sewing thread, or can you use sewing thread? Reason I ask, is my mom owns sewing shop, so I have access to probably 3000 different colors and wholesale pricing. If so, I will hook you all up if I can.

People have been known to use Sulky and Madeira poly threads from time to time. Madeira thread most be CP'd at least twice before applying finish due to the silicone used on the thread to help it feed well through the embroidery/sewing machines.

The simple answer is...................NO! They are not the same, first of all sewing threads are a number of different materials, like cotton, rayon, poly and nylon. Almost all wrapping threads are nylon. Secondly, as mentioned above most sewing threads have a silicone treatment which will repel epoxy, so it has to be treated with CP before applying epoxy.

Also as mentioned some of the poly threads work well if treated.

Cotton is not strong enough.

Paul,
Although the typical sewing thread is not the same as wrapping thread.

if you pick and choose you can find some excellent sewing thread to use for wrapping rods.

But, having said that - so what. The official fishing rod wrapping thread is a tiny part of the price of building a rod. Really little reason to use the "official wrapping thread" to use since this thread has been proven over millions of rods to work very well for that purpose.

But, no question about it, if you get sewing thread with no silicone coatings, and has the right amount of stretch - primarily nylon thread and the right size - for the rods and guides you are wrapping, absolutely go ahead and use the thread.

But, as the saying goes - test before using. i.e. do a bunch of test wraps on old or discarded blanks with discarded guides and go ahead and use the thread finish of your choice to insure that the thread is compatible for both wrapping, as well as allowing a perfect finish application with perfect drying.

Be safe

I have tons of serger thread from cleaning out a relative's house back when we had to move her into a care facility. She was a quilter and had more fabric and thread than the average fabric shop! It is high strength polyester without all the fancy coatings. Salty Dog on another forum (most of you know who he is) says it works just fine. I will likely use it on butt wraps.

Fuji wrapping thread is polyester and give good results.

Regular cotton sewing thread is useless.


I have a lot of Gudebrod from my days of wrapping in the 1970's, good stuff.

And Gudebrod is out there is you look hard, I found the below stash on another forum a few weeks ago and bought it.


Needless to say I have more than a lifetime supply.

Hi John..i did not know that fuji used polyester for their thread..it would be better for butt wraps than nylon thread if you use cp because polyester does not absorb water and relax near as much as nylon..thanks..

ben belote Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi John..i did not know that fuji used polyester
> for their thread..it would be better for butt
> wraps than nylon thread if you use cp because
> polyester does not absorb water and relax near as
> much as nylon..thanks..

Good Point.

One of the many little mysteries of rod building!

In addition, one of the points about using nylon thread, is that nylon thread has some stretch. As a result, it seems that it is easier to wray with the stretch of nylon thread for guide wraps in particular. By using this stretch, as the guide is wrapped, the wraps can end up more tight and have the guides less likely to slip.

Yes, one can do the same thing with Polyester thread, with little to no stretch, but one certainly has to readjust the tension on the supply thread with poly to be more tight than one would use with similar sized nylon thread.

However, both can work well. Just be aware of the need for a tension difference between the types of thread.

p.s.
In addition to the stretch difference, especially in Upholstery work when doing cushion and similar work that is going to be for work that sits continually in the bright sun, the use of Polyester thread wins out every time.
When one uses Nylon thread for this purpose, the thread tends to decay from the UV rays of the sun. However, in the same UV exposure, the Poly thread tends not to have the decay issue.

Although the vast majority of the thread used for wrapping fishing rods is nylon, one seldom sees evidence of UV sun ray damage to the actual thread used on fishing rods. I suspect that the reason for the lack of UV damage to the actual thread is because the coating over the thread, whether it is shellac, epoxy or similar finishes, tend to inhibit the UV rays of the sun get to the thread and cause the uv decay that results in unprotected thread as used in upholstery work

Be safe

Oxygen is a big part of UV decay too..the finish protects the yarn from the oxygen also..

UV decay on thread is actually not much to do with thread material - it's more to do with how it was produced. If nylon were much inferior to polyester in UV exposure, we shouldn't have seen nylon used for outdoor clothes. When it comes to color fastness under UV, it's also widely understood polyester is better than nylon but that's not true - again not much to do with material but how it was dyed. Technically dying nylon is much more difficult than polyester with many variables involved to do it right, while just simple pressure dying gets it done on polyester. Almost any textile manufacturers can easily do polyester dying but not many can do nylon.

As a nylon thread, Gudebrod was an excellent thread and widely used but they were unable to overcome color fading issue. That gave some reason why polyester thread gained its ground after Gudebrod went out of business. For thread materials in rod building, M, F are polyester and Gudebrod, F, Hitena STwrap are nylons. If color fading could be pioneered, nylon's workability with some nice stretch is second to none for wrapping. That was where we started when we decided to develop a new rod wrapping thread. We posted UV color fastness test result under Xenon lamp before. Here is test result under UV in real life. [hitenausa.com]. Only lower half of each Brown (Chestnut) thread sample - 3 most popular wrapping threads in the market were exposed to natural sunlight for 90 days, 10 hrs every day. They are polyester, polyester, nylon and Hitena from the left. You might be surprised to see how much color fades out only in 90 days. Not every nylon is inferior to polyester in UV color fastness.

Gabriel Hwang
Hitena USA LLC
gabriel@hitenausa.com
[www.hitenausa.com]