Color Preserver or not to color preserve?

Does this stuff work?

Not have used it before.

Thank you for your comments.

Yes, it keeps nylon thread from becoming transparent, thus preserving much of the thread original color. If you wish to see the results, test it.

Yes it works but will not perform miracles. If you intend to preserve the color of say, a light yellow A sized thread over a dark charcoal or black blank, you're going to lose a shade at best.

Otherwise the stuff is cheap - buy a bottle and make up a test stick with various thread colors and see what you think.

...........

Yes, and No.

My 2 cents on this .....

I am sure others will chime in with some other information, but preserving the color with thread preserver also SEALS the the thread and the overcoat you put over the threads (Prokote or Flexcote or whatever you use) doesn't saturate the threads and doesn't really lock the threads to the rod. It makes it a lot easier for an eye to come off the rod especially when you get a birds nest that wraps around an eye on a cast, it will pull the eye right off the rod if you don't "lock wrap" your eyes!

I like using a good "colorfast" thread for all my eyes so I don't have to use color preserver.

Get a couple colored spools of colorfast thread, all in the same color range, like, for example light Orange, Orange and dark Orange, wrap them on a rod and put your overcoat on the threads and compare them to the unfinished thread on the spool. You can do this and know how much the color will change so you can use the appropriate color in your wrap.

Tony Boschi
Banana River Rods
Merritt Island, Florida
321~525~1063

* Rapid Prototyping Services
* Custom Beach Rods
* Custom Inshore Rods

[bananariverrods.com]

Thanks everyone.

Tony is right. I would shy away from color preserver for the very reason he sites. You won’t get the thread/rod bond you need especially on a rod that gets a lot of use and abuse. Go with a ColorLok or Fuji NOCP thread and it holds its color quite well. I would advise not using light colors on a dark colored blank
Ray Renner
Mason River Outfitters

I have rods, built without using color preserver, that I’ve been fishing for over twenty years. The threads still blend very nicely to the blanks and have never failed. I prefer to keep builds very simple as this reduces potential for mishaps while leading to elegant looking results. I’ve also got some that old that I built with the treated “NCP” thread. They are still doing great, too. I am more in the camp, though, of using non-treated threads and letting them saturate, darken, and become translucent. Fine fly rods are often factory built this way. They don’t use a lot of decoration and contrasting colors. I mostly build under that same system of aesthetics for fly rods through conventional rods. It’s all a matter of taste and the people who can do decorative wraps certainly impress me. If I tried that, it would probably look awful for a few rods. Producing translucent wraps, that are uniform between guides, isn’t too hard to do, This creates durable and good looking results. If you are building for yourself, family, and friends, you can’t go wrong leaving out a completely unnecessary step that can yield problems. I’ve got a bunch of blank specification decals that I never tried to install for the same reasons. Paint pens are classy, and they very easily produce good results. Good components and materials don’t need a lot of fancying up and extra stuff put on them.

Tony Boschi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, and No.
>
> My 2 cents on this .....
>
> I am sure others will chime in with some other
> information, but preserving the color with thread
> preserver also SEALS the the thread and the
> overcoat you put over the threads (Prokote or
> Flexcote or whatever you use) doesn't saturate the
> threads and doesn't really lock the threads to the
> rod. It makes it a lot easier for an eye to come
> off the rod especially when you get a birds nest
> that wraps around an eye on a cast, it will pull
> the eye right off the rod if you don't "lock wrap"
> your eyes!
>
> I like using a good "colorfast" thread for all my
> eyes so I don't have to use color preserver.
>
> Get a couple colored spools of colorfast thread,
> all in the same color range, like, for example
> light Orange, Orange and dark Orange, wrap them on
> a rod and put your overcoat on the threads and
> compare them to the unfinished thread on the
> spool. You can do this and know how much the color
> will change so you can use the appropriate color
> in your wrap.


if you are concerned about guides getting pulled out, saturated wraps are not much help as documented in a study done by Tom Kirkman in Vol. #4 of Rod Maker magazine..you may gain about 10% more strength but the guide warps and bends well before it is pulled out, whether using saturated or CP wraps..yes, use a locking wrap or a double footed guide and hang on to your rod..lol.

I have built flyrods that were coated with nothing more than color preserver. In the 17 years that I fished them, I never had a guide pull out or anything else detrimental. The single foot Fuji guides were never a problem. And that was before locking wraps became a 'thing'. Your mileage may vary...