I've rarely had this issue before. It may be related to my advancing age and retreating memory, but I'm beginning to have a lot of problems with the shadow of the blank coming through the thread on wraps when I want the thread to be completely opaque. I did a wrap with ProWrap Hot Pink NCP thread on a black blank and try as I might, the blank shadow is still showing through. After doing the wrap, I put a generous coat of FlexCoat Color Preserver on it, left it turning on the dryer, came back an hour later after it was fully dry, and I have areas of the black blank shadow showing through the pink. Is my thread tension too tight or too loose? I tried burnishing the thread without success. I tried packing it tightly as I go and am still having the problem. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Dave Sytsma

David,
First-off, I am not a proponent of CP. Although most would expect NOT having to use CP with NCP, treated thread, a light color such as your “pink” may very well darken when applied to / over a dark blank. Even NCP thread will change color (darken usually) with the application of thread finish, even if not as pronounced as regular nylon. Nonetheless, CP may provide the solution to your perplexing predicament.

David,
One thing that some folks do, is to paint the blank - where it is going to be wrapped with silver paint. It seems that the silver behind the thread takes care of the problem.

Do, some testing on an old blank and see what you find.

You can also do an underwrap with a color of your choice - like white and then wrap over that. Give that a test and see how it works out

Finally, are you really packing your thread really really tight. When wrapping I normally have about a 20-30 degree back angle on the thread to insure that the thread is well packed. I also wrap tight enough so that I am not able to move the guide up and down the blank at all and am just able to rotate the guide on the blank by using two thumbs to facilitate the rotation of the guide.

I have found that the very tight packing and the very tight wraps tend to solve this sort of problem for myself.

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However, I will also say - that I always want the shadow of the blank showing through my wraps. I typically never use CP, nor NCP thread. Rather, I simply use plain nylon guide wrapping thread with no cp. As a result, the thread becomes almost translucent and tends to simply blend with the blank. I dislike really bright colors. Rather, I mush prefer a more serene color that essentially melts right into the blank. To each his own.

David, can you get the thread in size B..It,s a little thicker and wraps like A.

David, you are not using blanks with grooves or ridges, are you.? They can make it difficult to pack the thread properly, so you just have to work more diligenetly at it. I really dislike blanks with groove or ridge texture.

I’m with Ben, move up to a size B or D thread. The thicker thread will give a more opaque wrap with less bleed through. A thin thread with a light color on a dark blank will have problems with what you call ‘blank shadows’.
Norm

Thanks guys. I'll do a little more checking, and I'm surely going to do some additional test wraps this afternoon. The thread is being used on an ice rod for a customer. I gave him some test wrap examples to look at and he really likes the pink. I've used the pink thread in question before on one of my personal ice rods last winter, black blank, and it turned out really well. I've been using CP most of the time on nylon and polyester threads, both NCP and regular. It fills the small spaces between the threads and I think I end up with fewer bubbles rising into the finish after applying the epoxy. This is a really light rod; customer wants to use it with ice flies for panfish with the tip for a bite indicator, no spring bobber. I've sanded the tip down to 0.7mm, which is less than what I have on my black/pink rod where I don't need a spring bobber either, so I'm really weight conscious. I thought about using an underwrap or even painting the blank under the thread, but didn't want to gain extra weight, especially in the top 24 inches of the rod where the majority of the sanding was done (blank length above the handle is 49 inches). It's crazy sensitive. I can't remember if I used CP on my rod or not. I'll try some test wraps, tightly packed with more thread tension with and without CP.
I hate getting old.

Dave Sytsma

When you pack the thread is pushed along the rod surface..It,s easier to push if it,s not wound around the rod under high winding tension..just use a moderate winding tension and it will pack perfectly and after burnishing you should not get blank bleed..If you do just go to a larger thread..and on an ice rod you really have to watch the winding tension or it will not pack at all..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2022 03:06PM by ben belote.

Try packing the thread tight and carefully burnish the wrap, try it with CP or without CP. see if that helps.

John

I'll try to respond in the order that they came in.

Michael, it's a smooth blank. It was in the white (unfinished) fiberglass and I painted it satin black with Krylon 2 in 1 spray paint (which works REALLY well, by the way).

Ben and Norman, I found I was able to get the thread in B and D sizes in addition to A. If my test wraps don't pan out, I'm going to try a spool of both B and D because I can see further applications for this color in bigger rods.

Roger and John, I'm going to follow your advice and pack the #$%! out of it in addition to wrapping it tighter. I was under the mistaken impression that a slightly less tight wrap would lend itself to more effective burnishing as the thread would have more ability to flatten. Obviously that isn't the case. I customarily wrap under more tension than I did on this rod. I'll let all of you know how it went. I don't think the customer will be ice fishing yet for a few weeks, and he's good with the delay.

Dave

I was referring to having the thread tight against each other not so much around the blank.

John

You had better make sure that paint is 100% dry an not just appear to be, as the thread when wrapping will dig into it and you never will get it to pack by trying to slide it. Same thing happens to some individualy when they try to do an overwrap on a guide or other wrap that has a coat of thread finish on it

Ron,
Correction on the paint I used. It is Krylon Fusion All-in-One paint and primer. It said to wait 1 minute between coats. I put on 3 very light coats 5 minutes apart and let it dry for 36 hours before I did anything with it. There were a couple of small areas where the finish felt slightly rougher than the rest, so I buffed the whole blank down with a gray ScotchBrite pad, figuring I could just put another coat on if I had to. Didn't need another coat. Smoothed everything out perfectly and you can't even see that I sanded it. That stuff is mighty tough paint. An ice rod builder here in Michigan put me on to it, and he sells a LOT of rods. The thread slides on it like it isn't even there.

Thanks everybody. Problem solved, and it turned out great. The customer will be pleased.

Dave Sytsma