I always cover the signature area with finish. Just be sure to let the ink dry, India Ink, I give it 12 hours. Black India ink works great, the other colors like White, Gold and Silver, the viscosity of them is too light. If you need to use those colors, get some Testors Model paint or another model paint that is not water based.
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Just some more info, I am in the process of developing my own taper for a 6'-9" 3wt 3pc, just for the heck of it my friend and I took an 8-9 5wt 4pc blank in Fiberglass and dropped the butt section. Rough build out of the top 3 sections is a very close 3wt for all ranges from 10 to 50ft with a DT3 line. I also played around with both WF-4 and DT-4 lines on it, worked just fine for short dist
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I agree with Donald. Typically the "Black" threads, either silk or nylon just don't look all that great, unless they are on a "dark blank", like Black or Natural Carbon. Plus I would do some test wraps like he said. One dark color you might want to try the Anglers Workshop brand of Deep Plum Silk, that color goes to an almost black when color preserver is not used with eit
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I'd go and join the Fiberglass Flyrodders Forum if you don't already belong to that forum. There are a gang of folks on there that will have much more information about your blanks. My knowledge on the Fenwick stuff is limited, but I do know that the factory equivalent to the FL 102 6F was the FF 856 and the FL 96 7F should be the FF 807 if they are Brown blanks. There are Yellow Fenwicks to, bu
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Probably not, contact Herb, HNL Rod Blanks, he'll be able to find out if the blank you want is still able to be rolled. CTS streamlined their site back a while ago, typically, if the blank was made, they will still roll it with a few exceptions. Example: I and a couple of other glass geeks were getting unsanded painted glass fly rod blanks from them, they won't sell an unsanded blank, the "
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Short answer yes, depending on what type of blank you are dealing with. I have seen some dyed with Rite Dye and then covered with a top coat of U-40 Perma Gloss. If you have a Glass blank that was rolled with "clear" or "off white" prepeg and not top coated with something, a blank in the raw, its possible. To me, it did not look all that great. Its like staining certain s
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McFarland Rod Company, Anglers Workshop carries them.
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Standard Loop. The REC Seat, ABS, the .65" diameter is the diameter of the insert and barrel portion of the seat. The recessed hood part of the seat will have a larger diameter (the part that will be hidden inside of the grip), but I doubt it is .865". Memory seems to be around .760 or a bit larger. I would not use masking tape to make up the difference. Get another grip with the pr
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Mudhole carries the Crafty Cutter. I use it, it will handle just about any hidden hood size for fly rod seats or get you close enough so you just need to sand a couple of thousandths off.
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I'd recommend a CTS Affinity X 9ft 10wt. I fish the same rod for both Strippers and Pike. Reason I'd step up to a 10 rather than a 9wt, just gives you more power to cast the larger Streamers. The Affinity X blanks are very light in weight, so it will really feel like fishing another brands 8wt. Contact Herb, HNL Rod Blanks, and I think he does keep a few 10wt blanks on hand since it is a pret
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I use the regular viscosity G4, also tried a sample of the low viscosity stuff. It is lower viscosity, but really not that much in my opinion. I'd stick with the regular if you are getting good results.
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CTS, take a look at their site, forum sponsor. HNL Rod Blanks (Herb) is who you want to order it thru.
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Read Jeff Shafer's post and follow his instructions. I do the same thing all the time with Fiberglass blanks. There is no reason that you cannot do this with a Carbon blank to make your repair. There is a company called Goodwinds that sells Carbon and Fiberglass Tubes, both hallow and solid in varying diameters. You can also try to find a scrap section of an old blank and salvage a piece out of t
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Either, just depends on what you are comfortable and good at applying. You can apply a light coat of a standard or high viscosity finish and achieve the same thickness of a coat applied with a low viscosity finish. If it takes more than one coat to achieve the thickness and covering you are looking for, whats the big deal.
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It will not Stiffen the blank. Any additional weight added to a blank will "dampen" the recovery. Think of it this way, Diving Board for a swimming pool, then strap a concrete block to the underside, it will dampen the recovery of the diving board. Depending on brand of guides, there is very little weight difference between single foot and double foot guides. Personal preference. I
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I'd use a #8 Stripper, then a 1/0, then 2/0's rest of way, that would be for Snake Brand Originals. Used that set up on several Steffen 6ft 2/3wts. Placement, look up static distribution like Spencer said, its pretty easy to do. A total of 7 guides should work, not including the tip top.
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I do 2, my first is just a "saturation coat", you can apply a light coat of a high viscosity finish, second being the final coat, still applied lightly.
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For me its 24 hours, just because of my schedule with work and other activities. I find Gen 4 to be tack free in 12 to 16 hours, but that depends on the temp swings in my shop space. My shop can be as cool as 60 and tops out at 70. Big difference in set up and cure time between those two temps, but I don't have the option to keep shop at a constant 70 degrees. You can apply your second coat a
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I made a “jig” that would mount to my drill press base plate. I was in the same situation with the very small diameters of Ice rod blanks, they were less than .250, so I bought rings with no bore thru them. The jig consists of a top and bottom of 1/2 thick Popular ( used because it does not cup and has a better hardness than Pine, but still cheap to buy) .In between the top and bottom the
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Regular Nylon, no matter the brand, in White will not go "clear" on any color blank. I use the Silk 212 YLI Natural on blanks that have some sort of color to them, whether it was a Translucent or Solid colored blank. The only time I stray away from this is when I have a "clear" Fiberglass Blank, like a McFarland, Kabuto or Livingston, then I use the Clover 401 Silk in white.
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With regard to the other finishes I have used, Threadmaster and Aftcote, it typically took 3 min to get it "streak free", with the Gen 4 it took 5 min. The Gen 4, one part is water clear, the other has a light blue tint to it so it was really easy to see when it went streak free and water clear, just took a couple of min longer. Andy did say that it would take a bit longer to mix. I mix
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I am also a recent convert to Gen 4 finish. I tried the Standard Viscosity first, Andy explained out what the pro's to this finish would be, and he was spot on. It has a longer working time, set up time seemed to be a bit sooner than Threadmaster, the bubble release is much better (if you happen to get a few when you mix). It is water clear, and you can see a notable difference between this finis
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CTS Affinity X, they make both 10ft and 11ft 3wts, while it may price out a bit more than the above mentioned blanks, its well worth it. Contact Herb at HNL Rod Blanks. I have built out several of these blanks for customers and they were very happy with them
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I second what Tom K and Norm M said is the correct fix. Adding anything to the male end, wax, epoxy, ect is not going to fix the problem, those are just short term fixes. If you got the blank from a well known blank maker, I would try and contact them, they may fix it for you. Trimming the male end, that will do nothing, and with the possibility of making it more loose. Typical Spigot Fer
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I've never thinned epoxy, don't need to, but that has been covered very well by the posts above mine. If your worried about penetration of the wraps, just warm your Threadmaster Lite up a bit, it will lower the viscosity a bit, but it will shorten the working time, apply a very "thin" coat, just saturate the wraps. After curing, apply a second coat. Silk, used for "invisibl
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No reason to use a size 16 on a 6wt, its overkill. Go with the 12. Also no reason to have your next guide past the stripper the same style as the stripper on a 6wt. Like Tom said, there will not be that heavy of a load on a 6wt to need it. While I am a big fan of Snake Brand Guides, the REC Recoils are a quality guide and since their smallest is a 1, it will work just fine. I would also o
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I limit what blanks and components I will use on my builds, most of my customers know this by looking at my website and it is explained why I use these component vendors and blank manufactures. I'm sure it limits the folks who will contact me for a build, but that is just the way I prefer to do my builds. I will discuss with the customer what options are open to them and go over the best possible
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The Affinity One was one of the first CTS blanks I built on, a 905-4. Very nice taper, if my memory is correct, the Affinity MX is not much different. But like Herb said, if CTS made a taper in the past, they will still make it even though its not shown on the website.
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I use a variety of guides for the Stripper. Like Spencer, one of my favorites is the Pay Bay N, I also use the Pac Bay Minima's and Pac Bay XB's, just depends on the "look" I am trying to achieve or customer request. Agates are also popular on a lot of the Fiberglass builds that I do. I wish Pac Bay would do a Minima in a TiC Frame or Gunsmoke with a matching ring color. Snake B
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CTS does make blanks in both Carbon and Fiberglass in heavier line weights and shorter than the normal 8-6 to 9ft length. They just don't list all the stuff they make on their website. Just contact Herb directly and tell him what you want, he'll know if is a normal offering or something that might be a special order.
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