Finishing the Wraps

Varnished the wraps this week. Three coats of secret stuff to make the wraps translucent and 6 or 7 coats of some other stuff to smooth them out. Turned out better than most of my other rods, but still not what they should be. I struggle to keep the coats thin. As best I can tell, the trick to perfectly finished wraps (in addition to the secret stuff) is to apply lots of thin coats and sanding between coats when there's enough varnish on the wraps to sand. Actually, the secret stuff isn't that big a secret among rod makers. It's sold by Goldenwitch as "walnut oil". Mike Brooks (one of the pros) has published a simple formula for making the stuff. That's what I did. It's 50% walnut alkyd medium (not walnut oil) and 50% Waterlox original high gloss varnish. It takes two or three coats of that stuff to make the wraps translucent. The other stuff I used for the last 6 or 7 coats is straight Waterlox. That could have been spar or poly. There's more detail in the rod making album. I'll be dipping (actually draining) the sections in Varmor this weekend. More photos and comments on that later. This rod is almost ready to fish.