Translucent Wraps

One of the mysteries of bamboo rod making is translucent wraps. I've read of several ways to produce a clear, shimmer free, translucent look. Some of them have curing problems. The varnish seems to take forever to cure. Others leave shimmers in the finish and still others have a cloudy appearance. There are probably others that work well, but the one that has produced consistent results for me is a concoction that Alan Kube passed along to me. Its a 1 to 1 mixture of Walnut Alkyd Medium (not walnut oil) and Waterlox Original High Gloss Finish. Waterlox is a Tung oil product with a very thin viscosity. It soaks into silk like water.

I apply the solution as recomended by Alan. Soak the wraps starting at the tip of the guide foot and working toward the center of the guide. The air space around the guide foot needs to fill up with varnish as you go with no air pockets. I'll soak the wraps on one guide, do the next one, and then go back to the previous guide and wipe the wraps down with a dust free cotton cloth to remove any excess varnish repeating that process until all the wraps have been soaked. Wait about an hour and do it again. It takes 24 hours to cure in my drying closet at about 90 degrees and 40% relative humidity. Alan doesn't use a drying closet so he allows about a week for the wraps to cure before leveling out the wraps with a coat of straigt Waterlox and a few subsquent coats of Varmor R10.

This solution works if it's mixed and applied as described above. Variations of the mixture and application may not work as well. I followed up with Alan on this recently. He does get occasional shimmers, but we think that may be because of dirty wraps, not the solution. I have a very oily complexion. When wrapping guides, I wash my hands thoroughly before wraping the guides.