Some general rod building questions: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Without having a very clean room dedicated to nothing but rod building it is hard to get that perfect finish on the rods. The longer it takes for the finish to dry the more airborne dust particles get a chance to stick in the finish before it dries making the finish look non glassy.

I finish my rods in a room that does not have carpet and is as clean as a room as I can maintain. I usually put my finish on very early the morning before the wife and kids get a chance to stir up any dust in the house. I close the door to the room and leave the rod alone on a slow BBQ motor.

I use to have a problem with wanting to touch the finish to see if it was dry yet. To stop my bad habit of leaving a finger print in the finish on the rod, I now use the left over finish and paint a small patch on my rod stand. When I get that urge to check the finish, I touch my test patch instead. I have almost coated my entire wrapping stand in rod finish [Big Grin]

I dont believe the rotating speed difference will affect the sheen to your dried finish. I have read that a drying motor will egg your finish on the rod, and a hand turning set up as Waterdog described will give you a rounder finish. [Confused]

I dont know if that is true, but it could be. For the ease of the BBQ motor I dont have to baby sit the rod for a couple hours and it makes the process much easier.

Warm up your finish so it goes on easy and will penetrate the thread. I usually set the unmixed containers in a cup of hot water for a few minutes to get the temp up. Then mix slowly not getting any air bubbles in the finish. An alchohol torch does wonders for getting out any bubbles in the applied wet finish.

I have been using an IST1026 rod and have really come to like it. I have played with the HS1021, HS1023 and HS1025 rods and cant seem to get into that limber tip. I have seen Firedogs 965 rod and like the action, but a one piece rod is difficult for me to transport and I like my rods to break down. I wish Rainshadow would come out with an IST1027 2 piece rod (something in the 15 to 40 lb range) in my opinion they dont have any 2 piece rods that have enough backbone to handle a delta diver at B10 and take the shock of a salmon hitting the rod. But the rods they do make are very very nice. They are consistantly the straightest rods I have built. [Smile]

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