• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

rod building help needed

C

Chris Light

Member
Hi all , I have done it again and bought another rod on e-bay to renovate , I will never learn , my problem is the removal of old yellowing varnish , I would like to retain the original decals but fear that it will not be possible . The rod is a nice carbon kevlar north western the blank looks a darn site better in its natural grey than the sickly yellow . Any help would be greatly appreciated .
 
depending on the state of the varnish it may very gently peel off from the the top of the decal, I recently did a north western specimen tench rod and the varnish did peel off that. If the varnish is brittle and cracks off rather than peels you will have to very carefolly scrape around the label as closely as possible. The other option is to leave a section either side of the decal and then hide the join with a small intermediate whipping.
hope this helps
 
Forgot to mention, use a blunt blade for any scraping of varnish, it is very important on carbon not to dig the blade in at all.
 
I have removed the varnish on several rods with Nitromors paint remover.
Apply the nitromors to a short length (2ft) of the blank, and when it starts to bubble scrape it off with the back of a knife blade and wash of with a rag and warm water. Repeat process until blank is varnish free.
I know some will wince at Nitromors, but I have never had any damage issues on various coarse rods, beachcasters, and fly rods.
ATB
Colin
 
I have generally found using a heatgun works quite well - obviously dont toast the blank to a crisp just lightly apply a bit of heat intermittendtly until the varnish becomes workable - should come off quite easily.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top