Wrapping Tutorial
This is how we prep our guides and wrap rods in our shop. First, here's a pic of the wrapping room.
Some points about the room: lighting is the most critical thing in the space. If you can't see it, you can't wrap it! The window faces south, which gives me good daytime lighting. Overhead is a bank of fluorescent lights, plus an incandescent lamp on an arm, plus an Ottlight with a daylight full-spectrum bulb when needed to match colors. The leg lamp on the right is for making me smile. It is a major award.
Even with all of these lights, I don't wrap at night or when it's deeply overcast. On the left is a bank of legend boards, which have the guide spacing and sizes for all of the rod models we make. This makes it easy to just lay the rod section next to the board and know immediately the locations of the guides without having to get out a measuring stick or tape measure. I like to keep everything simple in rodmaking, so here are my simple wrapping tools:
I use our little wrapping jig to hold the thread and provide tension. If you want to go even simpler, you can run your thread through a book to provide tension. Or, if you are really good, just hold the spool or length of thread in one hand....that's beyond my coordination!
You need something to cut the thread. I use single edge razor blades.
You need something to burnish the thread. The end of a pen works well.
You need something to singe the thread, if necessary. I use an alcohol lamp.
You need something to apply finish to the thread to seal it and lock it into place on the rod. I use small sable brush.
Finally, you need the thread. Rodmakers traditionally use silk, but some use nylon and once the wraps are varnished you can't tell the difference. We use YLI size 100 for our Signature rods and Tire size 50 for Patriot rods. There has been a sort of fetish for using very fine thread, but the catch is the finer the thread the longer it takes to wrap a rod for no gain in quality. Very fine thread is great for tipping and intermediate wraps, though. (As long as you can see it.)
The first step is to prep the guides. I smooth the feet on a belt sander. The idea is to remove any burning on pre-ground feet and to smooth the end of the guide to a feather edge so the thread won't leave a gap at the end of the foot. The guide is gently rolled against the spinning 220 paper. Once the top is dressed it may cause a small burr to develop under the foot so this is also touched off. It takes about 5 minutes to do a rod's worth of guides.
To wrap the guides:
Cardinal rule: you always need to keep tension on the thread. You don't need a lot of tension as tension alone won't keep the guides on the rod. (To prove this try wrapping a guide on as tightly as possible, and then go out and cast the rod for a few minutes. The wraps will separate and eventually unravel in short order.) If you have to lose tension for any reason, for example when you are ending the wrap, just place your thumb over the thread to hold everything together.
The rod section is layed down next to the legend board and a guide is placed on the flat chosen for the guides. The guide is held with my left forefinger or thumb as I don't like to use tape. Using tape is like a permanent form of training wheels when using this method and is just an unnecessary extra step that I'd rather avoid. Ditto with all sorts of cradles and stands to hold the rod section.
While holding the guide with my left hand the thread goes over the top of the right foot and around 3 times. The wrap starts at the little 'notch' on the guide where the frame meets the foot and the first three wraps are layed down next to each other from left to right. Once you've gone around the section one time, you can let go of the guide provided you don't lose tension or keep your finger on the wrap to keep it from unraveling.
The rod is then tilted back and to the left slightly, and rotated towards me. This will cause the thread from the tensioner to cross over the first three wraps, like so:
I continue to turn the rod towards me while pulling on the tag end until the crossover wrap is buried under the new wraps that have been laid down. This step eliminates the crossover wrap and secures the start of the thread.
The tag end is trimmed and the wrap continued. At this point the trimmed tag is picked up and used as a tie-off loop and is placed in immediately.
The body of the wrap is 'autopilot', and you just try to lay down each wrap as close as possible to the previous wrap without overwrapping. Once I get down to the end of the guide foot, I'll take a predetermined number of additional wraps, say 6 turns.
Once the 6 turns are down, I'll hold the wrap with my left thumb and cut the silk, leaving about 6" of thread. The trimmed end then goes down thru the tie-off loop. The end of the silk is then held between my right thumb and forefinger while the rod is held with my right palm. My left hand is then used to pull the end of the thread just under the wrap.
Once the thread is pulled slightly into the main wrap, the excess is trimmed and the pull loop is pulled out. By putting in the tie-off loop early in the wrap, and by nipping the thread close, the tag end of the thread never comes out of the main wrap which can leave a booger in the wrap.
The rod is then flipped end for end and the other foot is wrapped. Since the guide feet may not be equal in length, this is where those arbitrary extra wraps on the first wrap come in handy: if your foot is a little short you can do more than 6 wraps to even the wraps out. Likewise, if this foot is a little longer, you can use less than six wraps to make the wraps even in width. No need to measure- if your eye says they are equal in width, they are.
I'll wrap the entire rod, then burnish the wraps. If any wraps have fuzz, those will get singed in an alcohol lamp.
Once all of the snakes are wrapped on, I mount the tip tops with ferrule cement. Be careful with the melted cement, and make sure the tip tops align properly.
To wrap the ferrules: The wrap is started the same as a guide wrap on the rod shaft immediately before the start of the serration tabs and go up to the first indent on the ferrule. The only purpose of the ferrule wrap is to cover the tabs and provide a nice visual transition to the rod shaft. Wide wraps on the cane before the tabs = instant amateur label.
Some additional tips:
All of the wraps start and end the same way, so once you learn these steps everything else is just autopilot in between. Try to do as neat a job as possible.
Burnishing will remove some defects, but not large ones, so don't rely on it to fix big gaps.
If you are getting a little up in years, a magnifier or reading glasses are a huge help. I use cheap 3x readers from the drug store.
It helps to have a little bit of nail on your index fingers to nudge the threads together when needed.
Earlier I mentioned how coarser thread = faster thread. To wrap our Patriot(single tip) rods I use Tire size 50, one color, no tipping. I can wrap one of these in about 40 minutes. On our Signature(two tip) rods I use the finer YLI size 100 with black tipping. These take about 3 hours to wrap. I'm not bragging here as a real full-time wrapping pro could do this in a fraction of the time, but just to make the point that it probably took me 6 hours or more to wrap my first rods and speed comes with practice. Practice!
Intermediate and tipping wraps: this is one instance where using very fine thread is helpful for producing the fine tipping and intermediate wraps that are all the rage. These are typically done in three wraps: two wraps are used to start the thread as above, the tag is nipped and the tie loop put in, and one more wrap is done and finished. It helps to wet the thread to give it some 'grip' on the rod section. I keep a pie plate of water between the tensioner and me to wet the thread.
Seal the thread with spar varnish or polyurethane. (Epoxy on cane rods is an abomination, as is metalic thread, diamond wraps and all other forms of tackiness.) Just dip the brush in the finish to load it. Lay the brush on near the end of the guide foot, which forces out the air pocket next to the guide foot. Let the finish flow into the wrap...ie, don't 'paint' with the brush, which will cause air bubbles.
On rods where the guides are wrapped prior to varnishing the blank, I apply one coat of finish. If you wrap and seal the guides after the blank is varnished, you will probably need to apply mutiple coats to get a nice build on the wraps.
Copyright 2011 J.D. Wagner, Inc.