Wanted to wait until both rods were completed to report.

Clarity - very good, no cloudiness during mixing, aplication or final cure.

Bubbles - none that I didn't catch after initial application and touch up. Did find some thin spots I missed on the intial application that were touched up to satisfaction.

Levelness - even with the thicker application the finish ended up leveling out nicely with no heat. I would recommend 2 coats though instead of one. I can see good benefit of 2 coats of the thinner finish on decorative wraps.

CP - I did not use CP on these wraps so my next test will be on wraps with CP. I imagine that one coat will suffice with the addition of CP.

Dryer speed - my 10 RPM motors appear just right, no runs or drips. I had one on an 18 RPM and it appeared to throw the finish just a little.

Pot life - finish was mixed in alcohol cleaned medicine up and poured onto flat foil at 72 degrees and around 50% humidity in the house. I could have done the final touchup on the feet up to 45 minutes.

Smell - I will not comment on smell again because everyone's smeller is different.

Flexibility - appears consistant with Flexcoat.

Conclusion - this is a good finish and deserving of more experimentation. I was most impressed with the lack of bubbles without application of heat. I cannot comment on long term appearance or performance until next year when these rods have been in use for a while.

Now, you can take this post for what it is worth. I felt that it would be a good and 'fair' idea to make comments on the 'final' issues with the product. Questions and comments are welcomed but please leave personalities out of it.

I have some rods that were finished with it shortly after the RodMaker review came out. They said it wouldn't turn yellow or brown and to date it has not. That has been several months ago and it still looks new.

Mike,
I have only tried the finish over one rod that I used CP on.Therefore,take this with a grain of salt,stiff drink, or whatever.The LS Supreme did not turn out worth a darn when used over two applications of Color Lock.These were applied according to directions given by the manufacturer.My problem was spots where the finish didn't seem to adhere to the wraps.It was not as though the finish was "wicked" away to another location.The rod was level.
As I prefer to use CP,I will stick to FlexCoat as I do not have problems with their finish when used over the old Brilliance from Clemens or FlexCoat CP.
I am not saying that I don't like the Supreme.It has some good qualities.I am not willing to spend more time rewrapping my efforts.When I have some time after I get back from a Tuna Trip to San D.,I will experiment to see if it can be applied over FlexCoat and vice-versa.I will also try it again over CP.
Good luck.

Thanks for the informative review, Mike. I'm glad you had favorable results with the LS Supreme.

I've built several rods using LS Supreme and FlexCoat over Gudebrod 811 CP with no problems such as Chuck mentioned. The only color thread that I've had problems with when using 811 CP is Gudebrod # 326 Scarlet thread and FlexCoat Lite finish. I ended up with dark blotches in multiple areas of the thread. I flooded the wraps with 811, so doubt that was the problem. I might have contaminated the thread somehow, but it was a brand new spool. There was a thread on the guild board some months back where several folks mentioned having this problem with 326. Wonder what color Chuck was using?

Have used the LS Supreme over wraps with CP many, many times and not had any problems whatsoever.

Chuck - it works well as a primary coat on a wrap, over that Classic Coat - very nice. I like the fact that it is thin and soaks into the theads eaily. I also find it easier to apply less on the first coat and get the epoxy level from the beginning. I could probably do the same with Classic, but I guess in my head Hi-build finishes means add more of it at once!!

The Supreme works well over 811 on butt wraps. I've put it over 3 so far, and no problems. Again I finish with Classic over the Supreme - works fine for me.

Billy

I had some dark blotches using LS Supreme on Gudebrod 337 (garnet) over one coat of 811. I though maybe I didn't cover it adequately. Maybe there's something else going on?

I've used the LS Supreme on quite a number of rods now and have not had any difficulties with blotching. This happened to me once while using other products but I suspect I didn't saturate the wraps properly. I use only silk thread (on fly rods) and now use Al's colour preserver. I do take care to really soak the threads and then remove excess cp before a second lighter coat. I know some folks are able to get away with a one coat application of LS Supreme but I always use 2. For the first coat I apply a substantial amount to the wraps and then go back and remove the excess, leaving just enough so that the wraps look 'wet'. This has worked very well for me so far and the rods I built just after last years clave using the sample kit of LS Supreme that Ralph provided show no discolouration whatsoever.

Andy