I noticed that many factory rods are accenting the guide wrap by using a single thread of a contrasting color or metallic at the midpoint of the guide wrap. Is there a preferred method to accomplish this ?

Some of those cheaper factory rods actually use paint.

THere are several ways to do this. I'll tell you how I do this in the center of a solid colored guide wrap.

Start with a long length of trim band material - 12 inches. When you reach about 1.5mm from the center of the wrap with the solid color, stop. Tape the trim material so it lays parallel to the blank (like a guide foot), and make sure teh end is right up close to the guide wrap. The tape also needs to be right up to this point as well so that the material doesn't move as you wrap over it. Continue the guide wrap, over the trim band material to thi mid point of the wrap. Remove the tape when the material is bound down by about 4-5 turns (1mm).

Now the tricky part. Say you're wrapping the guide from left to right. The trim band material will be to the right of the guide wrap thread coming off the tension device. Take the trim material, pull it towards you and make it go on the left of the guide wrap. Now hold it parallel with the guide wrap, make one full turn + 1/4. Tuck the trim under the guidewrap, and make 2 more turns of the rod. This will effectively tie off the trim band.

Now just pull the trim band tag end to the right and under the 2 turns of thread gently, so that it makes one complete revolution around the rod. Done.

I normally do this as a 3 band inlay, spaced 4 or 5 threads apart. Look at the top picture: [www.momentoffame.com]

Billy

Billy, I usually lay the inlay thread over the guide wrap, with 3 or 4 inches sticking out to the left. Then overwrap with the guide thread and do the inlay wrap as you describe. After, I pull the left side of the inlay thread to the right to make a small gap and cut it, and close the gap over the end. Is there an advantage to your method over this one?

Probably not. I just followed the Cemens book's directions - they used tape, so did I. I will try that next, as it seems a lot quicker and probably easier. The tape does work, but every so often with metallix, it will unravel. Also, there have been times on the small diameter of the tip that it was a pain to secure the trim thread.

The only negative I see, is possibly cutting a guide wrap, or improperly cutting the tag and having a nub (which gets cut of after the first coat of epoxy anyway). Both of those "problems" are operator erros, and will not be a problem once you get the hang of things, so I will definitely try it your way.

As I said, there are several ways to do this. The internet is great!!

Billy