I need some advice on how to improve the look of my thread work when using light colors, especially yellows and whites. On decorative wrapping I know about using a white under layer but it is when I get to the rod guides that I have issues. No matter how tight I try to wrap the thread together and burnish the bejesus out of the thread, the dark colors still bleed through. Since I am building freshwater rods, I have not done any under wrapping for the guides. I thought about painting the feet of the guides white but that would still leave the blank showing through. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Sam

Until you get better at wrapping, use darker colors to wrap, and lighter for trim.

maybe use a larger thread like B or C, even D..

It's probably not a lack of thread tension. Excess tension can be an issue. Packing would be my first thought. Are you packing every third of fourth turn? If not, give it a try.

Lighter pastels over dark guides or blanks are always an unforgiving challenge.

Sam
On some of my builds where I needed long white background areas to apply clear decals over I used a ncp / nocp thread and then applied 2 coats of cp over the thread. I also did a little test blank using different regular and ncp / nocp white threads, with and without cp applied (I was building on a gloss black Quickline blank). The best results I got was to use Fuji nocp (A) thread with 2 coats of chromaseal cp (and Threadmaster lite finish). This seemed work best for my particular needs.
Rog

This may or may not be of interest but a couple of years ago I was experimenting with our Ultra Poly and wanted to see what the thread looked like over a silver underwrap. I was in a hurry (as usual) so I ran to the auto parts store and grabbed a roll of silver 1/4-inch wide pinstriping material. Wrapped it on the blank (stuck real good), added one thin coat of finish then overwrapped with light Ultra Poly colors (pink, yellow, white). VERY strong color with no zebra effect and seems to have plenty of staying power after almost 3 years. File this in Tips and Tricks I suppose.

Thanks all for help

Sam