A maestro at work.

[Dave Westburg]

Bought one of my Sharpes spliced impregnated rods over to rodmaker Mike Monsos for some minor upkeep. He used rubbing alcohol to take off some poorly laid on wrap varnish...



Touched it up with a paper towel...



Laid down a coat of new varnish on the wrap with a needle...



And cleaned up the edge with dental floss...



Ready for my next trip. Thanks Mike!

 

[Divad]

Adding the dental floss trick to my repertoire, thanks! Nice looking rod.

 

[Mike Monsos]

Adding the dental floss trick to my repertoire, thanks! Nice looking rod.

Be sure to use UNWAXED dental floss to wick up the varnish run off or goof ups.

 

[Mike Monsos]

Thanks Dave, for your kind words and photos.

 

[Scott Salzer]

Wow!

 

[Cliff]

Nice work, Mike.

 

[Bambooflyguy]

Nice job Mike! Looks great!

 

[@Dryflyphotography]

Mike Monsos mentioned his dental floss trick to me a few years ago and it has been one of the best things I've ever learned to improve the finished look of varnished wraps. One thing to add - I dip the piece of floss into a can of denatured alcohol before using it to slide it back and forth along the edges of the wrap to clean things up.

 

[Mike Monsos]

Mike Monsos mentioned his dental floss trick to me a few years ago and it has been one of the best things I've ever learned to improve the finished look of varnished wraps. One thing to add - I dip the piece of floss into a can of denatured alcohol before using it to slide it back and forth along the edges of the wrap to clean things up.

Brilliant! I'll use that tip to clean up missed dried varnish close to the wraps. I should have mentioned in my previous post that you can double or triple the strand of floss to wick up more varnish if necessary.

 

[Tim Cottage]

Yikes! that was a bad wrap but it sure looks good now. Way to go Mike.
Was it rubbing alcohol or denatured?

 

[Mike Monsos]

Just multiple applications of rubbing alcohol. The rod wraps were overcoated with something very thin in viscosity. Denatured alcohol might be faster, but I wanted to be sure I didn't soften the original varnish, which it didn't.