for your consideration...

I have been intrigued for some time with the process of "Japaning" ferrules and reel seat hardware.

This was an accepted pratice for many old dead guys. It's not as easy as it looks and yet is.

This was sent to me, yet again, by Royce Stearns in Oregon. He's more than getting the hang of it and I hope to learn some good things from him.

Now these two pictures really don't do justice to just how nice this piece of metal looks, but it's damn pretty. It's something I would like to offer at some point and there is still some lot of work to be done but I like it.
If one wants to "truly" blacken a piece of nickel-silver...Japaning is absolutely the only true black I have seen.
Even the original Payne Formula, as almost perfect as it is, will leave you an oxidized, blue/black (black pearl) beautiful finish, but it's not truly black.

Other new stuff

Along the lines of "new for me stuff" is a spool of thread Royce also sent along with the bluing solution.

Now I love classic colors.
By that I mean wrap colors. Thread that was used on grandpa's rod ya know?
Those threads and colors probably passed the bend in the river about the time your grand dad did to.

There were some great colors used that at the time that were as common as dirt. Now almost impossible to find. When you can find a spool, it's pricey as all hell, likely the wrong size and what you have is likely to be all you'll ever have.

So to back up a little bit...I am (was) a Pearsall's fan. I've used it for fifteen years. Gossamer is my favorite size. I lately have been using Naples. Slightly larger thread, not enough to notice really unless you're the guy wrapping the rod. My tipping is still Gossamer though.

A few years ago, Pearsall's has been having their thread made in an oriental country. Since that has happened I have (personally) noticed that many things, I came to take for granted, have gone down the tubes.
For starters...thread quality, colors and knots.
For quality...I could have never asked for better than what Pearsall's offered. Never a fuzzy, rarely a knot, and dye lots always consistant. By dye lots being consistant I mean...I always bought a BOX of thread. Never a spool or two. Dye lots, by the box, assured an even color from one spool to another.
The thread Pearsall's sell's today doesn't even assure any guarantee that the color will be consistant on the same damn spool!
Oh yes...scarlet will still be scarlet or whatever you are wrapping...but the wraps 'could' turn out blotchy looking. You'll likely think you did something wrong with your tension, varnish, oil on your hands, etc.
But the fact is...(sorry Pearsall) the dye is uneven. It's simply not the same color or consistancy. It vary's, foot by foot, on the spool. Now this isn't something that's even going to make a knats ass difference while you're on the stream ya know? But if you're paying top dollar, that's what you should get.

Knots...well...what comes out of a silk worms gut is only so long. It certainly isn't forty five yards long. The silk has to be "knotted." I don't know if there is a machine that can do this properly. There could well be, BUT...while I was used to getting a "knot" that was detectable once maybe every spool, I know get three or four every spool. The time to make things right are not being spent anymore. That's the opinion of me only. I'm not trying to slander Pearsall. Now I don't know about you...but I'm not wrapping a 2/0 guide (which is damn tiny in the first place) and have a freaking knot show up on the foot or back side that will leave a lump forever when varnished. Period.

Now for an important point...price...
A freaking teeny 45 yard spool of Pearsall's is 3 bucks for 45 yards. I mean really?

So...I've been looking around.
I think I might have found a great replacement for at least the main color wraps.
A company named Kimono is making some damn NICE silk. Great colors, old colors, great consistancy of size, color, knots etc, 220 yard spools.

Here is an orginal Belding spool of Pongee 5010 and a QUITE similar color of Kimono  365;

Smaller size, almost perfect match not even as much as a pantone shade off. Much closer than Pearsall's "amber." I like it.

Last month (which was a post or two back) I showed a dismal failure at bluing. This was my go to, hard earned, very pricey shit that was supposed to last me the rest of what's left of my life.
It just looked like hell.

Now I also have a bottle of Jeff Fultz' stuff which I have never tried.
But a brother in Oregon, Royce Stearns, an accomplished fly tier and rod maker, sent me a bottle of LeClair's Payne solution.
Well...it wasn't. It's the solution he uses and sells to blacken piano wire that one would use to make home made snake guides. It's what he offers if you bought his "Snake Maker"
I thought I would try it anyway...

The first try was dismal.
I tried it on a plug of nickel-silver.
The first try was just hopeless. I mean, the metal only darkened where the solution was applied quite heavily and only where it beaded up on the metal.

So...I sipped me beer and went through the stages of total rejection to "maybe if I did this."
So realizing that the NS I was trying to oxidize was raw, unpolished, prolly oil coated, metal, I decided to try and polish it out a bit, clean thoroughly, allow the solvent to totally evaporate and try it again...
This happened!

Now there's a lot more prep to make that color happen, and it isn't even really supposed to happen with this metal but I got it to work.
The jury's still out if I will actually use this on a customer's rod, but it's promising.