Diamond Wraps...
 

Ok I suck at diamond wraps. To be honest I've never really put the time in and the few that I have done haven't been all that impressive. Can anyone recommend a website that has illustrations and step by step? I know I should buy the clemens book but I haven't got a job out here yet ====time to do elaborate diamond wraps.

Thanks

I am not positive but I think Got Stripers had some stuff on his site.......

Go to Amazon or Barnes&Noble. Search up a coule titles you might be interested in, including the Clemmens book and then have them do a used book search, you just might get lucky that way...

Plus, anyone remember the name of that board affilitated with Dale Clemmens??

The board you might be talking about is www.rodguild.com they have a message board where you can get some good answers. The key to diamond wraps - the very first thread you place on the rod to form the center of the diamond. Spend lots of time making sure the distances between each diamond is exact and that they don't spiral around the blank, it makes all the difference.

Colors, well I'm an engineer.................

Jeff is correct, the layout is the key, whether it's a simple diamond wrap on 2 axis (0-180) or a more involved pattern on 8 axis. The time is well spent at that stage to insure each time the thread crosses (up & down the blank) to form the pattern it's on the axis, square and properly spaced in relation to the other patterns and the taper of the blank. I've spent as much as 2 hours on some of the more involved butt wraps, just setting up the pattern and insuring the proper spacing and alignment.

The next most important thing is good record keeping. The last thing you want to see at the end is a pattern that isn't symetrical, only to realize it's because you missed a thread step. I made myself a form I use for each rod, with sketches for guide placement, areas for component listing and pricing and at the bottom a grid for checking off each pass of every thread(s) in the proper sequence, so I don't loose track.

I posted a quick 14 step start to finish "cpmplex" butt wrap on this site. I hope it helps you out. In the meantime, if you want to do more complex wraps than Chevy's & diamonds, it is almost mandatory to spend $20 on Dale Clemens Custom Thread Art.

http://momentoffame.com/more_from_person.html?id=9220

Any questions feel free to ask. Billy@vivona.com

Thanks for the help guys. I'm still planning it out. Haven't seen anything that really strikes me yet as far as colors and stuff. Like I said, I've got some time on my hands.....

Nice stuff Billy40. I'm, trying the cross now In gold (inner) and black (outer) with a gold band around the whole diamond to end the pattern.. Already decided I should have adjusted the spacing to accomodate the taper. Coming out nice though. Gotta cut the outer box size down a little or I may lose the points of the cross down the side of the blank. Fun stuff. Thanks for the link.