Writing on rods

Addendum

By Bob Petti

Writing on rods

is tricky business. If a person doesn't have good penmanship, they are probably better served getting decals made from a place such as Decal Connection where they can make as many or as few decals you want for excellent prices. I was blessed with decent writing skills, so I enjoy putting my own personal touch on a new rod by doing the writing myself. After a lot of false starts with various techniques, I've finally settled on one that works for me.

The writing instrument

I use is a cheap craft store gel pen - my brand is "Gelly Roll" - in either silver or gold. They come in a zillion colors, however, so get what you want. Not all pens work the same - some will skip or false start on the blank and not flow smoothly - but they are cheap enough to try a few brands until you get one you like. The pens I have write perfectly on the blank once it has been deglossed with a bit of 1000-grit wet/dry sandpaper.

The process

goes something like this:

1. Practice writing what you want to write a few times on a piece of paper to gauge the length of the space you need on the rod, the placing of things if you are going to have multiple lines, and also the height of the lettering. You don't want to practice on the rod itself, for obvious reasons.
2. Once you've settled on how you want it to look on paper, scuff up the blank with the 1000 grit just to take the shine off and prepare a surface to accept the ink. Don't go nuts. For gloss blanks - you just want to remove the gloss. For matte finished blanks - it might not even be necessary but a few gentle swipes won't hurt.
3. To help make the writing feel as natural as possible, I lay the blank flat on a table and then put a thin book or a couple magazines up against the blank so my wrist is at the same level as the blank. Writing on a round surface is tricky - especially for the big swoopy letters like "g" or "f" which want to run off the blank - so anything you can do to make it feel more like writing on a flat surface the better the results will be.
4. With gel pens, you get a few cracks at it where you can wipe off your mistakes with a wet paper towel. Don't go crazy, though, or you risk smearing some of the ink and creating a foggy "smudge" area that may show up after you put the finish on. If you screw up a few times, break down and get out a good cleaning solvent and start over from scratch.
5. Ok, so once the writing is on the rod the way you want it, the next step is to make it smudge and solvent resistant. I use a Krylon brand spray fixative to accomplish this, protecting the rest of the blank with some newspapers while spraying. One coat with this and the writing is safe from smudges and somewhat resistant to solvents - at least those in the final coating I use.
6. For awhile, that's where I ended things, as the spray-on fixative seemed to be durable enough if you kept care of your equipment. However, on an old broken rod, I attacked some old writing with a thumbnail and was able to scratch it off with some effort, so I decided to add a bit more protection. My goal is to make it look as if there is no coating over the writing at all, so a thick band of epoxy was out. A wipe-on polyurethane is perfect, and since it comes in both glossy and matte you can match the finish to the blank almost perfectly. I've done a few matte finished blanks with the writing coated with matte poly and you can't tell the coating is there at all. Perfect. In the rod pictured here I coated the writing with gloss to ease the transition between the two thread trim rings.
7. So I get the rod turning, soak a small section of wiping rag with the poly and just hold it over the spot while the rod is turning, being careful to get total coverage. Once the area is wet, walk away for an hour or so until it dries. Three coats and I'm good to go.