jeffroey wrote:
What's your rule of thumb for the time you wait between finishing a build and fishing it?
As long as your patience will allow you to wait. Spar varnish needs time for the oils to react with oxygen and residual solvents to evaporate. A warm location helps, but there are no quick cure additives or techniques. Wrapping and finishing rods in the fall/winter really is good practice.
After a couple of days, spar varnish should be tack free with no soft spots. If not, buy a new can of varnish, strip the wraps, and redo them. After a week spar
feels cured to the touch, but is still soft under the surface. For a 'can't be damaged' finish wait a month or more. Often the rod tube still smells of spar varnish for half a decade.
The photo below shows one of my first spar finished rods. I waited two weeks before test casting. On
one cast the line wrapped under the hook keeper, slid against the wrap, and sliced through the finish. For what it is worth, I built the rod in 1987. The finish still shines and is hard as a rock.
Tom