# Sonars&blades:



## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

HI,LURE-GURUS! Anyone here know anything about making blades,sonars vibees? I've been mess'in with them for 10 or more years now and have had a great deal of trials& some darned good results! Most of the time.However a pool of evolution continues,and results,still vary,and that seems to be with the finish,what once was mainly paints,now, is stainless,polished to chrome-like finish & color shading,transparent-candy colors, or polished brass&candy colors. Any thoughts on this? Glade to talk to you about them!--------sonar....


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

I have been making many blade baits for 3 years now, and there has never been a problem with any kind of powder paint. Whether I use the plated blades or the brass blades. There are many options and ways you can make these blades look excellent. I use solids, candies and powder glitter paints on bodies and blades alike. Is your question about painting or making them? Here is a pic of a couple I made.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

First of all;Thanks for reply,CADMAN,I mostly wondered, if you have stayed with one,or any style, of body-profile? Or, have you fooled around with profile silhouette ? with what results?-------sonar......... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Will post some pics. for you later ps nice lookin baits cadman!!!


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

I pretty much like the top one in my pic, and have caught most of my fish with that. However I've sold majority of the bottom ones. I think the bottom one looks more like a shad than the top one does and guys say that it works better. I guess to each his own.............Happy New Year as well.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

HOW COOL !!! I like 'em both! Since you sell-em, you must have a name for-em? ----------sonar...........


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## silver shad (Jun 18, 2006)

CADMAN -those look great . I got around to making the fluid bed and I can't wait to try it.

thanks


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

sonar said:


> HOW COOL !!! I like 'em both! Since you sell-em, you must have a name for-em? ----------sonar...........


I just call them blade baits. 



silver shad said:


> CADMAN -those look great . I got around to making the fluid bed and I can't wait to try it.
> 
> thanks


No problem, the fluid bed should work great for something like this.


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

I should have clarified this better. The top profile is what I catch most of my fish. The color varies. I just happened to post that pic with that color. All the ones guys buy have a wide variety of colors. Some want plated blades, some want candy color blades. I think I've made about a 100 different color varieties. They all catch fish if you have confidence in them and in the color. I guess color is many times lake specific.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

cadman said:


> I just call them blade baits.
> 
> 
> 
> No problem, the fluid bed should work great for something like this.


Excuse me,I'm not familiar with "fluid bed" ? Is that a casting device? I,make the bodies 1 at time,thin metal-butterfly,folded over. then fill the void with eco-friendly lead.-------sonar............ P.S. ARE YOURS COPYRIGHTED?


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

Sonar,
The two pics of the blades above are molds made by Do-It Corporation. You can buy the molds, and the blade blanks, and then pour the lead. You can use bismuth or tin if you want to go lead free. However bismuth and tin is about 4 times the price of lead. Also the weight of bismuth and tin are much lighter. 
No the blades are not copy righted. You can buy the molds, as they are available to anyone.
A fluid bed is a device that you put powder paint into. This device fluidizes the powder to look like boiling water. The purpose of the fluid bed is to speed up the painting process of jigs and blade baits etc. It also puts on a more even paint coat. It is used as a base coat application, or for one color only. The pics I have shown have more than one color of powder paint. So you could put your initial color on and then go back and manually put on all your other colors. I have plans to build a homemade fluid bed, or you can buy one ready to go from Benjamin at http://www.tjstackle.com/


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

THANKS!cadman, If you don't mind we can continue this later,I'm going to Skeeter,in a few & got a good haul to make it there before 3:30! And thanks again have a safe&happy NEW YEAR!---------SONAR.........


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

I'd enjoy seeing more baits from both of you.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

I pictured the top one as a shad and the bottom one a gill. I think the action of a blade bait is the most important thing with color gaining with water clarity so you may have a better technique than the average guy for that top style if you follow me. Those are really nice.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

Here's a few to view. vc1111. Hey- Steve happy new year!



























--------sonar...........


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## hunt4smallies (Feb 4, 2009)

cadman said:


> I have been making many blade baits for 3 years now, and there has never been a problem with any kind of powder paint. Whether I use the plated blades or the brass blades. There are many options and ways you can make these blades look excellent. I use solids, candies and powder glitter paints on bodies and blades alike. Is your question about painting or making them? Here is a pic of a couple I made.


Hey cadman do u sell these? if so in what sizes? Really like top pic!!


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

hunt4smallies said:


> Hey cadman do u sell these? if so in what sizes? Really like top pic!!


Yes I do. PM me your e-mail and I'll give you all the info on this.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

Happy New Year to you Sonar. I like the shad dot on those blades.


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

Sonar are those entire blade baits plated? Very Nice.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

No cadman, they're sheet stainless, Air-Force, surplus salvage air plane skin, aprox. 9mil. thick,I take about 1-1/2" x2" piece fold in half & ruff cut to profile then flare to the bottom, then fill with lead, after all processes,,shaping,drilling,smoothing,etc. are done I buff it out.....SHINY! Ya, Steve, eyes are always full of shad when I look inside of them.........thus,the SPOT! ---------sonar.......


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Sonar-Those sure look like the old gay blades!(Just kidding you!) Those look great-hows the vibration action?
Cad-Where do you get the eyes for you baits and how do you stick them on?
Do you mask off the blades when you put them in the fluid bed?


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

IN RESPONSE,to the "vibration",question, they really"buzz"! 2"lift&the reel handles are rattling to the point people in the area are looking around for a 750 kawisaki motor cycle! -------sonar.......


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

c. j. stone said:


> Cad-Where do you get the eyes for you baits and how do you stick them on?
> Do you mask off the blades when you put them in the fluid bed?


c.j.--
On the eyes they are self adhesive and I buy them by the 1000 count, since I make so many jigs and spinnerbaits etc.
On my painting, all my work is done by powder painting. From every jig, spinnerbait to blade bait. My process is simple but it takes a lot of practice and patience. I only use a fluid bed for my base color and one color applications. For example. If my blade bait was all white or black then I would use a fluid bed and be done with it. If you want to add glitter to the entire blade bait just dip the white blade bait into powder glitter.Then when you're done, bake for curing, let cool, put on eyes, and then clearcoat. You have to clearcoat all jigs etc. that have 2d or 3d eyes because they will fall off if you don't. My first choice of clearcoat is Devcon 2 ton (D2T) my second is E-tex. Now on multi-color blades, like in the first one on post #2. I do the solid black first with the brush method, carefully trim excess paint off and then come back and do the silver and black vein paint. On the second one I do the entire head white first, come back and to the bottom of the belly with ylw/chart. then the orange at the nose, then put on silver over the top and sides and finally black frosted on the sides as well with a solid black dorsal line. It sounds complicated but it is more time consuming than anything else. Once I'm done I carefully clean any excess powder paint off of the blade, bake, put on eyes and clearcoat. As far as taping blades it does not work well with powder paints. Powder paints need a lot of heat for the paint to start to adhere, and the tape doesn't want to stick on a really hot blade. I have used high temp tape for powder painting and it still does not work well with direct heat on a blade. One last thing on cleaning blades the less paint you have on it the better it is. You can clean the paint off with a sharp razor blade on the plated blades, but you will scratch them if you apply too much pressure. It's worse on the brass, copper, stainless or aluminum blades. If you would like to see some of my work PM me your e-mail, and I can e-mail you some pics. I also have a full pic of my spinnerbait in there which is on my avatar over here.


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

Just some more info for all of you guys that powder paint jigs, spinnerbaits and blade baits. There are a lot of things you can use to dress up blade baits and spinnerbaits. For kill spots and gill rakers I use vinyl electrical tape. It comes in a variety of colors and when you cut them out and put them on they look very professional. There are also mylar films and tapes you can use. For painting you can use inks as well as blade dips also with your powder paints. Finally you can also make your own decals. I just started doing this recently and the effects are beautiful. See http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=135854


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

Cool stuff. 

I love vertical jigging for walleye and those look like real producers!

Great work.


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

Really Nice!!! I had looked at the pics and assumed these were off the shelf blades that you painted and I see now that you make these from stainless. 
Man those look amazing! I just started messing around with blades made from metal tubing. No clue how well they work yet, but they look promising enough. Or at least close enough that I can see it can be done with some trial and error. Thanks for the inspiration! I wondered if anyone has ever tried to make them without using a conventional blade mold. Very cool!


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## st.slippy (Oct 3, 2008)

This was my first attempt at painting a blade, no pro yet, but I got time. I just did this one with a candle so there was some accidental burning and recoating on the purple. Got new equipment today so should have a better product to come. These will not be for sale, just to make them cheaper for me. I think it will help me survive the winter.


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

st.slippy said:


> This was my first attempt at painting a blade, no pro yet, but I got time. I just did this one with a candle so there was some accidental burning and recoating on the purple. Got new equipment today so should have a better product to come. These will not be for sale, just to make them cheaper for me. I think it will help me survive the winter.


Nothing wrong with that color combo. I love using bright colors, and so do the walleye and sauger. My favorite colors are ylw chart/fire orange, ylw chart/lime green and white/hot pink. BTW if you want cleaner looking paint jobs stay away candles as a heat source, go with a heat gun. Candles cause soot as they burn. Just a suggestion also if you are interested in learning more let me. know.


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## st.slippy (Oct 3, 2008)

yep I got the heat gun earlier today, I just couldn't wait to try one a few days ago


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## st.slippy (Oct 3, 2008)

Here are a few more. I don't have a fluid bed so I am trying to use the brush heat gun method. On the purple one I had to sand it quite a bit because it went really thick in areas, any suggestions how to make it smoother without having to sand, or is it just about how much you have on the brush?


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## cadman (Jan 25, 2009)

st.slippy said:


> Here are a few more. I don't have a fluid bed so I am trying to use the brush heat gun method. On the purple one I had to sand it quite a bit because it went really thick in areas, any suggestions how to make it smoother without having to sand, or is it just about how much you have on the brush?


If you have to sand you have way too much powder on:
Here are some ways to improve on.
#1. With a heat gun you should get a more even heat then with a candle, start by heating the blade bait. Then take some powder paint on the brush, and tap it over very lightly on your blade bait.
#2. When you put any powder paint on a hot surface always put your blade bait on an angle about 45 degrees or less. What this will do is let the excess paint fall off and go back into the container. Also with this method, you will get less paint on then if you would apply paint to a flat surface.
#3. Less paint is better. You can always apply more but if you apply too much you can't just wipe it off. You will have to strip it. Learn to apply powder paint as per Step #3. Also to start out don't put so much paint on your brush. If you can 't control the amount of paint on your brush go to a smaller brush with less hairs. A smaller brush with less hairs will pick up less paint.
#4. Like anything else practice, practice,practice. If you want to practice, take some small pieces of steel, aluminum or any metal, and practice on that. This way you won't waste time on good baits. The painted pieces of metal you can just throw away.
Finally if you need more help PM me and I can try to help you off line.
Good luck

PS: If you want plans on how to make a fluid bed PM me your e-mail and I will get them out to you.


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