# Blade painting



## fishingful (Apr 5, 2004)

I want to start painting some blades for walleye fishing. Going to get an air brush and some paint for this winter. Suggestions? 

I already have a ton of blades and an idea of what colors I want to do.

Thanks for the input.


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I like my Iwata eclipse hp-cs. You’ll find that when you go to paint say a half dozen blades, you’ll be able to do that with several drops of paint. The gravity feed cup on the eclipse is perfect for small paint quantities. I replaced the nozzle, tip, and needle with .5mm vs the .35 that’s standard and I’m now able to spray much better. I had a lot of trouble spraying pearl colors with the .35 tip and I kept over thinning to the point the paint wouldn’t stick. There are people on here with a lot more experience at this than me, so my suggestions come from beginners perspective having painted maybe five dozen spoons and five dozen blades.


















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## Dale1 (Dec 29, 2017)

Nice looking spoons what did you use for a top coat


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## fishingful (Apr 5, 2004)

Looks good to me. Most of the commercial blades chip off anyway. I just want to be able to spray mostly edges and tops of them.


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## Dale1 (Dec 29, 2017)

What are you using for a clear coat


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

Dale1 said:


> What are you using for a clear coat


I apologize for not responding. I was using klass kote for sooons and blades. Its durable enough and finishes well without a lure turner. I’ve recently gotten into painting crankbaits and built a real lure turner, so I’ll probably use that next time I paint blades or spoons. I’m moving towards using alumi UV for all my clear coating but haven’t started working with it yet. I plan to use the turner until the alumi UVLS levels then turn on the curing light. Supposedly full cures in hours instead of days. 


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## JamesF (May 20, 2016)

Good information. I agree with the .5 mm needle and nozzle. The nozzle is around $35. Or less. If you go with Iawata, do yourself a favor and keep the needles separated, it's very difficult to tell them apart.


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## Muskystooge (Jan 18, 2017)

What about powder paint. I use them to pain lead jigs and lure bodies for spinners


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I was using powder for spoons and blades initially because I thought it be tough enough to get by with a rattle can clear coat. That turned out to be not true at least for walleye. I’ve moved on to just using paint with epoxy coating and more recently alumi-uv


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## JamesF (May 20, 2016)

You need to cure powder coat in the oven or a toaster oven on low heat, to prevent chipping. Plus, it's sometimes hard to get an even heat on blades. Some guys have a toaster oven on all the time during the process, using a timer for heating. Works fairly well, heat them up for dipping and back in for cure. The toaster ovens don't last long, but you can make a lot blades and jigs with a $30.00 toaster oven.


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

fishingful said:


> I want to start painting some blades for walleye fishing. Going to get an air brush and some paint for this winter. Suggestions?
> 
> I already have a ton of blades and an idea of what colors I want to do.
> 
> Thanks for the input.


You can get some satisfactory results(in the meantime while getting your airbrush set up) by going to a "Five Below" store and getting a variety of bright colors of "Nail Polish"! They even have "glitter" polish in various metallic colors and "Clear" for the top coat! I've been using it for many years and can duplicate many of the "commercially/professionally" spray paintehd blades, jigs, spoons I see in the tackle aisles at stores! The glitter(likely something the air brush can't do?), has a clear base and does some(I think anyway) things that should drive fish crazy when applied over any bright metal or previously colored lure part!


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