I collect balsa baits, some to save and most to use, and eventually I want to make my own.  All of my balsas that I throw regularly get dinged up pretty quickly.  Bagleys, Thunder Shads, and others are great baits and I love fishing them, but they get cracked too easily, and even get dinged up by their own hooks rather easily... Then I realized that my Rapala Balsa baits are all whole and un-dinged, and wondered what was up.  Does Rapala use a different type of Balsa Wood, do they just make their baits with better materials (paint, sealant, clear coat, etc)?  I don't use Rapalas as much as Bagleys, but even so, some of those baits by the laws of averages should have a hole or some cracking or something.  Have I just been lucky, or is Rapala of better quality than the rest?

Yep,you said it in my opinion.Theres no shame in throwing a good quality 8.00 rapala.They tend to last a long time.

I buy what I can afford to loose. Rapala DT's and Shad Raps and Fat Raps, along with some plastics Bombers and Storms. I really improved my cranking when i went right for the rocks and stumps etc. and started bouncing them off, instead of avoiding them . They get banged up but catching fish is more fun than keeping my lures safe and looking good in the end Rapalas stand up as much as the rest I have one crawfish DT 10 that has more paint off than on and it still catches fish!

Rapalas seem to have a thicker clear coat than the Bagleys that I have.  The only problem I have ever encountered with Rapala finishes is on some chrome fat raps and shad raps.  They seem to take on water because the chrome turns to a cream color.  

The difference between wood Rapalas and other baits is the material they use to "paint" the bait, actually I don 't think it 's even painted in many cases ( in the strict sense of what we call paint ) but covered with some sort of material and then clear coated. You don 't see any kind of spray marks on any Rapala bait hardware.

It 's durable like mad, some of my older Rapalas are all scratched up but with a little nail polish they look as good as the day I purchased them.

i wuv rapalas. easily my fav. bait that isnt a soft plastic. give me any rapala idc which and i will use it to catch fish.

i have a rapala dvd and there is a short segment that shows the making of them and i believe it says they use 7 clearcoats on it for extreme durability. i'll go watch that scene in a bit and get back to you.

Awesome, thanks!

On a tangent, Rapala's glass cranks are super durable, too.  The reflective element is inside the crank.  I have some that have been chewed on by pickerel to the point they feel like sandpaper and they just keep on shining.   I really like the durability of all Rapala lures.

On a tangent, Rapala's glass cranks are super durable, too. The reflective element is inside the crank. I have some that have been chewed on by pickerel to the point they feel like sandpaper and they just keep on shining. I really like the durability of all Rapala lures.

Good you pointed that out. X-raps have the reflective surfaces molded on the inside of the lure.

just watched the scene, and it said they used 7 coats of paint and laquer

Thanks again dsaavedra, I wonder what Bagley uses, it has to be only 2 or 3, otherwise they'd be tougher.

As for the glass rap, I love them, but have lost eyes on a couple.  Smallmouth kill them on the Shenandoah and Potomac.

I've got some Shad Raps that are over twenty years old, and after catching many fish, they look very good. Rapala just makes a quality bait period.

Falcon

The Bagleys have a really weak clear coat...almost non-exsistant.  I love'em...fish love'em, but even if the bait doesn't contact rocks the hooks will poke holes through the finish.  The Rapala's do have a good finish.   H&T's and WEC's have the best finish of any bait IMHO...they use an epoxy to coat the lure.  

Rapala uses Cellulose Propinate pellets disolved in acetone for the clear coat.  5-7 dips in that stuff is a very tuff clear coat.  Older balsa wood lures used polyurathane for a clear coat.

I don't have a problem with finishes on Rapala's, just the bills.  I break several bills off glass shad raps each season and at $6 each, seems the material should be a little more forgiving.  

rapala doesnt paint the lures (most of them) either.

they hand lay foil on the bait (saw it in the vid) and then clear coat over the foil then they print the designs on and clear coat over that several times...its not paint. like for instance, the bluegill pattern, thats not painted, its printed. and some others are the parrot, baby bass, shad, frog, crawdad, etc.  the ones that are painted are the smiplistic ones where its mainly just a coat of paint faded over foil, like in the silver, gold, blue, silver fourescent chartruse, gold fourescent red, etc.