The debate - Should I wax my threads?

[DNicolson]

I usually use wax on silk for the first few turns on the hook, to make sure it grips.
I like the effect on yellow silk for a Greenwell spider for subtle shades of olive.
I prefer to use 'PrittStik' for touch dubbing, Mikes advice many years ago.
Wax is useful but is not obligatory.
I noticed recently, on another site, an argument on whether a hackle should be
tied in by the tip or the butt, there are no rigid rules in fly dressing, if it works it's OK,
if it doesn't, it is not OK.

[Otter]

Another experiment I have tried with these 'unwaxed' flies is to lightly 'sand' the threads with an emery board that ladies use to refine their nails. This makes the body 'fuzzy' and gives it a halo effect. I cannot get that with waxed silk thread.
I hope the discussion continues a little further and we get some insights on how people make their silk bodies translucent.

Actually you can get that effect quite easily, you just need to use very fine silk dubbing and a glue stick, ( although you can use wax if you want to), and the "touch" dubbing technique. The halo is controlled by the dubbing length. "Sanding" and other things does work to some extent, but takes time, is a nuisance, and considerably weakens the thread.

TL
MC

Or you can just have extremely dry and rough fingers like me.

have you tried waxing your fingers

[William Anderson]

I still haven't done a photo comparison, which would be helpful, but I have found that there were a few pearsall's silks that became somewhat translucent with the wax, but less translucent than if they had only been soaked in water. The lighter colors maintained their color, and the darker colors lose some color, not completely of course, but moreso by using the wax. They darken about the same, but the sheen of the hook shank is not as bright. Of course it all depends on the mixture of the wax you're using (not talking about the darker waxes). Surely it doesn't mean much on the stream, but if you're using the wax as a method to adjust the translucency, not all of the thread colors respond the same. There is a clarity to the translucency of unwaxed silk that I find appealing. Nothing to do with catch rate, I'm sure.

[CM_Stewart]

have you tried waxing your fingers

No, but I do use an emery board on my fingers - which if used regularly will keep them from fraying silk thread or floss.

[letumgo]

Chris - That's the same trick the bank robbers used to remove their finger prints. (humor)

[Jim Slattery]

When using silk I like tying with waxed thread but it has to ber the adhesive hard type of wax. If the body is going to be thread I do not wax it. I cut a piece of thread for the body seperate from the tying thread. I like using thicker silk thread sizes a,b,c and d for thread bodies as well. This gives a little more robust body that then can be sanded or filed to get the halo effect .
Waxed thread can become opaque? when the water is cold, loosing all translucency.
Jim

[willowhead]

Way cool thread.........good reading..............some funny stuff. Donald has it totally right in terms of rules. Waxing your fingers......... Seems they got threads nowdays that'll give ya any color you can possibly think of..........so............the translucency thing does make some sense.......but jeeze, fish gotta eat. "Presentation"...........they'll eat it.
i've got this thing that's a few inches long, and rectangle shaped, feels sorta like rubber, and it's white and has a certain roughness to it........it does a great job of smoothing my fingers......it's sorta like a soft synthetic pumace stone........but i hardly ever remember to use it.............much easier to remember to just stay away from floss ............. i wonder what i could get for the hundred spools or more of floss (both silk & rayon), i've got............?????..... ..........oh well.....never mind.
for me, "waxing" is only important when needed (over & above what's already on the thread), to help finish a head or mount a wing.....those kinna things.

[michaelgmcgraw]

Good thread! About the only time I wax silk thread is to slightly alter the color of the thread body I'm wrapping. I see all the neat waxes on the flyshop links but I never seem to get around to ordering it. I still use an old stick of BT's wax or a tube of old wapsi wax.