Linen Thread?

[Mataura mayfly]

Anyone else ever used linen threads for fly tying?
With my much better half coming from the Northern part of the Emerald Isle, odds are we have a bit of linen in the house. In a clean up/sort out she found some linen threads- about the weight of buttonhole twist and pre-waxed.
"This any use to you honey?"..... well be a shame to not at least try the stuff.

Simple spider ties, yellow/gold linen thread wrapped bodies and Brown Hungarian partridge hackles (thanks Ray )



Linen on the left, Pearsalls Gossamer Primrose on the right.

[fly_fischa]

Very cool Jeff. Love the photo, the industrial anvil like jaws and setting make the flies look huge, more like sculptures than wee fishing flies.
What size irons did you use?

K

[Mataura mayfly]

Believe it or not, they are #12.
Youvella circle hooks. Kind of short shank and wide gape like an egg style hook. Good strong and evil looking........ just ideal.
They were dirt cheap in a sales bin (guess nobody else liked the look of them) so I bought a few hundred. Good for some experimental patterns as a tying platform as the short shanks kind of measure out similar to my more regular #14-16 ties. Gives me an idea of what a fly might look like without using up my stash of "good" hooks, which are hard to find here.
Some of you might have seen them show up in fly swaps.

[JohnP]

Good-looking flies, Jeff. I used to make leather shooting bags for black powder shooters, and I used waxed linen thread, an awl and harness needles.

[tie2fish]

Those turned out really well, Jeff. Do you have any idea what the linen thread looks like after it gets wet?

[Mataura mayfly]

Does not change much at all visually when wet. I meant to do a side by side of wet and dry- maybe tomorrow when the sun is out.
But apart from a bit of a translucent "glow" when wet, there is no real darkening or obvious change when wet. That might change as the wax washes out and the fly is further or longer soaked? To me there is no evidence of bleed through of the black hook shank.

Thanks John, a leather worker? How are you at rod tube covers and reel cases?

[Kelly L.]

I don't recall ever seeing any linen thread. They make wonderful looking flies, judging by your photos though!

[Dwclapp]

Linen... you're going to have to iron your flies every time they get wet

Flies look nice... let us know how they fish.

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

I think the rumpled look would look better.
Never was much good with an iron.

hank

[crazy4oldcars]

Wrinkled, It's a style choice....

Kirk