Substitute for Rare Pearsall's Gossamer Colors

[letumgo]

I visited my local Jo Ann Fabric store today to take advantage of a thread sale that they were having (50% off). I took along a couple spools of Pearsall Gossamer silk thread, to see if I could find any thread that would be a close match for a few of the rare colors. I found some Gutermann threads which are good matches for a few of these colors. The Gutermann threads are much easier to find than the Pearsall's silks. While the substitutes are not perfect, they are close enough for fishing flies.



Top to Bottom:
Pearsall's Gossamer No. 10 (Ash) is roughly matched by Gutermann's Color 586 (unfortunately missing the slightly tan hue)
Pearsall's Gossamer No. 11 (Olive Green) is closely matched by Gutermann's Color 715
Pearsall's Gossamer No. 16 (Olive) is closely matched by Gutermann's Color 775

Note - For those purists out there, the Gutermann's threads shown above are 100% polyester threads, as compared with Pearsall's 100% pure silk. The photo above shows the color comparison when the threads are dry. The color may differ when the threads are wet. I would think that the color is close enough if the thread is to be used for flymph bodies (partially obscured by dubbing).

[chase creek]

Great research, Ray. Thanks

[Mataura mayfly]

Ray, thats really handy to know. I have seen that brand of thread here before and Pearsall's is like rocking horse poo here!

No if you could just do a complete catalogue of substitutes we will all be most greatful!

[chase creek]

"No if you could just do a complete catalogue of substitutes we will all be most greatful! "

A complete color comparison chart would be good! (just kidding)

[letumgo]

I should have expected that...

[Mike Connor]

You can download a Gutermann silk shade card here;

http://www.guetermann.com/Content/Guete ... render.pdf

http://www.guetermann.com/Content/Guete ... _Silk.html

The polyester shade cards;

http://www.guetermann.com/Content/Guete ... F__en.html

http://www.guetermann.com/Content/Guete ... h__en.html

TL
MC

[gingerdun]

This is fantastic. I looked for silk thread at one of the local Joann Fabric stores, but their stock was very poor. I will look at the larger store we sometimes use. Gutermann's pure silk chart in impressive. I wonder how the weight and strength compare with Pearsall's? I hope Gutermann's is at least as strong as Pearsall's, which is relatively weak, unfortunately.

I haven't tried tying with polyester or other synthetics, but have been told that they do not work for spinning dubbed bodies that are stored on notched cards. Rick Hafele told me that silk is the only thread that "sets" and won't un-twist when you remove the spun body from its card. I know that silk works great for this, but haven't tried the polyesters to see for myself if Rick's warning is correct.

[Mike Connor]

This is fantastic. I looked for silk thread at one of the local Joann Fabric stores, but their stock was very poor. I will look at the larger store we sometimes use. Gutermann's pure silk chart in impressive. I wonder how the weight and strength compare with Pearsall's? I hope Gutermann's is at least as strong as Pearsall's, which is relatively weak, unfortunately.

I haven't tried tying with polyester or other synthetics, but have been told that they do not work for spinning dubbed bodies that are stored on notched cards. Rick Hafele told me that silk is the only thread that "sets" and won't un-twist when you remove the spun body from its card. I know that silk works great for this, but haven't tried the polyesters to see for myself if Rick's warning is correct.

Gutermann's silk is a great deal stronger than Pearsall's Gossamer, but is also a lot thicker.

Works fine for a lot of fly bodies and some of the colours are very close to some of the OLD Pearsall colours;



If you use glue it doesn't matter what thread you use, the dubbing loop will "set". The resin in tying wax also causes the "wax" to set the thread, indeed after a while it will actually polymerise but this takes longer.

Resinous wax sticks to polyester just as well as it sticks to anything else.

TL
MC

[Mataura mayfly]

Thanks Mike.

Here is a link to the Pearsall's color chart that Stefan (dd) and I pulled together.

Pearsall's Reference Chart

Thanks Ray, that is a very handy reference to have.

[Mike Connor]

I extracted the pictures as somebody might like them in a handy format;

Gütermann Silk

Material: 100% Spun Silk, No. 100
Length: 100m
Colour assortment: 180 shades





TL
MC