Last week I wrote a bit about Tummel flies and made a video of Tod's No.1, a friend sent me an article by Dave Westwood from a Dutch website (although it does look have the look of FF&FT from the late 1990s) which seems to be about the only other modern information available. It's fairly good so I thought I'd share it here, the more people know about them the more chance this stuff has to be preserved.
One of the points made in the article is about using fine modern threads, I'm guessing from the dates that he's referring to Uni 8/0 or UTC 70 rather than the super fine gsp stuff available now. It got me thinking about something I had said in the video for Tod's fly; you don't have to use silks, but they'll help make you a better fly tyer. I don't disagree with what Dave said, and I often use modern thread for old spider patterns, especially when there's no modern silk that matches the old Pearsall's colours. They are a boon, Uni especially takes wax very similarly to silk and I doubt most people could tell the difference. The fish certainly don't care!
So why use silk instead? For some it's just satisfying to use original materials to replicate something from a bygone era. I must admit to feeling a little of that, but thankfully only a little. When I make the videos or do classes I use silk as far as possible with the old patterns as some kind of knowledge preservation. None of this is practical though, and the real reason I think silks are good is that they are thicker but not as strong as modern threads. Essentially they're a bit of a handicap that forces you to be efficient with thread wraps and careful with the amount of pressure you put on it. It's grippier, especially when waxed so you learn that you don't need loads of wraps to hold materials, as well as this, the torque it causes will always push the soft materials out of the way so silk will make you get better at capturing wraps. The only downside as I see it is that the first few flies might not look as nice as you're used to, but that's why we practise. So, although the fish don't care I think silk threads will make you a better, more efficient fly tyer, so when you use modern threads you'll tie nicer, more durable flies more quickly.
Right, I'm 'working from home' today, so I'm off down the river for a couple of carp.
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