John Dunne's Sunshine Oil

[letumgo]

I recently purchased a book by Sylvester Nemes ("Spinners"/Self Published by Mr. Nemes in 1995). On page 22, there is an interesting discussion of the flies of John Dunn. As many of you know, John Dunn would paint the shank of his hooks white as a way of reflecting light back through the body of the fly to make them appear more translucent. The book indicates that "the hook had to be painted white in order to hide the shank in the transparent coverings."

Later in the book Mr. Nemes wrote the following interesting statement:

"And the fly was coated with "Sunshine Oil" which is a, "thick, colourless paraffin sold by chemists for medicinal purposes" (Supposedly, the body glowed when coated with the oil)."

I think that last statement is a bit misleading. I think it would be more accurate if it said that the body [of the fly] became transucent when coated with the oil. Sort of like when you get grease or oil on a paper bag. The bag will appear to be more translucent.

I have been doing some research and found that sunshine oil could be a blend of white paraffin and mineral oil. I have also found mention of Vaseline which also seems to fit the description provided by Mr. Nemes.

According to the Vaseline website, "Vaseline® Petroleum Jelly is a mixture of mineral oils, paraffin and microcrystalline waxes that, when blended together, create something remarkable - a smooth jelly that has a melting point just above body temperature."

While doing some searches, I found an interesting mention of "sunshine oil" on a web site discussing underground mining in the 1860's to 1940" period. There is mention of "sunshine" oil being used by miners in their oil wick lamps. The word "sunshine" appears to be a reference to the light that was provided when the material was burned in an oil lamp. When the material was cool, the thickness would be a benefit to the miners since it would not easily spill.

"A wick was used to bring the fuel from the pot to the tip of the spout where it burned with a very smoky flame. The fuel was usually some type of lard, bacon grease, or tallow compound. It was common for the miner to burn whatever was cheap or on hand. In later years the miners adapted their lamps to burn "sunshine" oil which was a mixture of paraffin wax and mineral oil."

In another mining website, there is a mention

"sunshine oil isnt exactly oil its more of a wax. i melted down some old candle wax and mixed in some kerosene....then when it cools down it makes almost like a vaselene type paste. it would probably work better if you used a paraffin wax with some lamp oil instead, you only usually use sunshine oil when you have a double wall wick lamp, that looks like a small spout inside a larger spout.... that is so the heat can travel down the space and melt the wax into oil, other "single" wall spouts you could just use any type of oil"

"Miner's Sunshine was a paraffin base. But softer and I assume with a lower melting point than regular paraffin. The liquid miner oils were pure cottonseed oil or a blend of cottonseed and mineral oil. Since paraffin is the known base and mineral oil and petroleum jelly are close chemically. I would think some combination of those chemicals would be close."


Sources: http://books.google.com/books?id=XrS2YD ... in&f=false

Source: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26um%3D1

Source: http://www.ironminers.com/mineforum/vie ... b597935724


I am not claiming that these are the same thing as John Dunne's Sunshine Oil. I just thought that it was some interesting material and could generate a good discussion. I am going to keep looking for more background on what "Sunshine Oil" is. If you have any information, please share it here.

[Soft-hackle]

Hi Ray,
First, The idea that Dunne's flies glowed, might be a description of the amount of light being reflected back through the cellulose body. I believe the body was made of cellulose. In bright sun, with the addition of the oil, I'm sure the effect was "glowing". Your POP flies somewhat do the same when wet.

We've also got to remember that the amount of light would greatly affect this effect, especially on wets. Dunne's flies were dries, I believe.

Now I've mixed turpentine and melted beeswax. The wax was melted in a double boiler, poured into a bottle with an equal amount of turp, and gently shaken. The result was a wax that was a paste that could easily be mixed with oil paint and some Damar Varnish for painting. The method is called Cold wax.

Again, my artistic training comes in. Remember, white is a reflector of all colors of light. By painting the hook shanks white, Dunne was helping light reflect back through the material, just like an artist painting on a white ground. To me acrylic paint always looked much to strong and artificial when I used them for painting. SO, I started painting my canvases with a gray gesso. This cut the reflective quality of the canvas and made the colors of the acrylic look more natural and correct to me.

I'm sure paraffin could be mixed with variety of of solvents in various amounts get the right mix. I'm sure you know Ray Bergman use to make his own dry fly floatant by shaving paraffin into unleaded gas, set the bottle in the sun to help melt the wax. He would then dip the fly into this liquid mix to clean the fly and waterproof it. The recipe still works very well, and many fly fishers still use it.

I've wrapped silver and gold tinsel under dry fly dubbing and coated with pure silicone. I believe the effect was quite similar to Dunne's. The bodies seemed to "glow" in bright sun

On the same subject, I've also wondered about the effect of fluorescent materials used in tying flies.

Mark

[Roadkill]

On the same subject, I've also wondered about the effect of fluorescent materials used in tying flies.

Mark

If you have not read it I would suggest the book What Fish See: Understanding optics and color shifts for designing lures and flies by Colin J. Kageyama

[twofeathers]

A hand cream I picked up (Hardworker's Hand Cream) is a mixture of Petrolatum, paraffin, zinc oxide, and glycerin. Was very stiff, had to dig the mixture out with fingernails. Melted it and mixed in some olive oil and petroleum jelly, so it is much softer. It has a sheen or glow to it now. Dubbing wax is made in a similar way, adding rosin and free flowing oils to melted paraffin to obtain the hardness and stickiness desired.

[letumgo]

Bumping old post discussing John Dunne’s Sunshine Oil ("Sunshine and the Dry Fly")

[Mike62]

I literally just finished reading that book for the first time. I found the part about painting his hook shanks fascinating; thanks for bumping this thread back up!