THREADS ? ? ?

[tie2fish]

hank ~ Basically, what letumgo said above tells the story for me as well. The only thing I would add is that I use a fairly heavy Gudebrod A 002 nylon thread for spinning/stacking deer hair. Also, take willowhead's warning about Kevlar to heart -- even if you don't cut yourself, it will slice through feathers and other natural materials like the proverbial knife-thru-butter.

[Roadkill]

Roadkill, Howdy;
Help me to NOT buy some really thin stuff that would snap on me.....
don't need the fustration at this point in my budding fly tying career ...

hankaye

When you set down to tie the next time you tie with a new thread start by breaking thread. Get your thread started and put the pull on the hook while wrapping until it does snap. Good flies come from proper tension as well as thread placement. Intentionally break your thread a few times just to learn the feel for that breaking point. When tying a fly make sure that you have a pair of hackle pliers handy to grab and hold a broken thread while you restart your thread wraps and trap the broken end. Never had a fish turn up his nose at a fly that had a broken thread hidden in the middle.

[letumgo]

Roadkill's advice is excellent. That is one of the ways I got a feel for working with the thinner threads. It is also a good way to make minor adjustments to the legs of your bobbin. You want the thread tension to be roughly 80 to 90 percent of the breaking strenght of the thread. In other words, good tight wraps will hold things in place, but not compromise the thread.

Roadkill's comment reminded me of another reason that I like using the UNI-Thread. I find that the thread makes a soft squeeking noise when it it wrapped tightly. I listen for this when I am tying. The noise acts as feedback, telling me that I am using enough tension.

[willowhead]

hank.....your getting the best advise you could ever get from these guys. Just so you know.....in alllllllllllllllllllllllllll fly tying, there is NOTHING more important, NOTHING, than thread control. It simply is, JOB ONE! The whole idea is to get 99.9 percent's use, of the tinsel strenth out of your thread and not break it. But your going to have to break it to know where 99.9 is. So like they're telling you.....go ahead and do it on purpose. Get it over with............find out where that is. You will never stop breaking your thread, once and for all.....it hapens. When it happens it tells you, that you were right where you needed to be, and just went a tenth of a percent to far. Now Ray told you 80 to 90 %........i said 99.9, but it makes not a whole hell of a lotta difference at that point. Just get in the 90's and you should be ok. Also, there are times when you will NOT want tight wraps.....but that's another show. Learn how to do soft loops, and pinch wraps immediately. Learn how to tuck the thread inside your thumb and middle finger when mounting tails and wings. And do not use your index finger when doing these task. It has a tendancy (and wants) to roll on you, because it does not sit flat. Use your middle finger. It sits MUCH more flat and won't roll on you.
GET to a show PRONTO! You'll soon realize that whatever it cost, will pay off ten fold, immediately.

Ray, that little "sound"...........i hate it.

[hankaye]

Ray, Howdy;

Hadn't thought about pullin' on it till it squeals like Ned Beatty in "Deleverance" ...
I'll have to turn down thebackground noise to see if I can hear it. I've got a few frequencies that went
away after working on the flight deck.

w-h, Howdy;

Made it to the ISE (International Sportsmens Expo), I think that was way back the end of March.
That was in SLC. There's another one but that in Dec. or Nov. I think. Other than them It' several more hundreds of miles.
With all the extra expences to go along with that. I know, my home is moveable. But it takes awhile to set-up, and the cost of
the campgrounds, in addition to my normal site rent. In the winter it involves "skirting". Taking it down, storage (alwasys a premier with these), re-skirting there then all over again once I return...
I try to move a minimum of times for those reasons.
So, I try to get to what I can with what is available. After all A Social Security Check only goes so far. And with the present state of affairs it may not go as far in the future.
So .....This site and a very few others are my "Show", and one I FULLY enjoy attending !

hank

[willowhead]

Don't you have an RV you can sleep in...........?.........a hotel on wheels.............????? i didn't mean move the whole trailor just to go to a show.

[hankaye]

w-h, Howdy;

The RV IS my home.

hank

[wayneb]

Hi Hankeye;

My first choice in threads is uni 6/0 and uni 8/0 for smaller stuff. For wingless wets I use both Pearsalls and YLI 100. I also like UTC 70 denier, comes in some colors I can't find in uni near me such as fire orange used in the chilipepper and unlike many others I like Danville 6/0 or denier equivalent the least, can't say why it just doesn't tie weill for me. For big stuff and foam flies, I rellly like Danvilles flat waxed nylon.

Wayneb

[wayneb]

Hi Hankeye;

My first choice in threads is uni 6/0 and uni 8/0 for smaller stuff. For wingless wets I use both Pearsalls and YLI 100. I also like UTC 70 denier, comes in some colors I can't find in uni near me such as fire orange used in the chilipepper and unlike many others I like Danville 6/0 or denier equivalent the least, can't say why it just doesn't tie well for me. For big stuff and foam flies, I rellly like Danvilles flat waxed nylon.

Wayneb

[willowhead]

i c hank.....guess i just figured you had a regular trailor (single wide/double wide/whatever), and an RV both..........or an RV and a car or truck......or a fifth wheel set-up. Well, at least nowdays there's UTube. Tons of stuff you can learn off that. Your getting ready to change locations anyway right? Sure hope it's to a place where you can join a tying club. Some great clubs around the country. The Road Kill Roundtable for example.....made up mostly of members of both the Dallas Fly Fishers and the Fort Worth Fly Fishers. Come to think of it.....you might wanna consider Texas as a home base. Damn hot in the summer but other than that......it's a pretty cool place. Only state in the country that has it's own electricity grid as well. From what i understand there are only three in the entire country and Texas has one of them.....kinna interesting.