Tangled Furled Leaders
When you get your fly caught in a tree, you pull on the line, and the fly, tangling the furled line. That happens you are treating the furled lead as if it was an elastic band, which by construction it is.
Furled Leaders are constructed using loops of thread that have been torqued (twisted) in one direction, then combined with another torqued loop, then, un-torqued in the other direction. This is what causes the furled leader to do what it is designed to do.
The torquing causes tension to be built-up in the furled leader, this causes a elasticity to the furled leader when the it is stretched (more elasticity).
The amount of elasticity has much to do with the amount of spinning on the looped lines when building the furled leaders, and the material used.
I spin my furled leader runs 10% so if I want a 90 inch furled leader, I setup my furled leader board for a 99 inch run.
The elasticity is determined by the material of the thread, cotton and polyester thread do not streatch, nylon thread does stretch. This streatching add to the elasticity buildup in the constructed furled leader.
When I have finished the construction, I dip the furled leader in a can of varnish, then slowly pull the line out, then hang the furled leader to allow the excess varnish to drip off. Toward the end of the dripping process, I take a cloth rag (moistened with varnish) and lightly wipe the furled leader, removing any buildup of excess varnish. This give the furled leader a backbone for the casting, and removes most of this elasticity of the line stretching by the varnish binding the threads inside the furled leader.
This coating of the furled leader with varnish, is very similar to how they do silk fly line, but in the case of silk fly lines the fibers are braided not furled. The varnish bonds (holds togeather) all the separate threads, making them a stronger cord, sharing the load. This technology is thousands of years old, used in ancient weapon designs by the Roman Empire.
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