Okay Ladies and Gentlemen. I started furling thread leaders about a year ago. For simplicity, I'm just going to give an example of my general process, so don't get hung up on anything specific. Just consider the general process:

I have an 8 foot furling board (jig) with "leg stations" along both "sides", a "tip-end station" placed in the center of one end, and at the other end I have a wood block with three removable hooks. (One for each leg, and another in the middle.)

I tie the thread to the hook corresponding to the "leg" I'm starting with, and take it down to the first station of that "leg". I go around this station and then back up to the hook and go around it. I repeat this based upon the formula I'm using and the number of "loops" it calls for. Once the number of "loops" for station one have been made, the thread passes station one and continues on down to station two, wrapping it and coming back to station one, where-in the thread is passed through the loops created there, and then brought back down to station two again. Thus utilizing stations 1 and 2 to create the second set of loops. This process is repeated until the number of loops for station two are complete, and then the thread is passed on to station three where the process is repeated utilizing stations 2 and 3 to form the loops. This continues until all stations down one "leg" are completed and the "tip end" station (which is common to both legs) is being utilized. Once the number of loops for the first leg of the tip station are completed, the thread passes around the "tip station" and "reverses" itself going up the other "leg" of the board, and the entire process is repeated (except in reverse order) finally completing with the thread being tied to its' corresponding hook. From there I clamp the end of the "tip end" loop. Once done I begin the furling of each leg by twisting them (independently but the same amount) in the same direction. Once that is done, while retaining even tension on each leg, I transfer them to the same hook, unclamp the "tip end", and with the tip end "heavily" weighted, I let the two legs "spin" together. Once the leader is done spinning, I put a shorb loop in the end and it's ready to fish.

Now there may be a better way to do all this, and perhaps that is where my real question lies. Because I am not unhappy with my results. But there is NO WAY I can make a nice leader in ten minutes, let alone in five. It takes me longer than that just to get the thread on the jig. For me a good leader is at least a 15 minute venture, and more like 20-30 minutes. Also, I can't tell you how many times I've broken thread at the "tip-end" when furling a leg. (Generally because I'm trying for a tighter "furl", or trying to "hurry" the process.)

I can make a Singapore Twist (furling without jigs...) using mono pretty quickly, but even that takes me a good five minutes to make a "nice" one. So how is it that I so often read about someone making furled thread leaders in five minutes or so? What am I doing wrong? Is there some other technique that everyone is using that I'm ignorant of?

Thanks for the help/insight.

---David