Thread and more thread

[deepcreek]

I basically tie quick effective guide flies ( like in basic and not necessarily pretty) and have always used uni thread. Any opinions on the various thread products in todays market.

[Longs for Cutts]

Montana fly company is thinner for the "ought" and also stronger. It's probably 2/3-3/4 the diameter and 50% stronger than the Uni equivalent. It is replacing Uni wholesale as I use up my stock.

[Gene]

I am with Longs with this, having used MFC 8/0 for over a year now. Stronger and lays flatter than Uni, no build up, very nice thread.
Gene

[DG]

I've tied thousands, if not tens of thousands, of flies using Uni and don't see any need to change that. Although I occasionally get a bad spool (generally on sale, which should tell me something), it does what I need it to do, comes in the colors I want to use, and is readily available. I do use GSP and kevlar for some specific flies and have lots of spools of other stuff that I bought, tried, and put in the box.

[AlanB]

For many years I used Uni with a selection of other threads for the times I needed them. I found them to be consistent and very good. When UTC came on the marker I tried it and liked it. For some applications it replaced Uni. However I soon hit a problem. The spools they used in the early days were made of two parts. I ended up loosing lots of spools when the thread got caught in the split between the two halves. Danville's thread isn't as generally available here as other makes. I can usually find it if I want it but it means a search.

At that time I had started to use a lot of split thread techniques, UTC, as it is not bonded is better for these techniques than Uni. Though you can use Uni for this technique it sometimes becomes a problem.

Then I moved to the Highlands of Scotland. Living here I tie more salmon and loch trout flies. That meant a change in the colours of thread I used. I find Uni is not as vibrant as UTC. I suspect this is due to the difference in nature between polyester and nylon. For those reasons UTC has replaced Uni in my tying. I still tie with Uni, but I have old stock that has kept me going for the last few years. For the last three years I haven't bought a spool of Uni.

There is one other thread to throw into the mix. Before I let you into the secret lets just look at buying thread for fly tying. When you buy a spool of tying thread you are buying 3 components and a service. A spool, a label and the thread itself, the service is putting the thread onto the spool. The most expensive of these parts is the cost of the spool. Then there is the cost of putting it onto the spool. I wouldn't be surprised to find the label costs more than the thread itself. Fly tying is a small market. There is not a massive demand for fly tying thread. Even the likes of Uni, Danville's and UTC will not be ordering thread by the ton of a colour at a time.

At a wholesale haberdashery suppliers I found Guttermann Scala. As a tying thread it is superb. It is finer than Uni 8/0 but stronger than Uni 6/0. It isn't bonded, so lies flat and splits easily. Better still was the cost. It cost 9UKP ($15) a spool. That is for a 15 000 meter spool. That is the same as 75 200 meter spools of Uni. Uni is around ?2.20 a spool here. The same quantity of Uni would be 165UKP. I built a spooling machine! The problem was obtaining spools to put it on. If I bought a spool and spent time loading it I would have to sell them at the same price as Uni to show a profit.

Then the supplier I used stopped stocking Scala. I wasn't using enough to justify the expense of sourcing it elsewhere. So it was back to buying small spools. I did look at buying thread in a different way after that.

[Jack Hise]

Uni is still my go to thread, there are threads that may be a bit more flashy but Uni is a good tough thread.

[ScottP]

Uni's great for a lot of things but I can't do any split thread apps with it. I've got a lot of Danville 6/0 and some UTC 70 & 140 for that (and other stuff). Need to check out the MFC products. For saltwater it's mostly flat-waxed nylon or monofilament.

Regards,
Scott

[Hans Weilenmann]

Uni's great for a lot of things but I can't do any split thread apps with it.

Scott,

Uni is certainly not the greatest for doing split thread, but (and you may already know/do this anyway) at a pinch it can be made to work. You have to break the 'bonding' by running it through nail-pressed-to-pad a couple times.

Cheers,
Hans W

[ScottP]

Hans,

I've done it a few times; now I try to make sure I have a spool of Danville or UTC in brown or black wherever I go so I can avoid that experience ever happening again.

Regards,
Scott

[whatfly]

Like others, I prefer any flat thread over Unithread. Danville 6/0 and Flymaster+ handles most of my tying. Have also played with MFC threads and they perform well, and Benecchi is a favorite too.