Tying with monofilament

[Ray Kunz]

We have all kinds of comparison charts for various brands of tying thread but conspicuous by its absense are values for monofilaments used as tying thread. Some of the more popular are Danville's 0.006" diameter, the old Gudebrod mono that used to be sold by Orvis and the regular inexpensive mono sewing threads that are discussed more frequently lately. Has anyone evaluated these?
In my unscientific test of Danville's 0.006" diam. it seems about the same as the Uni 6/0 at 2# test.

[Clay]

I'm going to make an educated guess and say that like mono fishing line, diameter doesn't always equal break strength. It depends on the formula used to make the material. While I have recently purchased some mono for tying some Puglisi type flies and because I am lazy and wanted it spooled up already, I think that one could use a fishing line just fine by spooling it up on a used spool. I'm think some Berkley blue Ice line that is 2 pound test would work just wonderfully. I have seen some great charts too that show break strengths of different threads and Kevlar and even GSP but don't remember any that show mono either.

Rick

[Clay]

Took a while, but I found this: http://flytyingworld.com/article-detail-2-Threads.html Hope that helps.

[Buddy Sanders]

I've not played with it's breaking strength, but I do tie a lot of lies with clear and smoked mono sewing thread.

I get it in two diameters, .004 and .005.

I normally use the .004 for most things. All I can say about it's stength is that it's harder to break than 6/0 tying thread.

It has it's uses, and it's drawbacks. I like it, but you have to adjust your tyng to compensate for it's springy nature and the obvious stretch.

Buddy

[Jgoding]

HI Ray,

Is that ultra fine? If I remember correctly it's around 1.8 or 2lb test. I tie all my striper flies with it, mostly because it becomes clear when wet.