The wire Hans used was (he informed me some time ago) from Veniards. It is no longer available, a friend of mine has a Veniards trade account, and it isn't listed. However, square wire is available from www.wires.co.uk you will have to trawl round to find it. Unlike Hans' wire it isn't twisted to form the facets. That would be an easy thing to do though, for the small quantities needed in tying.

What would be the point of counter winding the rib? The pitch of the floss and the rib are so different that the rib couldn't pull down into the floss (if Hans wound the floss so loosely that it could, it would be, I can assure you, deliberate. There isn't even a turn of thread on one of Hans' flies that isn't deliberate.)

Cheers,
A.