Found this stuff on Amazon:
34 gauge is equivalent to Ultra Wire “small”; they also have it in 32 gauge (“brassie”), 28 gauge (“medium”), and 26 gauge (“large”). 125 yards for $7.00 is a heck of a lot better than $2.50 for however much are on those little spools. Artistic Wire has a pretty good color selection (unfortunately Amazon doesn’t carry them all). I’ve seen their wire at craft stores, but usually in heavier gauges, never anything finer than 24.
Regards,
Scott
I get 34 gauge silver or brass 24 yd spools at JoAnn’s …sorry I don’t remember the price but they have coupons. It’s what I use for dubbing brushes.
Yeah, I have some of that myself. I was thinking more in terms of colors like red, green, blue, black, purple, yellow, orange.
Regards,
Scott
Brad,
That’s the same stuff in “brassie”; cheaper on Amazon and they have it in 100 yd spools. Thanks for the link.
Regards,
Scott
Here in the UK we have :-
http://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/fly-tying_wires.html
Have a look on wikipedia:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_gauge
Down at the bottom of the page under External Links:-
there is an excellent Wire Gauge conversion chart available in .pdf.
Good tip. Wish they had a touch smaller for midge patterns (38 gauge) but I would not be surprised if this is the same source as Ultrawire because the colors are spot on, just renamed in some cases.
While we are on the topic, anyone have a good source for bulk midge wire in similiar colors? Wire MUST be enameled.
[b]The wires sold by the UK company are 0.10mm which going by the Wire Gauge chart are virtually
38 AWG. That is just about what was called midge wire isn’t it? It is 1.00 BPounds a 150 metres.
The 0.20mm is equivalent to 32 AWG. At 1.75BPounds for 125 metres that is a good price.
[/b]
Donald: Thanks, that would serve but would prefer a domestic source if I can find one. The Amazon tip was a good one because I already do business with them and shipping is convenient once you sign up for Amazon Prime. There’s got to be an equivalent some where in the US.
I got a bulk spool of 38/40ga brass wire. It is very thin but dont remember how I got it tho.
Look in your yellow pages for an electrical shop the rewinds electric motors or repairs electric motors. I got spool ends of copper wire free or cheap because there was not enough wire left on the spool to rewind/rebuild a motor.
Just checked out the wire, its .0015" on micrometer. Which would be 48ga. I must be lucky then.
I have no doubt there is a N.Amercan source, the postage across the Atlantic for a substantial order
could be rather high, what with the weight, but it does give some idea what is available and might
be of interest to members on this side of the pond.
The Wire Gauge I thought was superb, I am a retired electronics engineer and I was always infuriated
when wire came in so many different gauges and diameters.
Speaker wire is extremely fine wire. Don’t know the gage but I can’t see wanting anything finer. It can be found in copper and silver (colour). Cheap too.
The copper wire used on co axial TV cable is extremely fine, I have no idea of the gauge. A yard of that will tie thousands of flies. I would think you could go down to #26 without any problems. Only available in copper colour though.
Cheers,
A.
L’effet contraire mon ami, the shield on coaxial cable is sometimes silver in color, tinned copper I suspect.
There are tons of sources for wire for ribbing and such, a few of them mentioned here.
The great thing about what Scott posted was the size, very fine wire is hard to come by, and the colors available. You can get gold, silver, copper just about anywhere from motors and electrical wires. But brown (not bronze)? Tan, OLIVE?
That stuff is fly tying wire extraodinaire. And not badly priced.
Already have all I’ll ever need of other colors but I can use the brown and tan and olive. Been looking for a while for these. Midges and my version of a copper john type fly will do very well this summer with these additions.
Thanks Scott!
Buddy
Hi Whatfly,
Here is a North American manufacturer, their colour and gauge range seem pretty good.
http://www.artisticwire.com/index.htm
[b]A Scot looking for a good price. Who’d ‘a’ thunk it?
Ed[/b]