### Cleaning and Restoring Silk LinesBy Reed F. Curry
**Cleaning:
Here is my baking soda method:
Prepare a bucket (1+gallon) of warm (not hot) water with 1/3
box of baking soda dissolved in it.
Put your line in loose loops in the bucket for 20 minutes.
Pull the line through a wet cloth held tightly and pass it
into a bucket of cold clear water.
The dirt and varnish will peel right off the line.
Repeat if necessary.
Applying new Finish
This is the easy way. It works quite well, really.
-
Clean line thoroughly (as above) and allow to dry.
-
Get two paper grocery bags and place them open on the floor before
you. -
Place line, loose, in Bag A.
-
As you sit comfortably in a chair pretending to ignore your teenagers
fighting in the next room, draw the line through a clean rag soaked
in Tung oil/varnish mixture (I use Formby’s straight from the bottle),
letting it fall loosely into Bag B. -
Wait 2 - 4 hours, or until Tung oil is dry.
-
Rub line briskly through your hands (polishing it) as you draw it
from Bag B back to Bag A. -
Your children are still fighting, but the reason has changed. Repeat
steps 4 - 6 above until a smooth, glossy coat has formed on the line. -
Send for brochures from the better military academies. ~ Reed F. Curry
© 1998 Reed F. Curry**
Originally published November 21, 1999 on Fly Anglers Online by Reed F. Curry.