Pearsall's Gossamar Silk Thread

[GaryD]

Is it a profound oversight on my part or is there a shortage out there on Pearsall's Orange and yellow thread ? It doesn't seem availible at my usual sources. If so, Does anyone know of an acceptable alternative ? Got to have orange and yellow Soft Hackles in my box for the season.

[Theroe]

Pearsall's=no more. Check over on Flymph forum.....theres a whole litany of explanations. There are MANY suitable silks on the market, Clover Silk & Gutterman being two that I favor. If you are anywhere near NYC, go to the garment district & check out Panda or any one of the notion shops......they have more silk than you can imagine.

Note: the stores I am referring to are NOT bead shops or sewing shops catering to tourists - notion shops cater to the wholesale garment/ designer/pattern makers.

[bearbutt]

P If you are anywhere near NYC, go to the garment district & check out Panda or any one of the notion shops......they have more silk than you can imagine.

And more tinsel of more kinds than you ever imagined!--they will try to sell you enough to circle the earth--and could likely furnsh that amount quite quickly--but they also have closeouts and stuff like that--so your minimum purchase is not always a Com-Ed sized spool with 16,625 miles of silk on it.

bb

[Theroe]

bb - excellent point........ they do have lots of goodies, including those great sewing scissors the Spanish gals use, for .99¢

Dana

[joaniebo]

Awhile back, Robert L. Smith posted a cross reference to YLI silks that can be used to replaced various Pearsall silks:

For your reference, here’s information showing the YLI 100 number cross referenced to the Pearsall number (examble Pearsall #19 called Hot Orange is YLI 100 #216 called Bright Orange).

YLI No. Vintage Pearsall No.

216 = Hot Orange (19) – Bright Orange
231 = Gold (6A) – Bright Apricot
261 = Primrose (3) – Buttercup
214 = Lemon Yellow (4) – Daffodil Yellow
244 = Purple (8) – Eggplant ,
213 = Straw (2) – Pale Yellow
258 = Claret (14) – Dark Purple
? = 6B
241 = Golden Olive (11) – Dull Gold
201 = Scarlet(11a) – Bright Red
208 = Blue (7) – Ocean Blue
232 = Grey (9A) – Light Blue Grey
? = Dk Claret(15) – ( 248 – Magenta or 267 – Burgandy )
? = Olive (16)
BLK = Black (9) – BLK
WHT6 = White (1) - WHT

[ibookje]

I'm new to tying with silk.
What are the 5 (or 6) colors one needs to have to tie wonderful wets?

[upstatetrout]

From the Art of Tying the Wet Fly by James Leisenring. AND I agree.

"Primrose #3 2 spools.
Claret #13 1 spool.
Gray #9a 1 spool.
Hot Orange #19 2 spools.
Brown #17 1 spool
Purple #8 1 spool.
Green #18 1 spool.

If you can find them!

Tom

[ibookje]

Thanks Tom!

What other brands are considered the good/best alternative besides YLI?

[redietz]

6a. As many spools as you can lay your hands on.

[drlogik]

Pearsall's got bought out by Morus Silk. They still sell the same colors (with different names) but the silk is dyed with more modern chemistry.

https://morus-silk.com/silk-filament/?v=79cba1185463

Scroll down to the "Fly Fishing" link. All things considered their prices are not any more inflated than what you find here in the US but they still have many of the colors available.

As has been stated, prices are inflated for the old stock so buy what you can when you can. I still have a dozen or so spools of the Orange 6b that came from a special dye lot Pearsall's had when John Cunningham was still alive and running things. They had just changed their name to Langley at that time and he couldn't label the spools 6b himself so he gave me some factory labels so I could put them on. Cunningham explained they dyed that lot with more modern chemistry and washing standards but assured me that the color was the same as the old 6b. I didn't think much of it at the time but sure wish I had bought a few boxes of the other colors also.

I wished I still had that email thread with Cunningham, he explained a lot about that transitional time for them, the colors they would still produce, the branding issues they had, etc.