vintage tinsel

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Salmon fly tyers get a bad rep, predominantly from folks who know little to nothing about the subject.

 

Yup! Hmm no one kind of mentioned that a. Metal tinsels withstand toothy fish way better than fragile mylar b. despite what people say metal tinsels are easier to work with c. metal tinsels add weight to the fly (i take a length of uni french embo, the same length i would use to wrap a size 2, and it is the same weight as 3 pairs of my smallest bead chain eyes).

[ditz2 0]

I hated that old metal tinsel. It was stiff and even though it was lacquered it still would tarnish after some use. It just was not used for salt flies. Yes, it would cut your thread just trying to tie it to the hook or trying to tie it off at the end of its application. Good riddance. Mylar is far superior. Unless one is tying exhibition flies there is no reason that I know to use it today.

[scorman1 0]

OK, I'll concede a few old points and add a few.

The gold color material is still in question, since only metallic gold looks that yellow ....gold was only $35/oz back then and 10kt is only 37% gold

The "silver" is probably some sort of aluminum alloy, since real metallic silver would have tarnished after 50 years.

Neither the silver nor gold tinsel have any varnish or laquer on them to peel off .

I cannot understand why Herter's would have sold a 400yd spool of tinsel, since that is quite a lot.

It is quite possible that the finer tinsel have a wooden spool that is shallower than the medium tinsel spool??

 

that said, I cannot determine exactly how deep my spools really are since they are fairly full..I simply took the number 1/4 inch

HOWEVER, I did find a listing of the same Herter's "vernie" spool that was only partially full and I conclude that 1/4inch is reasonable:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f-uZyIsgRPo/UzXEFdIxOuI/AAAAAAAAAmE/2SLsdv5zlXE/s800/wooden%2520spool.jpg

here is my photo of the 1 spool for comparison:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-W4e9fHvLRWE/UzSKmQsTl0I/AAAAAAAAAlE/yY9i7rgLsW4/s800/IMGP1519.JPG

all four spools are here:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F31AmVybBcA/UzSJ-QotU0I/AAAAAAAAAk0/uAwmNFCLDRE/s800/IMGP1516.JPG

 

 

Many here speculate that I only have 15 yds or so on each spool which I don't believe, and I see the new generation varnished metal tinsel going for about $1/yd, so if I get sufficient interest, I will entertain the project of hand carding 15yds of each of the four that I have for $20 + $1.93 shipping (real cost of USPS FC envelope)

If I run out fast, then the naysayers were right!

 

 

You are saying that if you unroll the material on that 1.1" spool you will be standing a quarter mile away from where you started?

yup, that's what 400yds means ...I have a spool of 12# trilene that started at 4700yds ..that's 2.6 miles (and is mostly gone)

King salmon really tear off the line every fall season.

 

Stew

[Ephemerella 0]

Antique flat silver tinsel IS silver - really silver plated brass. I have several spools of it. The outer layers on the spool tarnish, but the inner layers are as shiny as the day it was spooled - the outer layers keep the air and airborne sulfur away from it. The gold tinsel is brass. The tinsel I have comes in different weights as well as widths, for example the thin stuff is very flexible but fragile, while the wider stuff is fairly stiff. As others have pointed out it can weight a fly quite a bit, will withstand years of fish bites, but can easily cut the thread, especially when counter wound.

 

Some tinsel is varnished - the old French stuff is labeled "vernie" which means varnished. Today you can find Lagurtun's which is varnished and ridiculously priced at about $7/spool. If you are lucky you can find some varnished UTC flat metal tinsel, no longer generally available - years ago I found some at a Midwest bass fishing store. For those in the Northeast US, try Tinsel Trading Co. in NYC. Years ago they came to the International Fly Tying Symposium and were selling spool ends of antique French tinsel for crazy low prices -I bought all sorts of tinsel, including flats, ovals, "twist" (round also called thread), and lace (3 strands of twist wrapped together) of various sizes and colors, and patterns.

 

-Peter

[scorman1 0]

Peter,

Thank you for your post as every day is a learning experience

 

Some tinsel is varnished - the old French stuff is labeled "vernie" which means varnished.

 

I stand corrected ...all the four spools are marked "vernie" and when googled :

 

verni, e
adj [bois, tableau, ongles] varnished [poterie] glazed

 

so you gave me some work to do ...took the widest gold tinsel and 5x magifier and x-acto knife and scrapped the surface, drawing it under a flat blade ... could NOT determine that

any coating exists, so it must be very tough and extremely thin.....that said, I accept the correction you provided

 

I find it hard to believe tho that the newer stock of today "flakes off" ??

 

 

try Tinsel Trading Co. in NYC

Funny that you made this reference, as I had found them two days ago and was about to email them some questions pertinent to this discussion such as length of material, depth of spool and possibly with the photos linked here

 

Stew

[kjdnyc 0]

I have a ton of my Dad's fly tying materials. Soup to nuts: tools, hackle, spools, etc etc. This little spool peaked my interest because it looks so old (the label) Says: des Henri Verdura The Worlds Only Tarnish Proof pre metal FLY TYING LAMETTAS Sole Agents Herter's Made in France other side of spool imprinted in red: 16 1/2 VERNIE Made in France It is EXTREMELY fine gold metal thread. Saw on E-bay similar for $135.00 which I'm sure is insane...just wondering true value before I itemize and bundle all this stuff. Thanks for any info!

Karen in New Orleans (Dad fished in Upstate NY, Chateaugay Lake by mainly the rivers up there) Trout generally He tied flies whole time I was growing up in the 60s, 70s 80s

[mikechell 0]

Several people on this site who MIGHT know about it. Hopefully, someone does !!!

[redietz 0]

 

Oh, one more thing, don't believe everything that you read in the Herters catalog. They were, shall we say overly enthusiastic in describing many of their products.

 

I'm not sure I believe anything I ever read in a Herter's catalog.

 

I prefer metal tinsel. It adds a bit of weight and doesn't come unwrapped if you lose your grip on it while winding it on. However, Lagartun's works just fine; no need for vintage.