Merganser and Jasper

[tie2fish]

An interesting combination of uncommon materials ...

Merganser and Jasper Silk II.JPG (66.59 KiB) Viewed 3628 times

[daringduffer]

...and common outcome.

dd

[dj1212]

Nice. The body is the jasper? It almost looks like some kind of quill.

[letumgo]

I knew I was going to like this one, by just reading the name of the fly. Opening the post, confirmed my assumption.

Beautiful fly, Bill. Bet it's a capital killer, too.

[Bazzer69]

Is jasper the colour of the silk? Or is it a kind of quill beginning in C and ending in r?

[SenecaLaker]

Bill, the Jasper silk is a great complement to the color of that feather. Beautiful tie as usual. What size is the hook that you used on that one?

Dave

[daringduffer]

I remember that Mark L. sometimes found gossamer silk to make bodies too slim for his liking. You could twist black and another shade, thus jasperize the silk. Black and 6B would be pretty. Or how about 8 and 5? If you wear sunglasses.

dd

[tie2fish]

Barry ~ Jasper is a fairly "modern" Pearsall's Gossamer silk color -- I believe it was numbered as #33.

Dave ~ This fly is tied on a Daiichi 1530 Size #14 hook. Getting the body to appear segmented involves twisting the silk slightly while wrapping, with the amount of twist depending on the diameter of the hook shank.

Pearsall's Jasper Gossamer Silk.JPG (68.16 KiB) Viewed 3599 times

[SenecaLaker]

DD,
you mention Jasperized. I think that's what this thread is. I believe it's two strands of some orange version of Gossamer with one Black strand. I picked up a spool of it a few years ago and haven't tied with it. I'll have to dig it out and untwist a bit of it.
Dave

[daringduffer]

Dave, I believe you got it right. Jasper thread makes cool bodies, as shown here by Bill. If you want a lot of work, you can split any gossamer shade into three strands and mix and match to your own jasperized liking .

dd