Pearsalls Color Chart

[letumgo]

Ron,

There is a chance that the top fly is tyed with Pearsall's Marabou silk floss. Marabou has multiple strands of silk, and can be split down to suit the tyers intent. If the strands are twisted together, they would form a hefty body, with pronounced segmentation.

[daringduffer]

What if you twist three strands together?

dd

[ronr]

Im guessing this must be the Naples... the size being 50% larger seems about right... the material in the top fly is definitely not a flat thread... I bought Alec Jackson's #19 silk floss thinking that might have been the right stuff, but it was not the same..

I will try twisting a few strands of Gossamer together and see how that turns out.... thanks for the responses

[bearbutt]

This chart is new to me:

Comes from another forum:

https://www.flyfishing.co.uk/fly-tying- ... ative.html

dd

The UK forum didn't cite the source; it's from Edmonds and Lee, Brook and River Trouting. Here's a picture from the first (1916) edition, which was privately printed:



I'd prefer to get a scan, but doing so would compromise the binding; I need to wait until I can get access to an overhead book scanner.

bb

[Greenwell]

Interestingly enough, when I was in Yorkshire last month, Rob Smith took me by the building in the city of Bradford where the silk color charts were produced for well over a century. If you have or have seen a Pearsalls Silk Color Chart it was made in this building.

IMG_0917 (3).JPG (240.7 KiB) Viewed 132132 times

Sorry it's flipped, some glitch keeps messing it up but at least you can see what the place looks like if you cock your head!

[daringduffer]

John, you probably had a couple of pints to many

dd

[daringduffer]

This chart is different:



No 2, Straw
No 4, Light Yellow
No 6B, Sherry Spinner
No 10, Ash

Those are some of the differences. No 7, Blue in gossamer. You find the rest.

(No doesn't mean number, it means no. See?).

dd

Edit: Link to source: http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/gallery/tem ... rs-001.jpg

[daringduffer]

This is a link to a conversion chart by Rob Smith from that other forum.
https://www.flyfishing.co.uk/fly-tying- ... ost2493138

https://www.flyfishing.co.uk/fly-tying- ... ive-2.html



dd

[Bazzer69]

Here is. Pearsalls colour chart I found recently. It’s for embroidery silks but interestingly enough all the colour patches are of real silk thread. However none of the numbers seem to relate to Gossamer thread. I’m amazed at the large numbers of shades!
Barry

[driftless]

I've been searching for silks to substitute Pearsall's colors, too.

One I've found that is a VERY close sub for 6B Sherry Spinner is Kimono Silk thread #370 Teriyaki.

Take a look at it on line & see what you think.

Paul