Furled Leaders Revisited (playing around with a new toy)

[letumgo]

I received a cool new toy for Christmas (thanks Ray ), and got a chance to play around with it a bit this weekend.

This is a tool called a "String-II", by Olympus Thread in Japan.







The instruction sheet is all in Japanese, but fortunately there are a few internet videos showing how the gizmo works (pretty simple).




LINK TO DAVY MCPHAIL VIDEO (This is what inspired me to buy this tool. I saw this and thought "BINGO! That is perfect for furled leaders.):



My first experiment was making a new furled leader rig for my Tenkara rod. In this case a 10 foot tapered leader, with sighting tip (simply short section of red between leader and tippet section).



LEADER FORMULA:
Butt - Maxima Chameleon (15# test / 36" long / 0.015" diameter)
Middle - Maxima Chameleon (12# test / 42" long / 0.013" diameter)
Tip - Maxima Chameleon (10# test / 42" long / 0.012" diameter)
Total Developed Length = 120" (10 feet)

TOOLS NEEDED: Scissors/Nail Clippers/Tape Measurer/String-II twisting tool/foam blocks with slits/tying vice/shepards hook/chair (serves as a second set of hands)





NOTES ON FORMING THE FURLED LEADERS:
- Cut three sections of leader material in each of the sizes and lengths listed above.
- Stage the materials using a foam block with slits cut in it. I marked my block with dots (1, 2, 3) based on material thickness, making it easy to assemble each strand of the leader.
- Form perfection loops on the end of leader butt material
- Tye together each strand (forming three separate knotted strands of tapered leader). Use blood knots to join each section of leader together.
- Once all three tapered leaders are formed, hold the loops on the butt end together and hang from a shepard hook in a tying vice. This will even the loops, and allow you to pull the tapered leaders together before trimming the tip end even.
- Form perfection loops at the tip end for each strand. Then join together with a figure eight loop.

You are now ready for twisting (sorry - no photos during this process).

PHOTOS OF THE PROCESS

Blood Knot


Tie a perfection loop knot at the end of the butt sections.

KNOTS NEEDED: Perfection Loop (at each end), Blood Knots (joins each section of leader material together) and Figure Eight Knot (joins the three sections together and ensures loop ends align with the main furled leader section).

Align loop ends (in this case I simply inserted my scissor point into the three perfection loops and pulled to even the ends).



Form a figure eight knot and then pull tight, being careful to keep the loops even.


After tightening the knot:


I used a small block of foam, to hold the strands apart during the twisting operation. Small slits, cut into the foam, hold the strands prevention tangles.


I clamped the shepherds hook into my vise, to hold the tippet end during the twisting process.


I hung the String-II tool over the back of a chair, to hold tension on the strands while getting everything aligned.




Once the leader has been twisted and furled together, use another figure eight knot to bind the strands together.


Loops at both ends:


Finished leader rig. Tagged and bagged.


ADDITIONAL LINKS AND VIDEOS:
Amazon (this is where I bought the twister tool/$43.67/ships from Japan) - https://www.amazon.com/Orimupasu-string ... 821&sr=8-6
Olympus Thread Site (Japanese): https://www.olympus-thread.com/original ... a/string2/

[wsbailey]

Ingenius!

[Tom Smithwick]

Great find, Ray. I just put one on order. How did you determine how many turns of the crank to make?
I assume you turn the crank in one direction to twist the individual strands, and in the opposite to twist the strands together?

[letumgo]

Tom,

I tried counting, but ended up getting distracted during the process. Eventually I just went with my gut..."yeah that should be enough twisting". I furled the twisted strands in the same direction as the twists. Perhaps I screwed up (wouldn't be the first time... ).

EDIT - The Japanese video shows the twist and furling operation going in the same direction. Handle gets cranked in the same direction for both steps. Looks like I got lucky.

[wsbailey]

I have that same tool. I'm not familiar with maxima but nylon monofilement will stretch just before it starts to kink.

[Theroe]

Ray
what a great tutorial - im still digesting this thread !!!

Dana

[Tom Smithwick]

Hi Ray - The line you made looks right to me in terms of technique, so I think you nailed the method. For a Tenkara line, I would suggest you also try fluorocarbon. It's more dense than mono and handles the wind better, I think also stiffer which is desirable on a tenkara line. My formula was lighter than yours BTW, 1X, 2X and 3X fluorocarbon. As you know, they last a long time, so the expense of fluorocarbon is not significant.
For a conventional fly fishing leader, flexible is desirable. Mono worked well, but if fishing wet and you had to break off a snagged fly, the stretch and the twist combined to send the leader flying back to you in an impressive, twisting, birds nest. They straightened out pretty easily, but still disconcerting. I came to like the fly tying thread versions better both for lack of stretch and flexibility. They were made up of many more strands, of course, as were the mono versions.
The line I sent you was composed of 3 sections twisted separately and knotted together. With the new gadget it becomes possible to do what you did, knotting the individual strands and twisting the whole length at once. Did that make much difference in appearance of the knots in the finished line?

[Ron Eagle Elk]

That is very similar to Darrel Martin's machine for twisting up horse hair snoods. That looks like something I may have to invest in, just cause, you know, I may want to twist up a horse hair line

[letumgo]

Ron - You might enjoy this article I found over on the Eclectic Angler website.

Detailed instructions for making your own horse hair fly line.
LINK TO PDF FILE:http://www.eclecticangler.com/content/i ... sue_36.pdf

[letumgo]

Tom,

I have been thinking about the furled leader design over the past few days, and think I've come up with an effective progressive taper design (see diagrams below).



With a three loop design, one can have a nice progressive taper.



Demonstrating Three Loop Design:


By staging the knots at different locations along the furled leader, the taper is very uniform.

Notice how smoothly the leader transitions from one section to the next. In theory, this should result in an efficient transfer of energy thru the whole length of the leader (field testing needed to refine design):