Antique Dressing Recipes for Silk Fly Lines

In my research on how silk fly lines were made in the past, I came across an old book written by John Harrington Keene – “Fishing Tackle, its material and manufacture” (1886).

About recommended recipes for treating the raw lines that could be purchased from manufacturers of the time, in chapter III (“Running Lines and their dressing – Reels and their Fittings”) of his book, Mr. Keene wrote…

“Having thus given pretty full information in respect of what may be called the raw material of fishing tackle—viz., hooks, knots, gut, hair, and gimp—I think it is time to rise a step higher and refer to the running or rod lines in use, with their dressings and preparation.

Now, first, let me say, that no one without special machinery and skilled labour of a most expensive kind, can hope to compete with the great line-making centres, Nottingham, Manchester, and Redditch. Nottingham is; par excellence, the home of silk line- makers ; and when you can go to Walter Wells of that city, or to Martin, 4, Northern Buildings, Newarkon-Trent, and get a’ beautiful eight plait (undressed) line for about three farthings a yard, retail, it is patent to all that to endeavour to make one yourself with a profit would be sheer madness. This is one of the exceptions against making your own tackle, to which I referred at the commencement of this work. ‘The Twine and Cotton Spinning Company at Manchester, also, have made some splendid lines out of cotton—” cheap enough to tie dogs up with,” as an old friend of mine says, and each one, however, fine and strong enough to ” drag a barge; ” and at Redditch there are also line-makers. Then, again. the American raw silk lines—made of unboiled silk are remarkable for their cheapness and durability; and some of the foreign exhibitors at the Fisheries’ Exhibition showed lines of remarkable strength, if not of superior finish.

My advice to the amateur tackle-maker therefore emphatically is: Buy your undressed lines from Nottingham or Newark (mention my name if you choose), and dress them yourself. Not because the makers in question cannot make a good dressing, but because a well-dressed line is much more expensive if you desire to buy it, and because you can save by doing it at home. Of course, the utility of dressing a line consists in the undoubted fact that it will last nearly four times as long as one that is undressed, and the convenience for throwing out of a dressed line is far and away greater than in the other. The first of the following recipes is the invention of Dr. Emil Weeger, President of the First Moravian. Piscatorial Society, and his description of it, together with some valuable hints on the preserving of lines, were published in the Fishing Gazette some months ago.

With many apologies to my friend, its Editor, I condense what is there so ably said. The mixture is simply one of pure resin and solid paraffin, which Mr. King, of I New Street, Commercial Road, has very kindly offered to sell pure at low rates, and the Doctor goes on to state, ” This mixture gives the lines a pleasant flexibility, united with a certain degree of stiffness or firmness which for most purposes is extremely advantageous, and which can be increased or lessened ad libitum by adding more or less of the resin. Twisted fishing lines, cord or whipcord, lose the faculty of kinking, or curling, if dressed with it. The proportion which I have found to answer best, is four parts by weight of paraffin and one part of resin for summertime, and five parts of paraffin and one part of resin for wintertime, because in cold weather the dressing is a trifle firmer. Now, to dress lines proceed as follows: Take four or five parts of the paraffin, put in an iron pot or vessel and dissolve it over a gentle fire, then take one part of resin, put it in the melted paraffin and stir till the resin is dis- solved also. In case some impurities which the resin sometimes contains should be visible on the bottom of the vessel, take another pot and pour the mixture into it, taking care to leave the impurities behind. After a little cooling, the mixture is fit for use if you mean to dress a coloured line—a line made of light green, or fawn, or otherwise coloured silk.

If you want to dress a white or raw silk line, and you wish to give it colour—perhaps a green or a brown one—take some green or brown paint which you can get at any oilman’s and mix according to your fancy. I like a green colour with a brownish hue, and for that purpose I mix with the dissolved paraffin a compound of one-part brown paint and one part green, in the following proportion: To four or five parts paraffin and one part resin, I add the above-mentioned finely pulverized paint. Then take your line, be sure that it is perfectly dry and cleansed of all snarls and knots, wind it up on a spool, or if you have none at hand make a coil, immerse it in the liquid and now somewhat cooled dressing, and cover the pot with a Wooden lid which has a small hole in the centre, after having run through the hole the top end of the line.

Then take a piece of wet sponge or wet linen, hold it in one of your hands which is resting on the lid, put the end of the line between the wet linen or sponge, and with the other draw the line not too slowly through it, pressing the line gently, and thus stripping off the superfluous dressing, put the dressed line on the table or on the floor. This latter manipulation can be done much better and with greater comfort by the aid of a fixed cylinder about eight inches in diameter, with a handle, by which you wind the line from the left hand.

Then, when, in the short time of a few minutes, the dressing on the line is quite cool and firm, stretch the line well. Keep it tight somehow or other and give it a polish by rubbing it well with wet linen. Finally, to give the line not only a beautiful enamel like appearance, but also to make it more smooth, rub it well with finely pulverized Venetian talc, or for want of that, with very fine pulverized tufa (pumice) stone, commonly used by the wall-paper makers.

The great merit of this dressing consists in the line becoming almost exempt from ” kinking,” and I repeat that I deem it the best dressing ever invented.

It is possible, however, that this highly polished surface might not be liked by some, and to these then I offer the following recipes:

1. Equal parts copal varnish and boiled oil (linseed). Soak the line till well soaked, then stretch across a dry room and remove the superfluous dressing with a piece of dry sponge or rag. This takes some time to dry and harden. Some use gold size instead of the varnish; one-third of the size to two-thirds of oil.

2. One tablespoonful boiled oil, beeswax and resin, pieces about the size of a walnut, pulverize the resin and cut the wax into thin slices; put them together in a jam-pot and this in boiling water till dissolved, mix with a piece of wood, put the line in when the mixture is warm. Hang it up to dry, and clear superfluous dressing from it as indicated in Recipe I.

3. Boiled linseed oil one pint, beeswax quarter pound, melt in jam-pot in boiling water, put line in while mixture is hot. Stretch, clear of superfluous dressing, and dry as before directed.

4. Quarter pint of boiled linseed oil, beeswax as large as a filbert. Burgundy pitch as large as a walnut, rather more than a teaspoonful of copal varnish. Soak in mixture when warm, clear, stretch, and dry.

5. This is a well recommended dressing. After the line is quite dry from the preceding dressing, take it and immerse in gold size, stretch it swiftly, and cleanse it with rag or sponge, let it dry, dip it again in gold size, and dry it again. When it is thoroughly hard and dry, it must be steeped in an india-rubber solution, which is thus made: Take a flask of salad or olive oil, and shred india-rubber white as you can get it, as finely as possible, and place it in the flask. Put the flask in warm water, and this in the oven, so arranged that it does not quite boil for a week, or until the india-rubber is dissolved. Then steep the line in this solution and having cleaned and stretched it in a dry warm room, let it dry, taking care not to leave it in that position till it is quite hard. This is a complicated recipe and a troublesome one, but I have found the line dressed with it is practically indestructible.

6. Half a gill of oak varnish, one gill of boiled oil. Steep and dry, and then dip again and repeat the cleaning and drying.

7. Half-pint boiled oil, three-quarters wineglassful copal varnish, half wineglassful of gold size. Mix in a jam or gallipot. Let the line stay in the mixture a couple of days, then stretch and dry, and again soak the line in the mixture, stretching and drying as before.

8. White india-rubber in chips, two ounces; half-pint spirits of wine. Stretch the line and dry as before.

…..”

John Harrington Keene – “Fishing Tackle, its material and manufacture” (1886)