Traditional fishing line?

[SAFisherman]

Hi guys what was traditional fishing line made from and how did they make it? Cheers. SAFisherman.

[Paul D]

Braided silk, braided horse hair or gut, the method of manufacture is self explanatory for the first two, not a clue about gut! Hope that helps a little Sir

[Vole]

There's quite a bit about silkworm gut on the web, but I found this very interesting:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 1-0027.pdf
-especially as it dates to the time when much of what we think of as "traditional" was about to change.
I never knew that most of the best gut came from Spain, nor that Japanese gut or "Jagut" was a confection of silk threads and glue.

[Paul F]

Gut was made using silkworms, they extracted the sticky silk from the grub, it was drawn through a gauge to get the required diameter, this measurement was X, i.e 4x 5x, 6x etc etc, the lower the number the thicker the gut,this is a measurement fly anglers still use for their tippet material.
The quality gut gut was known as drawn gut, there was a cheaper undrawn gut.

[SAFisherman]

Thanks for the info guys it really helps.

[Stuart Whiting]

During the 50's and 60's I believe that a form of line that was called " platyl " was used,

If one looks back at any of the Mitchell reel spool size diagrams it clearly states about the useage of platyl line during that era

[Olly]

Platil was a nylon monofilament - following on from Luron, made by ICI Ltd, which was the first nylon line I bought in the late 50s early 60s.

Platil is still available - esp on the Continent.

[Stuart Whiting]

Platil was a nylon monofilament - following on from Luron, made by ICI Ltd, which was the first nylon line I bought in the late 50s early 60s.

Platil is still available - esp on the Continent.

Nice one cheers Olly, thanks for sharing

[JAA]

Gut was made using silkworms, they extracted the sticky silk from the grub, it was drawn through a gauge to get the required diameter, this measurement was X, i.e 4x 5x, 6x etc etc, the lower the number the thicker the gut,this is a measurement fly anglers still use for their tippet material.
The quality gut gut was known as drawn gut, there was a cheaper undrawn gut.

0 X ................. 0.011" / 0.27mm (Stren Original 8lb)
1 X ................. 0.010"
2 X ................. 0.009" / 0.22mm (Stren Original 6lb)
3 X ................. 0.008" / 0.20mm (Stren Original 4lb)
4 X ................. 0.007"
5 X ................. 0.006"
6 X ................. 0.005" / 0.15mm (Stren Original 2lb)
7 X ................. 0.004"
8 X ................. 0.003"