Alternative To Using Lead Wire

[Suntoucher]

I am looking for some alternative wrapping wire to add weight to my streamers and buggers. Looking for something that is as flexible as lead and is close to the same weight too. I have tried "lead free" wire which I believe is made out of tin but again it's weight and flexiblity is not close to lead.

 

Any tips or help would be appreciated.

[Flytyer]

It's been covered before

 

http://flyfishcalgary.com/board/index.php?showtopic=6819

[sirocco]

Suntoucher,

 

I've been using this stuff - http://www.thornesmanufacturing.com/index....78&Item=253

 

It's not as heavy as lead but is heavier than lead-free in my opinion. It also has a smaller diameter than lead-free, so it's easier to stack it up and add weight. Dirt cheap too.

 

Cheers

[Harps]

Just a small technical argument with inaccuracy of the Bob Boese article.

 

The atomic weights that he quotes may well be right, but do not in any way reflect the relative densites of the metals.

 

Tungsten is not lighter than lead; it's a lot heavier.

 

Rounded off, the densites (gm/cc) are as follows ;

 

Tungsten = 19, Lead = 11, Copper = 9, Tin = 8

 

From this you can see that copper is a pretty good substitute for lead but tungsten is much more effective.

 

What am I going to do with all this lead wire?

 

Cheers,

John

 

From a recent discussion on Sexyloops and FAOL...

http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/cgi-bin/theboar...ST;f=12;t=10171

 

Tungsten is the way to go!!

 

There used to be tungsten wrap at golf stores for adding weight to clubs, but I haven't seen it lately (it was discussed on this board some time back). The other option is to buy weighted hooks shaped like nymphs (Boss Tin), or use the heavy metal wrap from the neck of a wine bottle>> Wolfblass (sp) is where I got my last wrap from.

 

The best weight for streamers would be weight on the line (sink tip/full sink), split shot or putty, or a sinking leader (airflo and snowbee have some good sinking poly-leaders).

The line pulls the fly down and there is still movement.

 

You shoiuld be able to find something online that talks about the differences of a heavy line vs a heavy fly (different actions).

 

Cheers,

[Suntoucher]

Lots of good info, thanks for the feedback guys.

[Flytyer]

Something else that might be of interest that I've used before is quick descent dubbing; it's a dubbing of metal shavings in a variety of colours. Hareline has it and Superfly carries a similar dubbing that I can't recall the name of. Darren should know as I got a sample from him a couple of years ago while he was at Superfly. Unfortunately their site is down for updating at the moment.

[Lundvike]

Non lead solder, just a thought never tried it. certainly have used the regular lead solder when I didn't have any lead around.

[bhurt]

Instead of using lead on my streamers I just use a intermediate/fast sink tips to get my flies down cause if a fast sink tip can't get it down then I highly doubt a couple of wraps of lead is going to do much more.