Refinishing silk lines

[kevinhaney1]

I've read the instructions on overmywaders about refinishing silk fly lines. For my first time, I have one that I'm going to use boiled linseed oil on. The instructions say to put the line in a bag, run it through a cloth soaked with oil, and let it fall into another bag. It seems to me that a better way to get an even coat would be to soak the whole line in a container of the oil, then run it through a rag to wipe off the excess. Has anyone tired this variation?

Kevin

[Shrimpman]

I think that it is OK to soak for the first application, but subsequent coats need to be thin or they will glaze over and seal liquid underneath that takes a month of Sundays to dry.
I drop the line between a couple of wide cardboard boxes, like the ones cucumbers and such come in at Costco.

[16parachuteadams]

If you soak the line it will take forever to dry. What you want is a series of thin coats that dry in a few days. You can end up applying at least half a dozen coats to get the weight correct for that line size. I tend to do this outdoors in sunny weather to appease SWAMBO, string the line between trees and walk along the line with my saturated cloth. Fifteen minutes later I wipe the line with a lint free cloth then let it dry. Take down at the end of the day and store loosely coiled until dry to the touch. Repeat.

[Dwight]

I soak mine in a vacuum overnight for the first coat using water washed linseed oil. ‘Boiled’ linseed oil is not pre-polymerized by boiling but rather contains heavy metal dryers added. It also contains other impurities. Water washed linseed is purified and pre-polymerized allowing it to polymerize enough in 4-5 days exposed to the sun to add subsequent thinner coats. I too hang mine in my backyard between fence posts, BUT not until the first full saturation coat polymerizes for a couple days; silk lines are woven a bit loose to accept a mass of linseed equal to the mass of silk, and the weight of a draped line combined with the lubrication of freshly applied linseed can pull the weave tighter into a bit of an oval (cross-sectionally). To prevent this and preserve the round cross-section of the silk, let it polymerize a bit, then hang it from two fixed points in the sun to finish it. And don’t forget to apply a protective cuticle as the final step!

[kevinhaney1]

Where would you get water washed linseed oil? And what is a protective cuticle?

Kevin

[DrLogik]

Kevinhaney,

Yep, I was asking myself the same thing. I found this but not sure what the cuticle is on a silk line unless Dwight is referring to the last thin coat of linseed oil.

https://arttreehouse.com/artstore/produ ... -flax-oil/

[Dwight]

Yes, art treehouse is the place I got my WWLO. One bottle will do at least six lines. The cuticle is a thin, durable, protective outer coat or two composed partly of varnish diluted with a thinner. I use 19 Century Copal Varnish with some tung oil added and thinned with turpentine (it’s also a great hand rubbed finish for cane). WWLO makes a very supple line once broken in, but it’s also a bit softer. So the cuticle protects your supple line. Most commercial line makers use mixtures (to saturate the entire depth of the line) composed in part of heavy metal dryers, resin and thinners to accelerate drying, but these compromise the quality of the line in favor of speed in production. We need not compromise and can make a superior line that will last a lifetime with proper care. It’s kinda like the rods we fish, you bond with the line like it’s a part of your favorite rod.

[kevinhaney1]

The referenced product also has flax oil in it. Is that OK for silk lines?

Kevin

[Dwight]

Flaxseed oil is another name for linseed oil. The product is purified, pre-polymerized (a significant head start on the ‘drying’ process) linseed oil. The water washing process was used by artists during the Renaissance to prepare linseed oil for their paints. It’s a really cool process and it’s time consuming. Btw, the most supple line I’ve made was simply composed of a mixture of WWLO and tung oil. Tung oil polymerizes much faster than linseed oil and was used by ancient ship builders to protect and ‘water proof’ hulls. I think tung oil forms shorter chain molecular bonds, once polymerized, than linseed oil, which may explain the more supple result. Tung oil is also more durable.

[DrLogik]

Dwight,

What was the mix of water-washed linseed oil and tung oil? I've been holding off refinishing my stripped Phoenix line.

I finished a couple of bare Zhu lines with linseed oil and spar varnish and although they are fine and fishable, they don't have the same feel or qualities that the Phoenix does. Granted they are a lower quality line but the finish on them is not great and I followed a reliable recipe.

[Dwight]

DrLogik,

The spar contains resins, dryers and thinner, those will make the line too stiff IMHO and it leaves interstitial spaces where the thinner evaporates. That invites water and rot. Thin down the spar and use it only as your very thin cuticle coat(s). For the tung oil line I mentioned, I applied the first soak as mostly WWLO in simple vacuum, then added more and more tung for a series of three additional coats, but they were very thin. I kept running my fingers over the line as it was polymerizing. Never TRY to build up the coats, just keep wiping with your bare fingers every couple hours. I also don’t try to make the line smooth. Allowing the braid to “show through” adds surface area which helps the line stay on the water’s surface via more surface tension. The texture does not saw away at your guides as some claim, only something hard like dirt can do that. Just keep your line clean. Your Phoenix will turn out great if you follow all the steps in this thread. But make sure it’s completely clean of its previous dressing - it should be very supple before you apply any oil. I used acetone to strip my Phoenix (which is used by museum preservationists to clean silk rather than water which they claim weakens silk fibers), but the last time I mentioned that on this forum someone jumped all over me. I realize a lot of what I have said in this thread goes against conventional wisdom, but I did a bunch of research in advance and the process has worked well for me.