SILVER TINSEL BODIES
by Wayne Luallen
(First printed in The Salmon Flyer, Vol. 2, #3, Summer, 1990)

The question has been raised why some tiers, including myself, wrap tinsel bodies (such as the Mar Lodge, Silver Doctor, etc.) from front to back to front again. This is a most valid question when one looks at some of the historical refer?ences.

Pryce Tannatt?s method suggested wrapping from back to front only. He emphasized avoiding overlap and yet that "...each turn of tinsel must fit close...".

Kelson said back to front is proper over tapered floss "...to secure absolute neatness." Also, "broad flat tinsel" is beveled at one end "a good quarter of an inch in length."

Hale had a similar method. The tinsel was wound back to front over floss padding of "true taper", and the beveled tinsel was to be "tied in with the taper to the left." Actually he
describes two methods, but both advance the tinsel from back to front.

J.J. Hardy also tapered the end of the tinsel and wound it from back to front, or, "...from left to right up the body." He too underpadded the body with floss "...in order to level up and form a smooth surface for the tinsel to lie on."

Eric Taverner follows suit in wrapping from back to front over a floss base, but says nothing about beveling the tinsel.

Then there were Francis Francis and Sir Herbert Maxwell, both of which gave no specific direction on the subject.

Finally comes Poul Jorgensen. He too suggested tapering the end of the tinsel, but unlike the rest he shows tying from front to back to front, "...like the floss."

Another question recently raised was which do I prefer, metal or mylar tinsel? The answer to that and the initial question go along together.

Bill McMillan, a superb steelhead fly tier, showed me some years ago that he preferred wrapping mylar tinsel from back to front. He avoided separation/gaps by very slightly overlapping
the mylar. It was pliable enough that it could be molded in such a way as to not look overlapped except on very close inspection.

I respect Bill with utmost regard, but never felt comfortable using that method on anything but fishing flies. Also, I found mylar slippery upon itself to the point that it could easily separate or slip onto an adjacent wrap unintention?ally, many times going unnoticed until further steps had been completed; a most frustrating situation. My hope was that by wrapping as Jorgensen suggested, from front to back to front, might improve matters. This did avoid, through a double layer of tinsel, any bare spots; but it did not solve the overlap.
I had been opposed to metal tinsel due to it?s tendency to cut thread at a most inopportune moment. But, with experience, I learned how to better handle it so that thread cutting is now a rare occurrence.

My approach is to taper the end of the 16 gauge or smaller tinsel, tying at the front on the near side with three wraps and with the taper to the right. I then wind over a flat, smooth thread base back to the back of the body or ,joint, make a clean turn of direction, return to the front, remove all three wraps holding the tapered end, replace those three wraps to now tie off both ends and trim them.

Now the fine tuning part: the metal tinsel is easier for me to control in this fashion because as I wrap every five to six wraps I can slide adjacent wraps securely against, but not overlapping on another. A critical area is the turn around. The problem is having a broad tinsel overlap and smash the butt, come up short, or if very lucky on rare occasion be just right. I have found that by using narrower tinsels the turn around is easier in and of itself. Also reaching it cleanly is easier. By adjusting the tightness or very slight separation of the wraps coming from the front, I can always be in the right place when I need to be. The turn around is made of three wraps. The first goes back meeting the butt, followed by a wrap perpendicular to the shank, followed by the first actual forward wrap. Again, especially with narrow tinsel, it is easily and cleanly achieved. The wrap back up, periodically sliding the wraps back into one another for a very tight, flat body that shows no separations or overlaps.

So why go to the extra trouble to make the extra wraps? History doesn?t suggest it. I suppose, in my opinion, it is a nicer end product if executed will. I confess it is more difficult. I would encourage you to try both ways and see which works the best for you. We must remember that with salmon flies there are no absolutes except those we make for ourselves. If you doubt that, I raise a simple question: what is a traditional salmon fly?

Then one final teaser. If you tie only back to front, where will you start the tinsel? Would it be on the top "above the ribbing" as Hale suggested, or "next to the oval" on the side as Kelson suggested, or " on the undersurface of the hook shank" as Pryce Tannatt states?? And does it matter.