Since Sylvester Nemes signed my copy of the "Soft Hackled Fly" at Toronto's Fly Fishing Forum in 1991, I've been an occasional user of silk tying-thread.
When it comes to tying Yorkshire soft hackles or Leisenring & Hidy's flymphs, I've always used Pearsall's size-A Gossamer silk thread. With two Matarelli Mini bobbins & a selection Gossamer silk colours I was set up for quite a while.
But, being an organic material silk deteriorates with age (Don't we all?), even if it's stored in a cool dark place. Some of my silk stash seems to have passed its best before date. Tiny fluffy white balls have formed on the surfaces of some of my threads.
Since Pearsall's has stopped manufacturing, Gossamer (particularly in the popular colours of: 6A orange, 3 Primrose, 4 Yellow, 9 Black, 8 Purple, 12 Cardinal. 13 Claret) has been getting increasingly scarce or unobtainable. I looked into Japanese silk threads that had some lovely colours, but they seemed too thick as tying silk.
While looking for some {locally) hard to come by Wapsi mini & micro-mini mink zonker strips, I stumbled on a Canadian source in Massey, ONTARIO: flymart.ca. (no affiliation)
Here I found both the mink I wanted & I also saw a page of "Ephemera" silk thread from France that looked real interesting.
Having silk thread on a standard-sized wooden spool peaked my interest (100 meters of it too), so I ordered what looked like a Gossamer's 6A orange: Soie-Ephemera #625 Orange.
https://flymart.ca/product/4661/ephemer ... ing-threadNot a bad price at 3.90 CAD. Because of COVID, I waited for more than a month, within Canada.
Anyway, I was delighted when my packet arrived, particularly because the Ephemera silk's spool exactly fit my standard Tiemco bobbin.
This silk does not appear to be as tightly twisted as the English silk & is not wound on the spool as tightly as the old Gossamer thread. However, when tying right-handed, the thread naturally twists tighter.
I quickly put an old Partridge Roman Moser barbless dry hook (#10) in my vise, grabbed my Hungarian partridge box & started tying a thoraxed Partridge & Orange.
Instead of tying in the soft hackle by the tip as is my custom, I followed Dave Hughes' (author of Wet Flies) advice, to tie on the hackle butt-first, then wrap a body. Also, instead of wrapping the collar forward, I wound it backward onto the dubbed thorax then wound the the silk forward through the collar. This method locks down the delicate partridge collar fibers & produces a smaller head than if I'd tie off the thicker stem, then wrap the silk head on top.
When the fly was placed in water, the colour of the silk turned to a shade of orange similar to a "wet" Gossamer 6A. Normally I finish of a soft hackle fly with a waxed silk head, no cement. This time I tried out Loon's water based cement.
The colour of the head on the Partridge & Orange soft hackle below is like the exact colour of the "wet" Ephemera silk. This tying-silk is a definite keeper!
Next, I'd like to get a spool of primrose, dark brown & black.
I am confident that some folks here on FFR may have used this brand of silk thread, either for tying flies or perhaps for whipping guides on rods.
If you have any experiences with Soie-Ephemera threads or flosses, please share them. I sure would be interested.