On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:40:16 -0600, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

rw wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
rw wrote:
My philosophy is empiricism and utilitarianism. IOW, check it out and
whatever works.

To that end, I searched out the gnarliest old Rio leader I could
find, took it from the package, and immersed it in hot (not boiling)
water. It straightened out just fine, tippet and all. It didn't seem
to be weakened in any obvious way, although I didn't actually test
the breaking point. ...

I didn't hear anyone argue that immersion in hot water wouldn't
straighten a leader. All of roff agrees, you can straighten a
nylon monofilament leader by immersing it in hot water.

It's a bad idea and bad advice and I wouldn't trust the leader
itself or the knots made with it, but it'll be straight, no doubt.

It appears to be a perfectly fine leader, just like one straightened by
hand, only straighter. ...

Well Mr. Empiricism get back to us after you use it.

Here's my final word on leader straightening:

Never use anything other than your bare fingers to straighten
a leader. If you can't straighten a leader with your bare
fingers the leader is defective.

Er, no. That's not proof it _is_ defective, only that it has been
exposed to heat at least high enough to "form" it, and unless you know
how high, of what type and of what duration that heat was, it should be
_considered_ unsuitable for fishing. Heck, use it for casting practice,
to hang holiday ornaments, etc., just don't risk, um, "casting" it
adrift on the water.

TC,
R