Chas Let an amateur scientist poke his nose in here for a minute.
Chas There are two components of flotation, one is density, the other
Chas is surface tension. If you treat the silk line, you do 2 things
Chas for it, 1) you reduce it's tendency to get wet and pass through
Chas the surface film, and 2) you delay the time when water starts to
Chas enter the line and add weight. We see the same effect with flies
Chas that we add floatant to. The fly is still too heave to float,
Chas but until it's pushed through the surface film it floats
Chas beautifully.

An excellent point, Chas, and this could very well be the key to
explaining this difference between silk and plastic lines. It never
occurred to me that maybe these lines land so softly that they can
utilize surface tension. Heck, 30' of a 2wt line weighs approximately
5 grams, so weight per inch, for example, is ridiculously small, and
surface tension might very well be the key.

So, hmm, perhaps the difference really is that it is easier to
increase the surface tension of a silk line. Since its surface is
porous, you can treat it easily with floatants.

Once again impressed by what a curious man can learn here. :-)

--
Jarmo Hurri

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