Published Aug 2. 2023 - 1 year ago
Updated or edited Aug 2. 2023

A couple of leaders from Sweden

A couple of HL Leonard leaders were added to LeaderCalc thanks to Swedish Johan Algén

LeaderCalc is still growing and expanding, and just before the summer vacation, I got a mail from Sweden:

Dear Mr Joergensen

Some years ago I contacted you and asked if you had the formula for HL Leonard hand-tied leaders. You were kind enough to ask around, but could not find any.

Last year I was able to secure two original hand-tied HL Leonard leaders in their original package, 9 ft 4x and 9 ft 5x. I have now measured the diameter, by micrometer, on the different sections as well as the length of the sections. I enclose the measurements in case you are interested in including them into the LeaderCalc.

4x

Diameter (mm) Length (cm)
0.50 44 (including perfection loop)
0.43 52
0.37 47
0.34 47
0.265 47
0.18 47.5


5x

Diameter (mm) Length (cm)
0.48 44.5 (including perfection loop)
0.435 45.5
0.39 46
0.31 47
0.225 50
0.16 50.5



Considering that these leaders are hand-tied I am not surprised that the length of the different sections differ.



Kind regards



Johan Allgén

I was of course thrilled! A new leader formula for the ever expanding tool. And even measured from original leaders, most likely tied by the originator – or at least someone in his company LH Leonard Rod Co.

I wrote back:

Johan,

Thanks so much for the leader formulas! I will add them to the tool as soon as I get the time.

>Considering that these leaders are hand-tied
>I am not surprised that the length of the different sections differ.

No, my guess is that it won't be totally wrong if you were to assume that they were made up of sections of 45 and 50 centimeters - or most likely 18 and 20 inches.

But I'll use your measures and add a note about the origin of the measures and the above considerations.

Hälsningar från Danmark

Martin

Johan and I agreed about the measurements that they probably followed a more stringent formula, but varied as hand tied leaders do.

Johan wrote:

I have no idea why I am writing to you in English since you probably understand my Swedish as well as I understand your Danish. So let’s switch language (Note: The text is translated below!).

Trevligt att du tyckte tafsarna var intressanta. Jag håller med dig om att tafsarna säkerligen var tänkta att byggas upp av sektioner som var 45cm och en tafsspets på 50cm. Det är så jag knyter mina kopior.

Jag bifogar två foton på tafsarna. Där kan du se att man angivit buttens diameter till .021 vilket skulle motsvara 0,53mm. 4x tafsens butt mätte jag upp till 0,50mm och 5x till 0,48mm. Fast det är ju ingen ovanlighet att tillverkare av tafsmaterial anger en diameter som skiljer sig från verkligheten.

Ha en fortsatt bra dag och tack för en fantastisk site

Johan Allgén

Nice that you found the leaders interesting. I agree with you that the leaders were most likely intended to be built up in sections that were 45 cm and a tippet of 50 cm. This is how I tie my copies.

I am attaching two photos of the leaders. There you can see that the butt diameter was specified as .021”, which should correspond to 0.53mm. The 4x leader butt I measured to 0.50mm and the 5x to 0.48mm. It is not uncommon for manufacturers of leader material to indicate a diameter that differs from reality.

Have a good day and thanks for a fantastic site

HL Leonard 4x
HL Leonard 5x
The original leaders
Johan Algén

I used the measurements to make the formula (which uses percentages for each section), and added the leaders to the tool. They can now be found here.

That’s how these formulas keep coming. If you have a leader that you love – your own formula or someone else’s, feel free to share it, and I’d be more than happy to add it to the almost 2,900 leaders already found in LeaderCalc.

.

Log in or register to pre-fill name on comments, add videos, user pictures and more.
Read more about why you should register.
 

Since you got this far …


The GFF money box

… I have a small favor to ask.

Long story short

Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.

Long story longer

The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.

See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.