When I designed and tested my tenkara lines, both the Tactical Tenkara Nymphing Line (TTN), and Tenkara Floating Line (TFL), I spent a lot of time on detail. One of those details was the material I would use for the connection loop. I wanted a really strong and grippy material that wouldn’t go limp and slip off the lillian. I found what I was looking for, and by impregnating my connection loops with wax it made them even more grippy, keeping them in firm contact with the lillian, and more resistant to water and ultraviolet light.
My lines are virtually maintenance-free, however you certainly can enhance their “grippy-ness”, especially if you have them for quite a while, or use them often. You need to wax those loops!
Waxing connection loops involves nothing more than rubbing pure natural beeswax into the loop material. I have several bars of 100-percent natural beeswax that I have used for conditioning the bowstrings for my traditional recurve target and hunting bows. I don’t think Bohning is offering these particular bars anymore, but there are plenty of other sources.
These little bars of beeswax are hard, so I cut off a thumbnail sized chunk, put it in a small ceramic bowl, and microwave it for about 30 seconds, or whenever it starts getting a little soft. Then it’s ready to rub into the loop! I rub the warm wax into the loop with my fingers, which helps keep it warm while you’re getting it into the loop material.
How much wax is enough on those loops? Here’s a great test…if you have enough beeswax rubbed into those loops, they will stick straight out like this….
