Fuller's earth

[Traditionalist]

Fuller´s Earth is a fine abrasive material which was at one time used for "fulling" cloth.. You only need to use it once to "de-glint" your leader. After that, a wipe with a small sponge with dilute detergent is sufficient to keep the leader clean and degreased.

The other point here, is that you should not use it on fly-lines.  It abrades the surface coating!  Somebody on one of the forums was having severe problems, after cleaning his intermediate line with armor-all.  Of course you should not use stuff like this on your lines anyway, unless you know exactly what you are doing, and why, but a lot of suggestions were then made, including rubbing down with Fuller´s Earth. THIS WILL NOT WORK!

The only way to remove heavy grease, silicone, and stuff like armor-all from an intermediate or sinking line, is to rub it down with alcohol. Usually a wash in soapy water suffices for removing normal grease and dirt.

Intermediate lines which have grease or stuff like armor-all on them, will not penetrate the surface film! They behave exactly like greased silk lines. Rubbing them with detergent only solves the problem temporarily, as the detergent destroys surface tension around the line, but as soon as it washes off, after a couple of casts at the latest! You have the same problem again.

Further, if you use detergent ( or Fuller´s Earth mixed with detergent), on a dry fly leader. Then it can happen that your dry fly sinks! This is because the detergent destroys the surface tension, and that is what allows the fly to float! ( Regardless of the floatant used !). So, after degreasing a dry fly tippet and leader, rinse it well before you cast to a fish.

Even a tiny amount of detergent destroys surface tension over a wide area. One should only use very small amounts, and well diluted. To make up a paste for use on leaders etc. which will not dry out quickly, add a few drops of dilute detergent and a few drops of glycerine to a small amount of Fuller's earth.  Keep this in a screw lid or snap lid container. ( Old film can, if you can get one! ).  Just pull your leader through this to deglint and degrease it.

More information;  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuller%27s_earth

Many types of cat litter are Fuller's earth;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_litter

TL
MC