As an afterthought- when you do restring, I think this is a case for 10 pound weight PowerPro beading thread if I ever saw one.
10 Pound weight, doubled, takes 20 pounds of pull to break; silk at the same thickness breaks easily.
I have never had to ream out a pearl since I started using it. It is a woven tube and elongates easily easily to fit through tight spaces. Silk can't do that. It makes tiny perfect knots when you use the 2 thread knotting technique. When the knots are properly seated, there will never be a gap, because it won't visibly stretch out.
Unlike silk, pearls strung with PowerPro can be easily washed in anything good for pearls and hung up to dry.
PPro strung pearls can be worn in the shower or the ocean and won't rot from being wet because PPro sheds water quickly.
It is not absorbent in and of itself. It will get dirty when worn, in bracelets especially, but it is just dirt trapped between the fibers, not absorbed by the fiber as silk does.
It does not tangle easily and untangles easier than any other thread I have ever used. I can untangle messes when I would just throw silk in the same mess away without trying.
The downsides include that the beading thread only comes in white and moss green, which as a gray green though it tends to disappear when used for dark pearls. The other colors are meant for fishing line only and do run. The heavier weights can be rough on the fingers. It needs special cutters to cut. Ordinary scissors don't work. Though Fiskars kid scissors work very well, they are too thick to cut strands apart. So I use the little clippers made of one piece of steel and have extremly sharp points. They are inexpensive and I buy them several at a time.
In spite of its drawbacks, it is my favorite knotting thread and all others are disappointing to use in comparison- except for the lack of colors. Silk always sounds luxurious, but it is not a great thread for knotting.
I have been stringing and knotting since 1966, when I made my first strand of Love Beads in the Haight Ashbury and gave them to my future husband who still wears them. The first time I strung them I used monofiliment fishing line- the worst choice possible and I have since tried everything that has come along from artificial sinew to hemp thread, including linen thread, cotton thread and any other spun fiber I could find, including other nylon and polyester stringing threads. His necklace is now strung on PPro and that is probaly the last time I will have to restring it.
I think several of the manmade threads are better than silk for strength and durability. Sarah uses one from Japan that is great and Bernadette uses the Australian equivalent. Then there is that Dandyline from Beadalon- More colors and less rough, but not as easy to work with, it needs to be waxed and it is still slippery and tangly.
Silk thread is what keeps the pearl knotters on contract to jewelers. The need for restringing would go down by 90% if PPro were the only thread used. Still, I wish it came in just a few more colors....
