Is this a fleeting bout of depression?
Hi John,
I don't know how serious you are or if you are just experiencing a fleeting moment of depression because the season is closing down. If you are serious, destroying a couple of hundred flies is probably not the way to go. As Orthoman points out, scraping down flies with a razor blade is not a pleasant task and far too much work just to gain hooks. You often damage the finish on the hooks and leave them prone to rust. Using razor blades for anything but shaving always turns out badly for me anyway. I didn't pick the name Eight Thumbs by accident. If starting totally from scratch still seems like a good idea, why not do what Chris from Canada does and offer the unwanted flies to our FAOL members who don't tie their own.
If I were you, i would just start tying some new boxes of flies for spring and see where that leads in a couple of months. In all likelihood, you will want to transfer some of your older flies to those new boxes. In answer to your question, I'm pretty pleased with my fly boxes, though they are a little empty now. Take care! 8T :)