How to heat a bodkin?

Anyone know a good way to heat a bodkin?

I use a heated bodkin or sometimes a bent paperclip to put a bend in monofilliment or other plastics. (Especially useful for legs.) The mono will bend right around the heated bodkin and then stay that way.

Is there an easy way to heat a bodkin? I have used a lighter which works but it takes both hands and is not very convienent. I tried using a candle tonight and that worked OK, but it was messier, more soot, than a lighter and there is something about leaving an open flame on my tying desk that makes me a little nervous.

Anyone have a trick they'd be willing to share?

Thanks,
Rex

You might try an electric soldering iron that has a stand. You would want one that let's you set the bodkin needle against it with some stability. You would probably want a variable heat model.

Rex,

If you do a lot of this type of work in your tying, then you may want to progress past the heated bodkin altogether.

There is a tool made for jewelers. Basically a control box with a heated stylus attached by a wire. These are used to carve the wax models of rings, settings, etc., that are used in the lost wax casting process for gold, silver, etc.. The basic tool has a small (about 1/16 diameter) cylinder that heats up protruding from a pencil sized 'handle'. You can buy different 'tips' that fit over this, but for bending mono, burning holes in deer hair, most tying bench requirements, the bare cylinder works great.

The tool has a variable heat control (keeps you from melting through the mono). It reaches temperature quickly, about 30 seconds for 'high', and turns on and off with a simple toggle switch. The one I have has a 'built in' holder for the hot stylus on top of the control box. They aren't expensive ($20-$30) and are much easier and 'safer' to use than an open flame/heated bodkin. You can get them anywhere jewelry making supplies are sold.

I got mine used, from a friend, and have found lots of uses for it in fly tying and rodbuilding.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Thanks for the replys. I thought about maybe trying a soldering iron, but the one I have gets so hot that I'd probably hurt myself with it, so I haven't tried it yet.

Buddy, that jewelry tool sounds interesting. I'm going to see if I can find one of those. I was hoping that there was something like that out there.

Thanks!
Rex

Hi Rex,
My suggestion is just to get one of the flytier's hot point cautery tools. It will run about $24 from Chris Helms but is well worth it. I have had mine now for about 5-6 yrs and I just a few months ago point a replacement tip for it because I dropped it while cleaning up my tying desk.
It can be used for burning eyes in deerhair poppers, cleaning up stray hackle hairs, removing glue from the eyes of hooks, and cleaning off materials from hooks for salvage, and does a very good job on mono eyes and legs.
Chris helms is owner of Whitetail Flytying Supplies and has authored several tying videos and probably books as well. He is the deer hair guru and a really nice guy to do biz with. If I can locate his phone number and/or an e-mail addy I will re-post to this thread later. Also, I think Feathercraft and Cabela's carries them as well.

Rex,

Perhaps an alcohol lamp. I believe it does not leave a residue. Second to that, one of the disposable cautery devices.

Allan

I have had good results using my butane powered cordless soldering iron. I used wraps of copper wire to attach a large sewing needle to the tip. The 3" long needle dissipates the heat enough that the tip of the needle will bend rather than cut the 20 lbs mono I use for legs.

Radio Shack sells a variable power/speed control device that can be used with an electric pencil style soldering iron, this would give you more control.

I used to use a bodkin heated in an alchohol lamp, but it was very difficult to get consistant heat control. The bodkin needle doesn't have much mass, so it cooled or heated too quickly for a consistant temperature. Putting a large split shot on the needle helped, but the soldering iron works better....