Some of you use it.

Some of you don't.

I keep hearing that not using it because you 'whip finish' seems to work fine...

Some things to think about....

What does the average 'regular' head cement do? Does it really 'cement' or 'glue' the thread? Does it really 'seal' the threads so they don't soak up water? (one reason why using them on dry fly makes more sense if the weight of the water the thread absorbs will be more than the 'weight' of the cement itself..I just don't know, but it bears consideration).

The ones that 'penetrate' the thread are certainly more likely to aid in durability...but does just one application of lacquer (Sally's, hardware store lacquer, many 'fly specific' head cements are basically types of Lacquer) or a water based acrylic or polyurethane do enough to really help? But, many of our threads are 'waxed'...I 'think' that the solvent based head cements will penetrate the wax, operative word think, but I'm pretty sure that the wax will keep out a good amount of the water based stuff...that's why we wax the threads...to seal them so that they don't fray as much? so dubbing will stick? to help keep water out?...I 'think'...

If you don't use it, can the cycle of absorbing water, then drying out, repeated a few times weaken ANY head knot? The threads we use for tying do elongate and then shrink when going through the absorb water/dry out cycle....

I know that it's been years since a fly head 'came apart' on me, and I only use head cement on patterns where I want the head to be 'shiny' or 'show' as part of the pattern.....but I use up a lot of lies when I fish and few go more than a trip or two before they are 'expended'.

Would switching to a CA glue with NO knot be more efficient and give you a stronger head that is really 'sealed'? I've begun using this on spun deer hair flies, mostly for convenience, it sticks and holds the gel spun thread I use for this really well, and they are lasting as long as those that I 'whip finished', maybe longer.

So many of us do without head cement on many flies, makes you wonder why it's the 'historical norm' to use it? Whip finishing has been around for longer than I've been alive, and I know that even a couple of properly applied half hitches is plenty secure as a 'knot' goes. Why do most of the guys who do this for real all use head cement?

I've heard guys that tie commercially say that they use head cement on flies they tie 'for sale' but not on their own flies....that begets the question..if it's 'better' to use it, why not do so on ALL of your flies?? It's not like it takes more than a second or so to apply...you don't save any time and the stuff is arguably the cheapest part of fly tying...if it's 'better' don't you also deserve the 'best' from your own tying? Conversely, if you are doing fine without uisng it, catching lots of fish and not having any failure problems, why do it on ANY flies, even if they are for 'sale'?? I've never heard a 'customer' say he wouldn't buy a fly because he couldn't see that head cement had been used on it....I seriously doubt that 99% of the fly buying public EVER looks at that part of a fly (unless it's a pattern where the 'head' is part of the pattern, like the glossy heads on streamers, etc.).

I've been in a couple of shops when they open up boxes of flies..the lacquer smell is pretty evident.....how does THAT effect teh flies performance? Can the fish detect it? I often wonder...

I know I'm rambling, been a long week...but I do wonder about all of this stuff...

Buddy