Painted Eyes

[Jack Hise]

I was rummaging through my fly tying "Junk" drawer and found a "Bright Sights" paint kit. It contained 6 small vials of paint for applying to gun sights. Orange, Green and Yellow "High Visability" and Orange, Green and Yellow "Ghost Glow". I had just tied some weighted flys with very small dumb bell eyes so you can guess whats coming next! Using a tooth pick I applied some Hi Vis green to the eyes, Wow!! Can't wait to try the glow in the dark!
One of the warnings on the box is that it will not wash out of clothing so it should be of some use on flys.

[ducksterman]

Jack,
One thing you may want to check...it's been discussed before...if you want to coat your eyes with say Sally Hansen's be sure it won't smear or run the paint...acrylic paint works....

[flyandtie]

Good point ducks.

Sounds cool jack, I have always used nail polish...

[bonefish1]

Painting dumbell eyes has always been a hassle for me, especially making suitable drying racks for them. Through trial and error I found that Testor's model paint seems to work the best and is the most durable. However, recently I read an article where there was a reference to using powdered paint to paint them. Has anyone ever tried it? If so, what's the technique and materials that are used? Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.

[dudley]

...... especially making suitable drying racks for them.

I have a very high-tech solution for this.
I I take a large tooth (hair) comb and put a clothes pin on each end to stabilize it so it will stand teeth up.
I then stick the eyes to be painted in the comb teeth
(you can see why a small comb would not work)
I can then paint more in one shot than I will probably need in a whole season

[Mark k]

The powered paint requires you to heat the lead and then dip it into the paint powder. I have a friend that makes Crappie jigs that uses it. Seems to me the powder paint could work on the main color of the dumbell eyes but might be a pain to use for the pupil.

[rookie]

I have used the powdered paint quite a bit. I use a pair of hemostats to hold the center between the eyes, heat, dip into the powder and reheat to cure the paint. It works very well until you get to the smaller dumbells. The heat is too intense for the smaller lead eyes and causes the small bar between the eyes to bend. Just my experience. Maybe someone has found a remedy for this.