Stiff Bobbin Threaders

[okflyfisher]

What do you guys love for bobbin threaders. The wire ones do not get it for me,by the end of a season or 2 I have them all bent out of shape. Is there a stiff bobbin threader?

[Fatman]

Don't use one I get the thread up into the tube and then leaving a little bit of loose thread suck it out the top of the bobbin.

Fatman

[James Smith]

I don't use traditional bobbin threaders either. I use the stiff nylon floss threaders available at your local Walmart or any other pharmacy. They cost a couple of bucks for 50 of them and they never wear out. I have a tool caddy that I made for my desk. At the end of the tool caddy you can see a tower look thing that holds my Nor-Vise bobbins. I just keep a couple of the nylon floss threaders on one of the rubber washers. It's always right where I can reach it and while I have lost a few by dropping them, I have never actually worn one out.




Jim Smith

[narcodog]

Floss threaders for me. I do have an older Renzetti that has a tube cleaning end to so I can clean wax residue from the tube but I very seldom use the wire on the other end for threading the thread.

[aged_sage]

During my "introduction" presentation to the students in our club's fly tying course, my comment to them is that "The Good Lord gave you the best bobbin threader ever! Your lips and lungs! It is always with you wherever you are and it never gets lost in the debris on your tying table. You always know precisely where it is!" And then I demonstrate the 'suck-it-through' technique, after which I tell them a cleaned-up version of a friends comments about the guy in the shop who insisted that he needed a $2.50 threader, and then after paying for it, when asked about a tying technique, the guy in the shop picked up a bobbin and sucked the thread through the tube!

In my nearly 40 years of tying, I have tried them all and find the 'suction' technique to be the quickest and easiest most of the time! It typically does not work well if there is a wax build-up in the tube or if the end of the thread is frayed from breaking. Always cut the end of the thread off square with your scissors before using this method.

A bobbin tube can be easily de-waxed by putting the bobbin in boiling water for a few minutes with the tube tip pointed upwards. The wax inside melts and floats out to the top of the water. No harm done to the bobbin.

[Normand]

i'm using the new marc petitjean bobbin holder. no threaders or sucking required

[Panman]

Like the others I use the huff & puff method. Once in a while I have a problem with it and then I use a long sewing needle. However if I keep the bobbins clean (run them through the dish washer) I seldom have to resort to the needle.

Tim

[Gemrod]

The bobbin threaders that are very small gauge wire with the octagon handle are easy to bend or ruin. I have no trouble with the bigger gauge bobbin threaders from Griffin Enterprises. If one is only minutely careful they should last forever. I think they come four in a set anyway. I am aware of the suction method. Not my favorite method.

I have used the dental floss ones as well. They are ok, but a little small on the gauge size as well. One day I couldn't find one. I couldn't seem to get the thread started in the tube end to suck it up either. I remembered I had a small traveling hand broom and dust pan which had blue fibers. Click, lightbulb lit. I pulled out one plastic fiber and super glued it into a loop. But then it was too short. So I pulled out another fiber and super glued it to the first one for an extension. Works PERFECT. It is bigger gauge than the dental floss but still flexible, and therefore a little easier to handle for me. So it has become my favorite to use above all the others.

As long as I can find that little hand broom....I have a lifetime supply. Probably a lot of plastic fiber brooms out there that you may already have in your house that may work. I'm thinking the regular long handled brooms probably won't work though. Fibers probably too big.

[Wes]

that's a very nice bobbin norman but for 50 bux i think i'll continue to "struggle" with the old style.

[Normand]

that's a very nice bobbin norman but for 50 bux i think i'll continue to "struggle" with the old style.

youre absolutely right

its not for everybody but i can afford a luxury every now and then!