I’m looking to consolidate some of my gadgets.
I currently carry a nippers and a hemostat. I’d like to only carry one gadget instead of two.
I would like to find a well made, quality tool out there that incorporates these features:
hemostat
scissors or nippers
needle for clearing out hook eyes
Smaller is better, preferably made in the USA of quality stainless steel. I want a well made tool that will last forever.
Any suggestions?
Not my cup of tea but here you go:
http://www.drslick.com/products_scissorpliers1.asp
Kai:
My experience with gadgets has always been that one item on a multi tool always stinks so you end up with a tool that does one thing well, one thing OK and, well, you know…
I have an old Orvis tool that incorporated the nippers & scissors and a knife but the nippers were LOUSY! Considering I use nippers the most it’s nice when I need to replace them I only have to replace THEM, and NOT the whole tool.
If you want my advice, consolidate someplace else or take a look at some keyring size Swiss Army knives to give you the scissors you want in a small size.
We are back to bemoaning the demise of the Walton’ Thumb. It had everything one could want or need, exepting the forceps, as we call them, but those have got to be quite large and should be carried elsewhere,surely …Jim Clarke
Kai, I’m with Bamboozle. Two years ago for Christmas I purchased three sets of Dr. Slick #snh4g (hemo/nipper/eye cleaner/crimper.)One for myself and two for other buddies. Our conclusion is that they are high quality tools. The problem is they do everything well with #12 hooks or larger and 4x or larger tippet, but when you need to work with smaller stuff they don’t do anything very well. Here in Montana I fish anything from #20 - #2 hooks and 0x - 6x tippet. I am back with a quality set of hemostats and nippers. By the way, my multi tool now sits at my tying bench to crimp barbs and clean eyes after head cement.
There are several small mitten-type scissor/clamps available from Dr. Slick, Orvis, and others that work well on medium to large flies and tippet, if you can forego the needle (carry a safety pin–basically free, works better, pins on anything, and you’re less likely to stick yourself with it than something attached to a tool that you squeeze in your wet hands). Getting any kind of tool like this “made in the USA” will be much harder. Almost all of these things are made in Asia, due to limitless factory/material/workforce availability. Pakistan is the world capitol for stripping down old ships and recyling the steel. For small flies, I carry, in addition to mosquito forceps, a C&F nipper (made in Japan). It has replaceable blades (comes with 4) that cut against a flat plastic anvil (no blade misalignment), a magnet for holding small flies, a small needle that folds away, and a folding threader (replaceable with the standard C&F selection of threaders). For a midge hatch, I can even load up a threader with flies and forego the box. Doesn’t get any more minimalistic than that!
-CC
Scissors are indeed nice to carry for those on the water trims…I would suggest keeping your eye out for the kind that fold on them selves…they are compact ,inexpensive, but very adequate…
Kai,
Or, you could forget the ‘tool’ idea altogether.
Use your fingers for unhooking fish (spilling a little blood for your sport is not too much of a sacrifice). If the fly won’t come out easily, just cut it off…don’t want to damage the fish.
The hook point of another fly for cleaning out hook eyes. Of couse, you’ll drop this fly into the river, and an absolutly HUGE fish will sip it in as it drifts along, and it will be the last one of that pattern…
Your teeth for trimming knot tags. If you use barbless hooks, the fly will come out of your lip okay. The dentist can fix the accumulated damage for a bit less than $2,000.00 per tooth.
If you need to trim some material/hackle from a fly, chew it off or tear it off with your fingers. Again, barbless for the easy removal from mouth or fingers. Saliva won’t help the fly float, but I did read someplace that some types of fish, suckers, catfish, and such, are actually attracted to it. And, that ragged look is certainly ‘buggy’.
Tools ae cool to have, fun to use, efficient. Heck, the use of tools is probably what separates us from the rest of the dumb animals in the world.
Well, separates the rest of you. I tend to misplace those neat little gadgets. I put them on the vest, but then ‘need’ them for another use someplace else, and they don’t get put back. So, when I get to the water, I don’t HAVE them. Hence, the low tech solutions listed above.
Good luck with your quest.
Buddy
Not to morph the thread too much, but here in Erie you need to be careful about using your teeth to cut tag ends, etc. Seems we have an E-Coli problem in many streams and you may end up doing the two step back to your vehicle. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’ve heard of a few folks who have supposedly had this problem. I had a set of those Dr Slick plyer/forcep/eye gouger gadgets but unfortunately lost my $18 investment to the Susquehanna River the first day I used them. For Clousers, Leeches, etc they worked great - never got the chance to try them on anything smaller.
It is documented, a steelhead fishermen using casting tackle, bit his leader off with his teeth and died from bacteria he piced up from the Rifle River here in Michigan. I have for years used my teeth, I don’t any longer.
Makes you want to take your chances with spinach.
BTW Kai:
If you have you heart set on this ultimate tool you may want to check out the [url=http://www.abelreels.com/pages/perfecttool.htm:ba653]Abel Perfect Tool[/url:ba653].
It meets 99% of your criteria with the exception of being a pair of hemostats.
I have an Abel Multitool that I have been using for a number of years. But like said earlier there is one tool that doe not work so well. Abel may have fixed the problem. I liked all of the tools except the nipper tool. It was not the best for small 5x- 6x tippet. But it has a sissor on it that worked well for that. However, after several years of use the spring for the sissor mechanism broke this year.
I used the hook eye cleaning tool alot mostly for pulling apart “wind knots”. It works well for cleaning hook eyes even on very small flys
I found the file usefull when the hook gets dull. Use it on size 18 and larger flys.
I put the tool on a zinger attached to the inside of my vest and have the knipper or sissor plus the hook eye tool openned out all of the time. I had the zinger pinned to the inside of the vest so that it keeps the tools out of the way. I just reach between the vest and my chest and pull it out to use it.
The small knife was useful. Use it mostly to cut cheese I take along with me.
But it does require having hemostats also. My hemostats have scissor includedd Use that sometimes but I messed this part up cutting tippet off small flys without putting on my reading glasses.
here is what I am talking about