Cement and Wax Question

[RiverEagle]

Since I decided to advance to tying flies , what would you recomend for the head cement/glue I should use ? For my jigs been using Sally Hansen clear hard as nails . Use my bodkin to dab on the clear coat on the jigs , that's what I used on my first 2 flies last night that I tied . Would just plain good ol bee's wax be ok to use for dubbing ? Thanks

[Eric-WD]

I use beeswax for a lot of things, mostly for keeping materials from seperating ie floss etc. For dubing wax, try it with nothing, try it with bees wax if you have it. if that doesnt do it for you try one of the commercial dubbing waxes. the biggest problem with dubbing is just using too much.

for head cement Sally Hansen is great stuff, if you asked all the tiers in the US I suspect 50% would be using Sallys.
(a Tip... cut the Sallys brush about half as long and about half as thick and it will work much better.)


Are you going through the beginning tying section here on faol? its a great place to start I also like

http://kwsu.org/Offers/FlyTying.aspx

Eric

[ScottP]

I heart SHHAN (Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails). Don't use wax too much any more since most of my thread is pre-waxed; when I need it I have a stick of Wonder Wax. Beeswax is an old standard.

Regards,
Scott

[RiverEagle]

Yes sir I am ,

[JohnScott]

... on what kinds of flies you are tying and what you are trying to accomplish.

Having said that, I haven't used wax or head cement for years. ( I do use flex seal on some deer hair bulletheads to strengthen them, but that's about it. )

Just making the point that you may not need cement and wax. You might be better off starting without them and determine for yourself whether you want to add either or both to your tying process.

John

[AlanB]

I've never understood what wax has to do with dubbing. I do know why wax was originally used in fly tying, two reasons;
1. To prevent silk thread rotting.
2. To help grip snelled horse hair onto blind irons.
As we mostly use synthetic threads and tie on eyed hooks those reasons don't apply. Why use it then.
Dubbing doesn't require wax. The reason many people use wax is that they think a dubbing noodle should stick to the thread. It doesn't - it sticks to itself around the thread. Dubbing is the same process as felting, Wax isn't used in felting, so why is it needed in dubbing? Even touch dubbing doesn't need it. I have touch dubbed spiders with wire bodies, the only thread is at the head for the hackle. The dubbing on the wire is fine and doesn't fall off.

As for head cement I recently got some of this. It is expensive but the advantage of having instantly dry heads is worth it for me. I find a rack of drying flies on the bench attracts any loose bits of fluff like a magnet. With this one coat and a quick blast with the laser gives perfect heads. It is harder than anything else I have tried.

Cheers,
A.

[hap]

New tyers benefit greatly from good sticky wax... I carry a small ball on the back of my right, middle finger, a la Davie McPhail. For full dress flies I use it constantly to help thread grip materials with minimal wraps. For dubbing brushes it makes all the difference and allows any dubbing to hang on the wire well enough to make brushes as sparse as desired... Full-dress, speys, dees, well streamers in general; and nymphs are where I use the most wax...

Actually felting is a very different process from dubbing and usually requires heat or agitation to get the fibers to ravel and lock.
art

[pittendrigh]

The stuff you mentioned forms a great start.
You won't go broke for at least a few more years yet.

My only quibble would be with "advance to tying flies."
Succombe and regress might be better word choices.
:=))

[AlanB]

Felting isn't that different. Heat, well we apply pressure, agitation we rub dubbing. It just isn't carried out to the extreme that felting is. It is the same property of the material that makes felting possible that we exploit in dubbing.

Cheers,
C.

[DG]

I haven't used wax in many years, or head cement in 20 or more. When I did use wax, a low-cost product that worked well was bowstring wax.

Remember, there are no rules in fly tying.