For the life of me I can't figure out how to use the Thompson whipper. I have watched people do it and it looks so simple and controlled but it still eludes me.
For the life of me I can't figure out how to use the Thompson whipper. I have watched people do it and it looks so simple and controlled but it still eludes me.
I started tying when I was 10 years of age. My mentor whip finished by hand. So this how I did mine for over50 years. ( am now 76).
At different times I tried to learn to use one of the tools. I even had many different top name tiers show and help me.
I still could not make it work. I tied commercially for many years but always whipped by hand. I can hold onto the scissors or lay them down. I find no difference in speed, either way I whip .Several years ago, shortly after a teaching class I was conducting, had a student ask me how to use one of the tool. I felt stupid when I had to admit I did not know how to use the tools. I also was doing a fly for the FOTW and after blowing the photo up for a desk top picture I saw how badly my hand whipped head looked. I looked in the beginners fly tying section, done by my friend Al. This was all I needed to master the tools. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...ners/part5.php
There are many locations and videos where one might learn this easily used tool. I can now place the thread wraps onto my flies with perfection. My speed is where I think it should be. I do not think anyone can (with speed) hand whip as perfectly as one can do it with the tools.
Sometimes when I am tying for my own fishing I still hand whip. For flies that I want to be perfect, I grab up one of the tools and seldom hold onto the scissors.
If you think your hand whipped heads are good, I suggest you take a photo of one and blow it up to fill your monitor. You might want to learn to use one of these lil tools.
I feel no mater how you tie you should enjoy tying. Do not make it difficult.
Go fishin
Denny
I think a lot depends on the style of fly one tye's.
I am glad I learned how to whip finish buy hand . I use a Thompson whip finisher also .
Here is an online example of both whip finishing with hand and whip tool with scissors held in hand...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8NBayu7_Gk
Hope you enjoy!
Looking forward to some of your "original", "fresh" posts.Originally Posted by Steven
I actually learned to whip finish using a handmade tool - a toothpick, some 2 lb., some thread and some Sally Hanson's. Yes it involved some steps but it was easily done and I was not trying to produce a few dozen flies at one sitting. I work alot with scouts and teach them how to make some of their own tying tools. It's fun watching them when they start tying on a vice they made themselves to start all the way to whip finishing the fly with their own homemade tool. By the time they are finished they have about 6-7 different hand made tools to start tying with. It's a great way to "hook" a kid onto fly tying.
I've picked up the how-to for many of these tools through books as well as the internet (Thanks Ed - AKA Extreely Low Budget FF). Be aware I've been tying for about 35 years now and now use a store bought vice and other tools and the cost - spread over all those years is a drop in the bucket - but just starting out. well lets just say the scouts (as well as their parents) are more at ease spending abou $10 on tools to start thier tying life with than the hundreds one can spend to BEGIN their fly tying life.
I've got an old book called FLIES by a guy named J. Edson Leonard.
It was written a long time ago, published originally in 1950.
He advocates using a 'whip finisher' that was a simple piece of old rod tip or other thin section of stock with a loop of strong thread (he used silk) hanging off the end. It was used like the pull through loops used in wrapping rod guides. (I'd guess this is the type of tool that WWKimba has his Scouts making).
In his book, Leonard acknowledged the recent invention of the 'metal tools' but called them difficult to use and if not used 'properly' could leave an exposed portion of thread that if cut destroyed the knot.
He called 'hand whipping' a 'parlor trick that was innacurate at best and sloppy at it's worst'.
He also stated that bucktail was a poor material for flies and it would quickly fade from widespread use.
Fun to read this old stuff. The differences in mindset alone are enlightening.
Buddy
It Just Doesn't Matter....
I've never learned to do it by hand and probably never will, but I admire the heck out of those who can. Never felt like less of a tier for it.
The most valuable thing I've learned about fly fishing is just how little I really know.
"With integrity, nothing else matters. Without integrity, nothing else matters." ~ Winston Churchill
There are a lot of Old Timers (I guess I am considered a youngster at 53 even though I get AARP spam) who will argue in favor of a Hand Whip Finish.
I can do it, but find I put a much neater head on the Fly when I use my Whip Finish Tool. I reckon it just comes down to personal preference and what tying techniques you are comfortable with !!!
Lots of laughs DUB. Come back after we discuss the best 5 weight.
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