Many of us will take a large box or container and throw in some materials and a few
tools to be taken to a different location to tie. This might be to your club, to a class,
to a friends or wherever you might find yourself.
Fly-Tying is a social as well as an artistic endeavor, and if you have not shared a bench
or a table with those of a like mind, you are missing a very valuable part of the experience.
In traveling we must necessarily take along our tools and materials. The afore mentioned
box or container is perfect for carrying everything you need for the outing, but, it does not
afford much protection for your tools. These will shift and bang and grate on each other
as the box is jostled during transport. Now there are some very elaborate kits made for travel,
and if you are of a mind and have the resources by all means get one. Many of is however do
not tie enough away from home to justify that sort of expenditure. We can still however
protect our tools from harm.
In the photo above the scissors are in a rather perilous position. The points are exposed and
positioned right next to our vice and it hardened jaws. If this box gets dropped or jarred
suddenly, guess who is going to lose their scissors. (Remember a good pair of scissors
will set you back about twenty bucks a pair.)
The picture above shows our scissors, and another old friend, surgical tubing. This stuff
comes in different inside diameters and is cheap. A few feet of various sizes will set you
back only a buck or two, but it can save you many times its cost.
Cut a piece of the tubing to fit over your scissors tips, leaving an extra ¼" or so beyond the tip.
Now when you throw them into your travel box they will be protected from harm and you will
be spared the anguish of ruining your good scissors. (The tubing will also help protect that
$130.00 vice in the picture from getting its aluminum tubing all scratched up by the scissors points.)
You can also cover the ceramic tube on your bobbins, your bodkin and any other tools,
which have a point or fragile tips that might get damaged in transport.
If you have any tips or techniques, send them along, most of this
material has been stolen from somebody, might as well steal your ideas
too! ~ George E. Emanuel
(Chat Room Host Muddler)
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