Hers something I do, with my vises, don’t know if you would think it a good idea, I don’t really see all that great and not that bad either, but I learned from the folks on this site that the back ground in seeing a fly helps out alot, so I have a 9x12 inch piece of sky blue foam that I get in the craft section to lay on my table b-4 I set up my vice, it helps me alot when tying, makes seeing the fly alot eaiser…
Grubb,
I also mounted a piece of light colored construction paper on the shelving just behind my vise and that helps a lot too.
Grubb,
What you did will really help and another thing you can do is take a piece of 1"X 2" X 6" long wooden block and run it through a table saw and cut a groove long way down the middle at an angle. In this groove you can insert a piece of colored cardboard and then put this block of wood on your tying table behind your vise. You can position the wooden block where ever you need it so that the cardboard sticks up and forms a background for your fly. Have it angle away from your fly. Very easy to make and use plus you can have different colored backgrounds for your different fly patterns. You can have darker backgrounds for your lighter shades of flies and vise versa. I find that an off white, a light colored baby blue and a light gray are the best for my tying. The lighter colored table top helps, but, when you put something on top of it like thread, hackle, etc., it no longer helps. With the cardboard in the slotted wooden block, it is always the background for your fly. Without this background for the fly, your eyes have difficulty focusing only on your fly because of all the other items on your table behind the fly that they keep trying to focus on. Try it and I think you will like it. It does not take up too much space on the fly tying table and make sure to make the cardboard high enough so only the fly is visible to your eyes. Make the slot width whatever the thickness of your cardboard is and it will fit snug and can be changed out easily. An office supply store should have some plastic sign board that is about 1/8" thick that works real well. Usually only coms in white but it is paintable.
Hope this helps,
Last eye exam? Just a small amount of correction for astigmatism can make a big difference. Can’t get that with “readers”. Might have catartacts or other problems too.
Hi Grubb,
That’s great advice and if you couple it with light, lots of light, and more light, we old guys can actually see well enough to tie some pretty good flies. I also like my background color mounted the way GMM suggests, behind the vise. 8T
one more thing, why I use foam , one, cause it cost only .33 cents each and the other is, its soft, and if I drop a small hook, the hook stops where it lands, anything I drop or put on it stays there hackle clippings too, it don’t bounce or slide, thank you guys for the back drop idea , I will incorporate that into my fly tying …