I ordered some materials from jstockard tonight and grabbed up a 3 inch doctor slick ceramic bobbin in the process. seemed the bottom prongs look far apart unlike the 4 inch which looked exactly like mine but with the ceramic. my bobbin was very tough to pull the thread and it snapped regular 6/0 like nothing. my bobbin never worked like the guys in the videos on youtube do. I had to manually twist the spool on the bobbin. this would loosen my thread and sometimes screw up the fly. maybe this will be better and just flow smoothly? will let ya know. I also got 2 hares masks olive and natural since they were on sale and I got natural partridge feathers for soft hackle wet flys. I got some pearl over white chenile and some white strung marabou for a baitfish/minnow wooley buggers I am gonna make and also some red floss for royal wulffs and coachmans. grabbed some white cdc to try that out also on a few emergers and a pack of doll eyes for some zonker patterns I am gonna pound out! I think I am well set till next time seeing as I just got all my olive bucktail and pearl tubing with zonker strips in black(both crosscut and regular) and regular olive
fishaholic69
take the offending bobbin and spread the tongs out, you can adjust the tention on the spool by doing this, it will make the thread come off smothly.
Ghost.
ghost omg I am a moron. now that I got the better bobbin I was like who cares if I break the other one. so I take it and bend the dog snot out of it. it doesn’t break. but now it feeds perfect with no fails from even 6/0 thread! then I just read your post 1 minute later!!! at least now I know I got 2 bobbins lmao. figures that would be my luck! lol oh well I am not hurt on the purchase. thank god for income tax checks lol . this actually boosts my self esteem now! I can tie way better flys!!! sweeeettt!!!
Fishaholic,
Just wait till you try Uni 17/0 Thread! You’ll be in love, that thread and a ceramic bobbin…
17/0!!! wow that has got to be as fine as a spider web strand haha. is it possible with a ceramic bobbin? what size flys do you use that for? size 32?
I like to tie with real silk thread at times, when playing around with old Original English patterns. Unfortunately, a lot of the silk I order, comes on wooden spools and those don’t always rotate very well, even when I’ve spread out the legs of my bobbins.
So, even after “adjusting” the bobbin, to as good as I can get it, I tear off a 1/2" piece of Teflon plumber’s tape and stick one piece, on each end of the spools.
The spools, turn like ball bearings, without loosing any tension and the silk “flows” off the wood spools effortlessly! For quite a while, now, I’ve ran this simple setup with all my bobbins, using both wood and plastic with either silk or thread spools.
thanks for the tip. I am still in shock. I wasted about 3 to 5 months doing it the dumb way! its like is this a dream? rofl.
now I will tie up a storm in the morning! I can prolly double my times now
teflon tape…hmmmm what a great idea! i must try that!
Fishaholic,
It is very fine stuff, Once you get used to it, it can be easily controlled. I have tied size 8 streamers with it as well as the teeny tiny flies. It has almost no thread build up and lays very flat.
FA-69;
#17 is lot stronger, actually, than it’s size would make you believe. I regularly tie 16s on up with #17, (up in numbers, down , in sizes-16-18-20-22…).
Another, nice thread, for less bulk & smaller heads, etc. is “Gordon Griffith’s Sheer” in size #14.
I use, it, on almost all flies, “going the other way” from #14s to #12s.
About everything else,I tie, I go with 8/0 Uni
I don’t really like any of these, though, (the #8/0-#14-#17), for hair or any foam work, unless I’m tying very small bodied flies.
Just my own choices in threads, nothing more!
Save your old bobbin and use it for other materials on spools. I use several inexpensive ones for lead wire, fench tinsel, copper wire, etc. It will allow you to control these materials and use less of them in your tying. It appeals to my frugal side.
flybinder, and others …
transfer the silk thread to a metal sewing bobbin, on the sewing machine. Turns like a charm in the holder!
Fishaholic,
I can tell you haven’t been doing this very long…you now have TWO bobbins!!!
My word!
I own (had to go out and count) forty seven that I can FIND…about twelve are ceramic…then there are floss bobbins (didn’t count those)…
How can you tie any flies with only two bobbins??? Do you actually change the thread in the bobbin when you need a different color or material? I wouldn’t want to tie with only two vises…
Sometimes I long for those simple days when I had only one or two of anything…
I buy WAY too much stuff…
Buddy
p.s; Is there a market for used bobbins???BS
haha I only got 1 vice (regular cheap one) and now soon to be 2 bobbins. I just started tying this last year maybe 5 months ago or so. I just change the thread with the bobbin threader I got when I tie different bugs. maybe one day I will have 40 bobbins haha. right now I am just trying to stock up on materials. I have spent a pretty decent chunk of cheddar on materials and still haven’t broken the half way point. lol
Paul,
Thanks for the tip on using Teflon tape! I will have to try that. You can also take a candle and push it into the spool holes and turn it back and forth which will leave some wax on the spool and make them turn very smooth. 
Warren, as usual, you’re right!
I’d tried the trick of the candle, in the end of the thread spool and I think it wold have worked just fine, but I quit trying to do it after burning a lot of thread, not to mention, the ID’ing label off the end of the spool.
HRH Betty; I also do this with my #17 threads, (putting them on the chrome sewing machine bobbins), and they work great with my midge bobbins.
However, “fore warned is forearmed”… when Linda went to do some sewing, on her machine and found all of her thread bobbins “mysteriously missing”, there was a “small discussion”, in relation to their disappearance.