Hi,
As I have to find some way to tie while my foot heals, I’ve been pondering this difficult question. Now, feel free to say to yourself - “dummy, even I knew that!”. So, while tying on wire or tinsel etc, do you cut a small piece to use or do you use the whole spool and then cut? One of those silly things I’ve been thinking about as I need to make sure I get everything I need before I settle in.
Thanks for suggestions, thoughts etc!
Mike
I like to remove it from the spool before I tie. What I do is remove enough at one time for the number of flies of the pattern I plan on tying. For example if I plan of tying 12 flies with a chenille body I will cut off what I think I need for one fly plus a little. Then I tie the fly and cut off the excess. By measuring the amount left over I can determine how much I need for the remaining 11 flies and I cut that much and a little more.
Tim
I never cut ahead of time. I always use spool, card, or what ever items are dispensed on. I’m Cheap lol Just can’t see wasting material ( I might want to tie more of that pattern at another time )
I pre -cut everything and have it arranged , hackle graded , wire cut, beads on ,etc. i hate wasting time, thats what i don’t seem to have alot of anymore.
Similar to Panman approach. I find working from spools and cards to be problematic.
I tend to leave it on the spool or card until it’s time to cut, unless it starts getting int he way then I’ll cut a piece off to use.
Well, I waste a lot of material, especially because of situations like this. I cut more than I need but not so much that the piece is unwieldy in my hands. Hope that makes sense. That means I may have enough material for a couple of flies or just one depending on what the material is and what’s being tyed. An example: I may cut and start off with a 9 to 12 inch piece of mylar and use 3 inches per fly for about 3 flies. Same might be true of chenille. But I don’t use the material off of a card or spool.
Allan
I leave it on the card or spool and use my rotary vise option when I can. It saves on material and quite honestly I think the flies look even, smoother and overall better.
Of course there are flies that will require that you cut off a portion of material and I use a material clip to hold this while I tie the rest of the fly.
So I do both.
I’m also cheap. I hate to cut a piece off use it then have an inch or so left over. So I keep it on the spool. Sometime I use a bobbin but most of the time I just hang it off the tail of my bobbin holder, Renzetti.
I always cut more then i need like an amount for three or four flies as a time.
It depends on what and how I’m tying, but this is what I do if I can just handle the spool:
i do it both ways lately I have been keeping a wire spool on anold bobbin .It works great
I keep my lead wire on an old bobbin holder which saves lead wire. When it comes to chenille and ribbing wire, I do it different and still save material. I tie the first fly of a certain pattern and when I tie in the chenille or ribbing wire, I will pull back on the chenille or wire and make a pencil mark on the vise where I cut the chenille or wire. If that left me with too much chenille or wire that had to be thrown away because they were to short for another fly, I would move the mark on my vise head until I had a mark that would leave maybe 1/4" of material to throw away. Once you have that mark figured out, your tying goes pretty fast. After tying in the chenille or ribbing wire you just pull back to the mark and cut off the material knowing it will be the right length to tie the pattern and leave little waste. I leave my ribbing wire on the spools and the chenille on the cards.
Just how I do it and nothing more…
Hi,
I leave it on the spool. I have an old bobbin holder that used to have a ceramic insert, which broke and fell out. It now just shreds thread, so I use it for wire or mylar. Once I’ve made my wraps of wire, I just push my thumbnail down against the wire and hold the wire against the hook. Then, twist the wire around and it will break off at your thumbnail. It saves your scissors.
- Jeff
To all you cheepo’s: Save your scraps then you won’t feel so bad.
I’m a cheepo too but working off a card or spool can be tricky and more time consuming. With some of the longer material (stuff that shouldn’t go into the waste basket) I’ll put together a fly, it has a really creative name too: Table Scraps.
Surprisingly some of them work well, but I usually end up loosing it and can’t always remember what went into it. LOL 
When it comes to chenielle I cut what I think I’ll need to tie that set of flies because I usually like to steam it before I tie with it. With spooled wire I have a couple old bobins that I use so I normally do not precut this.
I have afewbobbins tha the old wire goes on. Then I dont have to cut it.
As I do more rotary tieing I find that I can leave the material on the card, sekin, ect and wrap the material and then cut it.
Doing this I fidn my flies being a littel more consistant (ie all the materials on the hook).
Rick
Curt, I like your idea for wire or anything on a spool. I used to use a large thread bobbin but your idea will work better, Thanks. take care, John.
Ditto with me. I try to waste as little as possible. I even save leftover short pieces for misc. projects later.
Hi MELK,
Cheapskate here too. I’ve tied long enough that I have a collection of bad bobbins (thread frayers and thread cutters) that now serve as holders for my most frequently used wires. I tie the wire in and hang the bobbin out of the way with a material clip on the back of the vise. The large adjustment screw on a Rennzetti also makes a convenient hanger to keep the wire and bobbin out of the way until needed. I waste not a scrap of wire. I also don’t cut chenille, yarn or floss in advance. 8T