I just realized that I have not received any of my Mustad hooks in the old, familiar cardboard box since I started tying again in the year 2000. You remember the nice little box with the Mustad label on the side and the neatly folded sheet of wax paper containing the hooks. They were easy to store and you could the write styles and hook sizes on the side of the box.
In place of the nice cardboard boxes, I have received plastic boxes which are often far too big and bulky for the size of the hooks they contain. They have a lip for peg-board display which adds to their bulk and increases the difficulty of storage. The boxes seem to require a steady pull of 600 pounds to pull open them even when the paper label is cut in advance. Cut the plastic hanging lip off and you can never get enough of a grip on the remaining box part to pull the box open again :evil: . Pull the box incautiously and the box explodes open, scattering the hooks over an area the size of a football field :twisted: .
I know about Hook Hotels and hook organizers but I would rather store my hooks in the plain old card board boxes. Anyone else miss them? 8T
ET,
My thoughts exactly. Evidently the idea of ‘quality control’ no longer exist when product changes are made. Does anyone actually test these products before approval/shipment?
I would use the old boxes to carry particular patterns astream, instead of an entire fly box, but these new boxes are completely useless.
8T,
I sympathize with you about the new hook containers. It reminds of when Old Spice took the 3 masted ship off their aftershave and replaced it with a 2 masted sailboat. They never even asked me if it was OK. I felt like I was an old man being left behind for a younger generation. What I told the folks at Old Spice is pretty much the same thing I would tell the folks at Mustad. “I don’t care if you sell your product in a zip lock bag, I’m still going to use it.” As far as I’m concerned, they are just about the best, most reliable hooks around. Pretty good aftershave too.
It reminds of when Old Spice took the 3 masted ship off their aftershave and replaced it with a 2 masted sailboat.
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
You can get 50 round magnets for about $4.00 at Sprawlmart, put one magnet in each box and some of your problems will be solved. I like to be able to see the hook before I open the box because some have different gapes and one company’s idea of 2X long might be different from somebody else’s. Daiichi 100 Packs still come packaged in the little cardboard boxes with the wax paper, you could switch brands based purely on packaging- not bad irons either.
Another good thing about the Mustad waxed paper was it made a good chute for sliding all the hooks into a more permenant container without them going all over the place. Nice and slippery with none of the hooks hanging up.
I got some tiemco’s recently from Hook & Hackle that had a small white square magnet ( like a fridge magnet )that held the 100 hooks securely in the plastic bag they came in I thought that was a good idea. Which was a good thing because it was really difficult to open that tiny little zip lock bag without spraying the hooks all over the place. The white did make it easier to see the tiny dark #22s.
I transfer all my hooks to small plastic containers with screw on lids because of those stupid rip open boxes 8Thumbs described in his opening post.
Some of the things from the “good ole days” were actually pretty good and don’t need changing.
I suppose those oversized plastic jobbies cost less to fill and display in the mega stores.
Such is progress.
I share in your frustration. If you find any #22 hooks on the floor they may be from my expoding plastic box. It happened last night and I found only one hook since then…
Time for JC to the rescue, once again, lol. Any ‘farm store’ will have very powerful magnets. A tube shaped thing, a three inches by one half. These are sold for ‘Hardware disease’ in cows! I have had one for years. Any spilled hooks are easy to find because of the cylindrical design. And, yes, I miss the little boxes; they were neat.
You might want to consider drilling a hole in the plastic box big enought for a hook to come out of, and then keep a piece of tape over the hole. Need a hook? Peel the tape back and a hook is attached. That way you don’t have to open the sucker every time.
I hear you 8T. I seems that when manufacturers change things, it’s always a change for the worse. The little boxes were neat. I still have some around.
the two things I hate the most are magnetized hooks and magnetized foreceps. It’s really frustrating when you stick your foreceps into the compatrtment of size 24 midge parachutes and you pull out all the flies in that section<g>.
john
8T: I don’t mind the plastic boxes. I cut off the tab and they fit right nice into my hook chest. However if you find them troublesome let me suggest you get some of those small boxes that contain wooden matches. They are about the same size as the old Mustad boxes.
Exactly.............. :D
You design something that works, not something the customer has to improve on.
The quality of the box tells me something about the product! ............. FWIW.
I switched to Daiichi...... nice hooks, nice box! :roll:
Thanks for the suggestions on dealing with the defects of the dreaded plastic hook box. I really don’t have that much problem handling them but I sure did find the old cardboard boxes much better. I could also keep a running talley of the number of hooks left in the box. I think my main grip is the bulky storage.
I believe that I may take Quill Gordon’s advice. “I switched to Daiichi… nice hooks, nice box!” I like Daiichi hooks anyway so I’m with you on that one, QG. 8T
i like the Tiemco magnets, they get removed from the ziploc baggie and inserted into my hook boxes
The thing i dont like is the hook box with ONE lid, when you open it all the compartments are exposed. Drop it and you are in for a long sorting nightmare. I prefer the hook boxes that have indivudually opening compartments. Cabelas carried them for awhile then they stopped. I did a little research and found out that they were merely 7-day pill boxes. I found them at a couple of local drug stores for a bit cheaper, they just require a few minutes with Acetone and a rag to remove the letters from the lids
