heres a nice video
http://www.midcurrent.com/video/clips/tying/tightline_whipfinishtool.aspx
Nice…
Had to go to the vise to check…I come from the far side of the tread to initially grab the thread with the hook of the tool…the difference I see is that that way the initial turn around the hook impinges the thread immediately…note on the video that his first turn doesn’t go over the thread right away…no big deal I guess but there is a little wasted motion …which is easily avoided.
i dont know why his initial turn of thread when he went horizontal was a wrap around the hook.
Weird. I definitely don’t use a matarelli that way.
I’ll see if I can better explain, Norm.
After bringing the tread to horizontal he starts the turning thread around the hook…the turning thread is actually between the horizontal thread and the hook…easily seen …the turning thread actually goes around the hook shank a full turn before it finally comes back and goes over the horizontal thread…one wasted turn of the turning thread…
duck,
yep, thats what i see also.
so how do you do it without wasting 1 wrap of thread?
That is the currect way except for lining up the fisrt thread BILL
Norm, I “grab” the thread with the tool hook from the far side of the thread…e.i. I come from “behind” the thread…then when I make the horizontal thread I bring the turning thread immediately over the horizontal thread…actually I’ve been doing it so long without thinking…I just now went through the steps …what allows me to go over the horizontal thread immediately is that I bring the horizontal thread adjacent to the hook shank right away and then turn over it…wonder why he doesn’t in the video???
I know one thing …if I don’t come from "behind " I can’t keep tension to start with…I’ll check the video again to see how he keeps tension.
Bill, not sure what you mean?
OK…I see the difference now.
After "grabbing’ the thread and making the horizontal he brings the tool above the hook…I just keep the tool below the hook which enables me to go over the thread and shank immediately.
I tried it his way seems more cumbersome to me …of course, I’m used to my way but I would suggest it is an easier way with a little less wasted motion. Incidentally I learned to use the tool from a video too.
Kind of like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW1yGleG2DQ&NR=1
The guy in the midcurrent video reverses directions right before he starts wrapping.
That’s how Jay…only I come from behind to grab…I was going to add to the above post…note that in the original video he kind of twists his hand to do that reverse…cumbersome…the 4 /triangle is below the hook rather then above it in this last way.
I wonder if the first way is why some folks give up on the tool?
for what its worth, the only difference between the 2 videos shown is that one starts on top and the other starts on the bottom. i dont think 1 extra wrap of thread is a show stopper.
both videos achieve the same result, a whip finish knot.
i’m sure most of us have wasted more time and energy than whats is wasted in 1 wrap of thread during the many years we’ve been tying.
newbie tyers now have 2 videos to chose from.
Guess I am the oddball of the bunch, as I have been doing it wrong for about 20 years now. Hope all of my flies stay firmly half-hitched! I first engage the thread in the back curve of the hook and keep moving my hand (I’m right handed) right on up the thread and let the hook rotate to catch the thread near the hook and continue moving the hook up with the standing part of the thread behind the section running from the hook to the bend and immediately make my first wrap over the standing line and go from there. It is one continuous fluid movement for me. No lost wraps, no wasted time.
Aged Sage
PS: I start in the plane of the hook shank; I’m neither above nor below.
I’m with Sage, I start with the thread on the lower notch of the tool not the hook part. Those videos just look weird to me. Like Sage says “It is one continuous fluid movement for me.” Will get a video of my way and post shortly.
We’re beating this to death…but you and I are used to that aren’t we, Frank.
I just tried it like you said and seems to me we are almost identical…just that I catch the thread with the hook and lay the thread over the curve…in one motion and rotate up in line with the shank.
For beginners I would mention that when I first learned…getting the idea of the triangle…aka “4”…and allowing the tool to rotate [duh] …got me going…also the left hand has a little work to do too.
Is this how you guys do it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JF94-qhQw&feature=related
This is how I do it…shows the hook from behind.
Have going thru several of the seemingly hundreds of whip finish videos on YouTube there are at least a few distinct ways of using the materelli tool. I assumed the way I did it was they way to do it. Turns it’s the just the way i learned to do it. Don’t even know how or where I learned. There certainly wasn’t YouTube back then.
Because I had never learned to use a whip finish tool until several years ago when a student asked me to show him how to use one and I had to explain I did not know how, was a wake up call for me. I had several good friends try at different time with no success, to teach me. Remember I have tied for 65 years and many of them commercially. So only knowing how to hand whip finish, this was a hurdle to overcome. How could I learn? Well, put my thinkin hat on and then went to Al’s beginners tying section. (one is never to accomplished that he or she can not learn something new and different.) There I found this one: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part5.php Within just a few minutes I could whip quickly and rapidly. The text is simple and the photos are good.
I still at times am too lazy to pick up my whip finisher and do it by hand, but I can build an nice clean head.
If you think you are good, just take a photo of one of your flies and blow it up for your desk top. Enlarged that much might make you take a look at your whip finishing. For me it is trying to go too fast and sort of being a bit lazy.
I finally broke down & bought one of these things this last weekend. for many years I’ve been throwing the most beautiful half hitches the world has ever seen & now I find i’m just an ol’ codger. Well everybody’s gotta be something. Was gonna embarass myself & ‘ask’ how to use it but y’all saved me. Someone’s tryin’ ta git on my Xmas list for cigars "n whiskey.
After I got home and was able to actually do one, I realized I whip finish the way Sage described. I catch the thread on the rear notch then rotate, catch the hook and start to wrap. Funny how you do something so many times it becomes automatic.
So are we whipping a dead horse yet? (pun intended)