I’m buying my brother a set of fly tying tools for his b-day in an effort to get him interested in this frustratingly addictive obsession that is fly tying. I was looking at a deluxe set at cabelas with a thompson vise w/ pedestal, c-clamp , whip, stacker, bodkin, packers, scissorcs, a couple of hackle pliers; all in all around 15 to 20 tools. It costs $40. anyone know of a comparable set for less price, or is this a good starter set?
“There’s a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot”
Those Cabelas kits are really sub par in quality. I guess if you think there’s a good chance your brother might not get into fly tying and you don’t want risk more money, then it is a somewhat reasonable compromise. However, these kits (I’ve played with a Metz kit too with the same problem) are cheap for a reason. The tools, especially the vise, are barely serviceable and have been a source of constant frustration for the beginning tiers I have encountered trying to learn on this equipment.
The only fly tying tool combo that I might recommend for a beginner is one of the shrink-wrapped tool kits offered by Griffin (retail $60-$80): [url=http://www.griffinenterprisesinc.com/vises.htm:7fdc4]http://www.griffinenterprisesinc.com/vises.htm[/url:7fdc4] Vise and tools are nothing fancy but serviceable. These tools are going to last and remove the struggle of using cheap tools. Decent tools and decent materials are extremely important for beginners who have enough to deal with while trying to learn to tie.
Now inevitably someone is going to chime in and say that they have been tying on the Cabelas kits for 20 years and there’s nothing wrong with them…to each their own…
Now inevitably someone is going to chime in and say that they have been tying on the Cabelas kits for 20 years and there’s nothing wrong with them…to each their own
My fishing partner has the cabela’s travel kit that runs around $25.
It’s not his main set of tools, but he has had nothing but good things to say about them as a travel kit.
I bought the cabellas set to begin with, Now my 9 year old is the only one in the family who will tie on it. Its hard to adjust and the tools arnt great.
