I thought is might be a good idea if any of you wanted to share some tips or tricks you have discovered that might be beneficial to the fly tying community. Doesn’t have to be earth shattering … just something that helps save you time or something that makes tying easier for you.
I have been using fingernail clippers for a long time when I tie. I find they aid me in getting a closer cut, thus, eliminating a lot of build-up on the fly. They work well on feathers, synthetics, wire, lead, and particularly on goose biots. I use the cheap fingernail clippers because they work well enough; sometimes you can get them 2 for a dollar.
Hope this helps. Are there any tips you could share?
I use finger nail polish as head cement and it works well.
Also to make your own flex cement take a good dollop of shoe repair goop and mix it well with toluene small portions at a time to create the thickness you desire and keep in a small screw top jar. wonderful stuff.
Norm Norlander carries a piece of rubber tubing, barely larger than the OD of his bobbin tube, right there on the tube. When it is time to finish a head he brings the tube forward over the hackle to hold it neatly out of the way. Sliding it back over the thread whn done leaves it ready for the next fly.
The “fad” waterbased fly cement is nothing more than waterbased polyurethane wood finish. Needle tip applicator bottles are cheap and a lifetime supply of cement for a pro tyer can be had for just a few bucks…
The clear plastic zippered bags linens often come in make great storage bags for tying materials (especially when you have the kind of bulk I run!) that allow you to see exactly what is in the bag… Beware though, because you cannot store them in the sunlight… It is bad for feathers.
Straight-sided pistol cartridge brass (like almost all of it) make great small hair stackers exactly as they come.
A small piece of Velcro- the Loop side, not the fuzzy side- makes a great dubbing brush when glued to a popsicle stick.
Glass seed beads strung on monofiliment line can be used to make great eyes. Burn the ends of the mono to form a bump big enough to trap the bead, then cut off the other end long enough to hold two beads and mono enough to create the other burned end to hold the beads on. When tied on the eyes can be manipulated by the thread to move them forward, backward, up, or down… Easier to do than describe… Some special vessel clamp hemostats have a sawtooth edge to grab over the top of the beads and leave exactly the right amount of play to produce perfectly spaced eyes every time.
Make some extra long for shrimp eyes.
Run a blacklight or UV curing flashlight over your tying materials and note which ones respond to UV… Fish see UV even though we do not… And lately I have been shocked at how much difference it makes.
[b]All the above idea ideas are excellent, but there are some very old tips to remember.
Just one, do not forget wax, in the last few years people have begun to catch on to
using it to alter the colour of tying threads. There are other reasons to use it, it helps
the tying thread to grip materials with few turns, and reduces the bulk on the hook.
Even the so-called waxed threads need some, use it often and sparingly.
I admit I do not mix my own, I use BT’s excellent product.
I know a lot of the experienced fly-dressers reading this already know, but hopefully
there are some beginners reading it.
[/b]
If you’re going to de-barb your flies (and you really should) do it before the hook goes in the vise; few things more frustrating than trying to flatten the barb on a #20 with wet, cold hands and a pair of hemostats unless it’s pulling THE fly out of your box and having the point snap off.
If you get cement in the fly eye, clean it out while it’s still in the vise; trying to do that on-stream at dusk, with a caddis hatch coming off and the trout going crazy will just led you to use some of the same colorful language you did when you tried to de-barb the fly.
Have a good background behind your vise - if you have one of those fancy profile plates, great; I just put a piece of cream 2mm foam against the base of my Ott light and it makes it so much easier on the eyes while tying (good lighting is huge, too).
Keep it short, keep it tight - too much thread off the bobbin and it’s hard to control where you want the thread to go, too loose and stuff you tie down won’t stay where you want it to.
Another good one, seldom needed… when tying articulated flies and running the loop through the eye of the hook and then around the shank be aware the end of the eye is usually rough. That wire end has caused more than a few articulations to break. Before adding the hook make a small ramped “head” on the trailer hook, even if nothing else is tied on the hook. It will eliminate wear from that wire end.
I love threads like this because I always learn some new neat tricks and tips from fellow FAOL members.
I am not one of those tyers who are comfortable keeping their scissors in their hand all the time when tying. I saw this gadget in Michaels and thought I?d give it a try. It works great. I slip it on my pinky finger of my left hand and it?s always there to cut thread or other non-wire tying materials. It?s so comfortable that there have been several times when I walk out of my tying room and forget that I have it on my finger
A while back I made this trash trough to collect all the fly tying debris. It?s simple to make, works great and is adaptable to any bench setup. Since making this, I added a rare earth magnet to the end cap on the right side. This holds my scissors so I can always find them. I don?t even have to look when I?m placing them back in the place and the strong magnet takes over when I get near it. The white device you see next to the fly tying vise is an old ceramic stamp wetter. It works great for wetting fingers when working with fine furs or marabou feathers. The white thread looking stuff looped over my vise is a dental floss used for people with dentures. It has a thicker absorbent section that works great for clearing the eyes of hooks if you get head cement or epoxy in them. The stiff portion of the floss threads through the eye and one or two quick passes and it?s a clean as new. A piece of floss usually lasts me about 6-8 months so a single package should last me the rest of my tying lifetime.
Take care and thanks again for starting this thread.
In the last year I had come across a few patterns that included some dubbing colors that were not readily available. No having a dubbing mixer or coffee grinder and not want to pay what I had seen them for sale for I redneck engineered something that has worked very well so far. The blade was from a clips of some type, the vessel was an “Utter Butter” jar and the shaft is a small machine screw, with a lock nut under the blade, that would fit into my rotary tool. I used a piece of corrugated plastic for a false bottom that allows the blade to be on the bottom of the cylinder. I have another that I made from a hose clamp and a nut can, it can be a little noisy.. They have worked very well turning yarn into dubbing that resulting in some October Caddis pupa that caught fish.
I really liked Jim’s trough idea…liking to keep things simple I used a piece of plastic gutter that I had laying around… as pictured…
I’ve used it since he came out with it…what’s that …a couple of years now and find it to work great…better than anything I have used before.
Since the picture I have added some cup hooks to the front edge and use them to hang some materials I’m currently using…also been known to just toss a pack of material in the trough… temporarily.
Incidentally the open ends are no problem…even make it easier to clean.
That’s nice Duck, I currently have a corrugated carton in a similar position. The bottom is not as uniform and smooth as the gutter section you have. I have a couple of magnets that I use primarily as material clips but are really handy for locating dropped hooks.
When trimming hackle tips for wings, or hackle feathers for streamers, clip just a few of the bottom fibers, but not all the way to the quill. Leave a millimeter of so on, then when you tie them on, it keeps them from spinning or shifting on the hook shank.
When you tie on a feather, or wire, after securing it, bend the end back over itself and take a few more wraps. This guarantees it will not pull loose.
When tying on dry fly tails, make a small ‘bump’ of thread right behind the tie on point. This will make the tail set at an upward angle, making the fly look, and ride much better on the water.
I mount my NorVise to a cutting board that has a juice trough. The tough is a gret place to keep your hooks, beads and other materials close at hand when tying.
