I decided to try tying and found it relaxing, so my grumpies went away, the blood preasure came down some. so the wife went and purchased a Traveler in a neat case to travel and a starter tool set from Dr. Slick for my birthday. Before that I used a Exacto knife handle and any thing I could find. Still can’t tye for sh^%, but hay I can catch fish on them.
I was very fortunate… My father was a tier of considerable skill and regularly tied commercially for spare change in the early days of teaching me to tie. He did some very large framed displays of dries and streamers, Atlantic salmon flies and deer hair bugs. Man, I wish I knew where they ended up!
He forced me to tie without a vice to learn control and he taught me speed… I still do a winged dry in under two minutes when the materials are properly laid out. Bobbins were not something I used until the late '70s.
I remember when he upgraded to a better Herter’s vice and I got the old one. It was a step up from the Thompson’s I had. I still have the Herter’s vice he upgraded to and taught my son to tie on it. Riley now inisists on using the rotary he got for Christmas a few years back. He ties a mean fly at 14 and has been tying for about 8 years and doing a great job for the last 3 or 4…
Now the tying materials supply is enormous… And I even go bird hunting outside (to the lower 48) to add more and better stuff. In Feb I went to AZ for mearns quail and just last month my son and I went to ND for turkeys, pjeasants and partridge. Just for the feathers, you see… 
Three siblings developed zero interest…
art
even today with all the different tying materials readily available, i still find myself seeing materials in just about anything… just this morning while i was cleaning out my sons ferret cage, somehow found a pair of scisors in my hand and a pinch of hair in the other…
JC,
Just curious do you still have them?
My first Vice was a Thompson A. My first materials were the basics.
I still have some 35 yr old Mustad hooks. I also owned a Price Vise in the 70’s.
Doug
My first vise, tools and materials come in a kit I bought 20+ years ago. I still have the vice, some of the materials and the instruction booklet by Eric Leiser that came with the kit. The vice, made in India, works fine with hooks size 10 and smaller. Materials included was badger, woodchuck, calf tail, hackle, hares mask, moose mane, elk hair, deer hair, pheasant tail, turkey biot, marabou, tinsel, tying thread, beads, chenille, candle wax, lacquer and hooks.
I believe the first vise I had was from Herter’s. It may have come in the company’s inexpensive basic kit along with the materials. After that I got more stuff from Herter’s and a sporting goods store, that carried fly tying materials, in the Wall St. NY area. That was back in the beginning of the '60s.
Dub
Hi TyroneFly,
If Eric Leiser had his name on the fly tying kit, I bet it was a very servicable vise and material selection. I purchased materials from Mr. Leiser at Fireside Angler all through the early 1970’s and never had a bad experience. I once had an order from Fireside that was short one Golden Pheasant Crest and wrote Fireside a note about the problem. Two days later I had a special delivery containing five crests. Wow, I was impressed. 8T 
My first vise was part of a Cabella delux fly tying kit that came in a wooden box with a set of fly tying tools. I have since upgraded to a Griffin Mongoose rotary vise but I still use the cabellas as my travel kit.
Bill
My First vise was a Thompson model A. I was fortuante enough to buy good tools from a fly shop that helped with materials as well. However, my favorite book was the one I learned to tye from. It was Dick Stewarts Universal Fly Tyer. I still own this book for sentimental reasons.
Hi 8T,
For the life of me I can’t remember much about the kit box. I recall a listing of the content which included the booklet by Eric Leiser, but not much else. The materials I would say are of high quality. The tools decent, but not great. The vise is simple and serviceable and brings back the feeling I had when I first discovered flytying forty some odd years ago. The vice clamp unfortunately was garbage and bent all to heck after the first use. I now use the vise in a DK pedestal. I have to say I have ben very pleased with all of it.
8T got me to wonder what is the name of the fly tying kit. I went through my storage bins and found several of the materials still unopened like bucktail. On the package is written Universal Vise, 16 Union Ave., Westfield, Mass. So my first vise, tools and materials was from a kit called the Universal Vise.
My 1st vise was a Thompson A. Bought in 1974 after taking a fly fishing class at Fresno State. Caught a trout on the Lower Kings river on a fly tied in that class during the field trip. Have been hooked since. Finally upgraded to a Dyna King Traveller 2 years ago. Still have the Thompson.
I not positive but I believe the company was called Knoll, it was a kit in a red and black box. It was Christmas 1968, I was 10. I also got a pattern book I still have today, The Knoll guide to trout flies.
WOW, I just found this!!
http://www.goantiques.com/scripts/images,id,1659762.html#image2
That’s it!!
and this!
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-NOLL-FLY-TYING-KIT-NO.-151-~-MIB!!!_W0QQitemZ160300513735QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081124?IMSfp=TL081124132004r7077
Hi,
My first vice came from a starting kit by “Tightlines” I think. It had a knob to tighten and loosen the jaws. Didn’t rotate, but had a C clamp type mount and you could adjust the height, and locked the spine in place with a hand screw.
The kit also came with a bobbin holder, bobbin threader, cheap scissors, and a whip finisher. There was a package of size 4 hooks. Some thread, a few large hackle dyed feathers, a small squirrel tail, some cheneil, and some oval silver tinsel.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things (it was about 11 years ago), but I used it happily until my fly tying gear was stolen from the car two years ago. Since then I’ve replaced everything (insurance paid out). My new vice is very similar, except, it has two knobs at the back, and if I loosen one it opens the jaws, and the other allows me to rotate the hook! I often forget about that last feature though.
The squirrel tail that came with the kit had great colours. It was like fox squirrel, except instead of brown roots, a black band with brown tips, it was white at the roots, brown band, then black tips. Made great wings on squirrel tail streamers. Have never been able to find one like it again. Not sure what species of squirrel it came from.
- Jeff
Steve, Sorry, just noticed your question about my first rod and line. Nope. The king Eider line disappeared somehow and a buddy broke the rod all to heck while we were fishing together. Wish I had all of it though.
Good evening,
This is a wonderful group of posts, as it has made me reflect back on the past and fire up almost dead brain cells.
Thinking back.
Here in this country, fly tying vises were a huge silly cost, once long ago.
As were the tools, therefore we made do,
I converted a 4 jaw Pin vise, taped the hollow rear end.
Found a section of 1/4inch rod, threaded both ends,
added a 1/4" steel plate to the bottom of the new 1/4’ shank.
Bobbin holder.what was that ?
Well that was back in the mid to early 60’s.
And now today, its easy with these Rotary vise things.wow !
and something to hold the thread, almost impossible…
once I would have thought.
Kindest regards,
UB
ps : as you only live once,( as far as I know ), then be nice to everybody as it costs nothing to be nice.
Hi Again TyroneFly,
Universal Vise was one of the major suppliers of fly-tying materials and equipment in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, at least in the New England area. I grew up in Windham/ Willimantic, CT and regularly spent my $2.00/week allowance at Nassif Arms, a local sporting goods company that carried a pretty good assortment of fly-tying materials all displayed on peg-board hooks. Much of this material was packaged by the Universal Vise Company. I also inherited a primitive (compared to Rezzetti) rotating Universal Vise from my grandfather. I still have some cards of tinsel, chenille and wool from Universal that were 10 cents each and small packets of saddle hackle for 29 cents each. 8T
lol, I lived in westfield mass for a couple of years before I came to MT. My first vise was an HMH Spartan. Tools all Dr. Slicks. I just started
I’m with Mr JML, Doug, fontinalis and beaver on this topic - a Thompson A and a needle stuck in a dowel for a bodkin, both of which I still use 37 years later. I did upgrade to a PEAK about five years ago but still use the C clamp from the Thompson when I want to travel lightly (that base is a chunk o’ metal, eh?).
And kudos to William F and Lee Wolff to get me to try to tie without a vise a few years back. Who woulda thunk it that these ten thumbs I have could do that! (No 28s yet though! :D))