In the head cement thread, herefishy asks, “does it matter if you run the wraps back from the eye, or just kind of slop them on top of each other?”
Anybody have any thoughts on whether to whip finish towards the bend or towards the eye?
I think AK Best advocates to whip towards the bend. I think the Beatty’s advocate towards the eye.
Beatty is correct. The smoothest whip is towards the eye and does not expose the thread going back over the whip. There is less chance of the thread breaking.
I don’t use head cement so for me it matters. If you use head cement, it probably does not matter.
Whip towards eye
Whip away from eye
Had to think on that for a minute since I rarely use a whip but I agree with SC; towards the eye.
Regards,
Scott
I can’t even visualize how you would do that bottom one. But I would call the top one wrapping away from the eye. Just the way I see it. That’s the way I do it, just not sure I carefully lay each wrap next to it’s neighbor and not on top of it. Will have to look more carefully and see if it just happens automatically.
Wrap towards the eye. Watch where Hans places the wraps.
Wow, you’re absolutely right. And I’ve done it wrong all these years, with my hands and the tool.
You sure?
An old sports magazine posts a video of the opposite
http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/honest-angler/2012/03/three-ways-make-hand-tied-whip-finish
I couldn’t get that one to show, but did see another one on utube that is exactly like I do it and I can see the error of my ways, as that last tightening of the knot will pull all the wraps together and leave it all bunchy. Gonna change my ways
You can see in that old video, as he is tightening it, he has that single strand over the top of the wraps, just like in Silver Creek’s picture. It’s too blurry so see in the finished knot. I’m not sure how much difference it really makes. I tied a lot of them front-to-back when I first started tying and I don’t remember too many coming apart.
I have done it both ways. Not me of the knots have come loose.
The advantage of tying the knot “going back away from the eye” is that you do not run the danger of crowding the eye of the hook with your knot.
Just tied a whip finish knot going back from the eye and there is no visible difference. The knot is just as smooth as going in the other direction…
I think there’s another part of this equation we are overlooking, it is what is the material that the threat is made of ( Cotton, silk, nylon and polyester )because some threads and materials are less likely to slip than others? Again I advocate using wax, it has bonding and holding properties that will last for years not dry out. I don’t believe UV light will affect the strength of the wax bond either. Fishin’ Jimmy
PS I know that Gel Spun, monofilament and other modern threads present special challenges there I think Dave Whitlocks
Superglue Knot is the one I would recommend.
Jimmy,
That’s a different discussion from the question of which direction to tie your whip finish knot.
Here’s another, more recent video, on tying the whip finish away from the eye
video of tying whip finish knot
Thanks for this picture SC, I was taught to go towards the eye but never saw the difference.
With the finer threads what difference does it make? I also agree with Byron about crowding the eye.
Being as crude a tier as I, am I actually prefer a couple half hitches plus some good old SH.
My advantage is that with half hitches I can use the tool to push-back any errant fibers that are leaning forward.
I’m a crude tier too. A half-hitch tool is great for sneaking under parachutes or pushing back fibers.
Al Beatty and Ed Engle are not crude tiers, but both discuss using half-hitch tools to finish flies. Somewhere I’ve seen Al Beatty demonstrate using a half-hitch tool to help finish parachute flies. It may have been on Al’s videotape, “Fly Tying Techniques”. I still have the tape but no way to play it. (Real video cassette, I’m showing my age.) I’ve used other means to finish parachutes, but I still use the half-hitch, especially for tiny parachutes.
I start my whip finish at the rear of the head, four wraps forward, no problem crowding the eye.
Polly Rosborough and Randall Kaufmann both finished their flies with half hitches. But it would be hard to argue that a whip finish is not more secure. That’s probably a separate topic though.
Another “to the rear” fellow
Whip Finishing with a Thompson Style Tool
YouTube ? 19,000+ views ? 2/25/2013
Which way is this instruction video?
In the end, we pick and choose what we want. I prefer to use only three turns going from bend to eye. Hans Weilenmann described why going towards the eye was best on another forum, and convinced me it was the proper way. I havent looked for that discussion, and wont. If he wants to weigh in on this discussion, he will. If you like using six turns and going towards the bend by all means continue. If you are not comfortable in your skills, and would rather half hitch and glue the head, by all means do so. Perhaps, in the end, it makes no difference. At least we are discussing, and perhaps learning a better way to enjoy our hobby.