I didn’t buy a whip finishing tool because I’m a masochist and cheap. I know there are great tyers out there that never touched one of these tools and I really wanted to be able to pull off this knot by hand.
After more than a week of struggling, watching videos and trying to get my sausage-like fingers to twist and turn the right way, I reached some kind of breakthrough this morning and managed to tie my first one, which I promptly followed up with thirty or forty more to make sure I had it down. (Did you know that thread is sharp? My middle finger does!)
It was mainly this video that I kept referring back to. It’s 99% great, with only two things I can complain about:
The video doesn’t show how he rotates his fingers as clearly as it might (in my opinion). Once I figured out exactly how to move my hand, everything else fell into place.
To keep tension on the loop while tightening the knot, he uses the point of his scissors. I tried this myself and noticed something: scissors are sharp too! And putting them in the middle of your knot while tightening it down has a good chance of slicing your thread.
If any of you want to try your hand at it, I couldn’t find a better visual aid on the intertubes.
Cost isn’t a big deal on the whip finisher, though. I bought a knock off of a materilli from Hook and Hackle for about $3 or $4 after taking a tying class. This is after whip finishing by hand for a few years. I still whip finish by hand now and then, but mostly use the finisher. Now I prefer to use the tool.
I learned by reading the book “fly tying, adventures in fur feathers and fun,” which had good pictures on whip finishing. I was self taught from books, and after using half hitches for a while wanted a better knot for finishing the head. I decided one night, early on in my tying edjucation, to learn the knot, and worked on it for about an hour before deciding that I had it down.
Some guys on this board never use a whip finisher, only finishing the fly by hand whip finishing. AK Best, according to his writing, only whip finishes by hand. On a tape on warm water deer hair tying a few years ago, the tier only used hand whip finishing.
Thus, you may never go the whip finishing tool route, and only use the hand.
At any rate good! Some folks never learn the hand whip finish!
That was going to be the next thing I tried, but right now I’m not having any trouble keeping the thread loop right on the tip of my finger and guiding it up with tension by hand.
Granted, I’m not tying anything smaller than a size 12 right now, so when I hit the 14 to 22 range things might be a tad different.
Well, that is an excellent training video.
Couple of observations though…
He is using a HUGE hook for demonstration purposes (perfectly fine for the purpose).
And he is using some sort of HUGE monofilament (Cajun?)
So when you, or I were to apply it to tiny hooks and thread, sizzors would make things difficult at best. (I tye with 14/0 thread mostly)
Beings as I look at more modern methods like rotary vise’s, and tools like a Matarelli whip finisher, I’m not so hot to trot on hand whipping a fly myself. I have used half hitches. But prefer to use my Materelli as a rule.
As a side, he uses a Nor-vice for the demo. (Sorry, I’m a Nor-vise fan.)
Great demo! Just put the whole thing into perspective for your tying bench.
If I may be so bold…there is a far superior way to hand whip. I’ve got a tutorial on my site, or you can check a couple of Dave Hughes’ books to get the method. I know whereof I speak, because I’ve used both methods for long periods of time. Don’t get me wrong, lots of tiers do it the way shown in the video with good results, but I like Dave Hughes’ method better. Once you get it down this way, try it the other way. You owe it to yourself.
Eric
I have never done a whip finish. I found it was much easier and just as effective (IMO) to do a double half hitch. I pull the line taught do one wrap around my finger, make two wraps of thread on the hook eye and pull the loop around the front of the hook and pull tight. Quick, Easy and no tool.
Congrats on getting the hand whip finishing down. I first learned to whip finish by hand and have once or twice learned to use the tools, then would go back to doing it by hand anyway. Just prefer doing it that way (don’t have to search for the tool, which invariably is on the floor, or in the box, etc). I also have tied flies down to as small as size 22, and have whip finished by hand for all of them, although typically I stick to a range between size 10 and 16 or 18. Like anything, it’s practice and patience that will push back the barriers for you.
Jeff, try trapping the thread by placing your whipping hand index finger on the back side of the head and hook eye before pulling the thread tight. This will keep some tension on it and also keep the loop from going back over the eye of the hook and unraveling.
Even if you prefer to use a tool to whip finish, It’s still a good idea to know HOW to do it by hand. I CAN do it by hand (maybe not real fast), but I find a Matarelli type tool easier to make a more precise finish.
Also how many of you keep your scissors in your hand all the time, like all the professionals tell you that you should do? No I don’t as much as I should either, but my goal when tying is not to just crank out a 100 flies in one sitting. When working with deer hair it’s often more cumbersome to keep the scissors in my hand. However when you’re done, if you’re holding material (hackle etc.) back with one hand so you can get a whip finish in , conserving movement by reducing tool swapping of the other hand can make a big difference. In THAT case, since the scissors are in your hand If you can hand whip it will save you a few steps by not swapping tools.
But the main point is, do whatever works for you. Just what ever you do prefer, perfect it.
How about a direct link to the method? I went on the site and clicked techniques and found nothing on hand whip finishing. I did find a nice link on an easy way to split tails: http://traditionalflies.com/index.php?splittails. Must be slow this morning because I couldn’t find the hand whip finishing pictorial or video???
OH, you mean the link that was right above the splitting the tail reference that I gave?
Not enough coffee in the morning makes the fingers type stupid things and the brain not engage as it should. Thanks for the shove in the right direction.
That’s a nice video! I’ll be trying that method out the next time I’m at the vice. I don’t have an issue with controlling the first loop thus far, but I don’t like how one side of the loop around my fingers has to glance off the eye of the fly on every revolution (watch the link I posted carefully to see what I mean, if it isn’t clear).
In the other video, the angle of his fingers seems to take that out of the equation.
(Sorry, I’m a Nor-vise fan.)