Very little is ever written about commercial fly tiers, mostly they’re a vanishing breed, due in large part to the overseas fly tying trade. Domestic production is still a cottage industry with each shop a blend of local and offshore flies.

The “Professional” fly tyer is another matter entirely, plenty of them around, although most would balk at that label. Professional isn’t about the money it’s about the time spent tying, and if you tie an hour or more daily, you’re a candidate.

Tying multiple hours a night needs to be treated like a business even if it’s a passion. You’ve outgrown that leftover, hand me down, garage sale setup you cobbled together, and aren’t willing to come to grips with what you need. Storage and tools have always been priorities for a professional tier, yet they always take a back seat to buying more materials.

Fly tiers are incapable of tying in comfort, they’ll drop $300 on chicken feathers without batting an eyelash, then sit on a stack of newspapers while tying.

The lifeblood of any serious tyer is his vise and scissors, no other tools are as important to his craft, nor have as much affect on the finished product. Vise choice is very much individualistic, with much press and opinion on the relative merits of assorted manufacturers, necessary features, and rotating gadgets.

What’s never talked about is scissors and why 95% of all fly tiers use crap.  It’s a “rogue’s gallery” of awkward potmetal scissors from India, small “pinking” shears sold in craft shops, or whatever they stole from their wife’s sewing chest.

Craft store scissors and small sewing scissors are made for women, they have small finger holes not suitable for hammy male fingers. They’re rarely available in sizes beyond 4″ in length, and despite having “fine” points, are meant to cut cloth, thread, and yarn – at the base of the scissor not at the points.

Fly shop scissors will suit a beginner fine, the $12.00 investment for a set of Dr. Slick’s doesn’t harm a new tier much, leaving him budget for the important stuff – the endless parade of materials he’ll need to build the flies.

Professional tiers need two sets of scissors; a heavy “shear” scissor for cutting great hunks of bucktail and other unruly materials, and a fine point scissor designed to cut at the tip, for the precise cuts – like clearing a hook eye of fiber.

These scissors have been available for decades, but fly tiers rarely encounter them unless they’re a surgeon or doctor. Thousands of styles of precision scissors exist in the medical community, each shape and size designed for cutting different types of tissue, and depending on the task, they’re designed to cut at the tips, base, or the entire cutting edge.

Eye surgery needs precise tips, none of the surgery slices heavy bone or thick connective tissue. Eyeball components are delicate and scissors designed for an eye surgeon are precision instruments for tiny slices. Many are available with tungsten inserts, one of the hardest steel alloys available, allowing for razor sharp edges and precise cuts. Tungsten is also one of the most brittle steel alloys, and if you catch the hook shank with an errant slice you can remove the tip of the scissors completely.

Bill Hunter of Hunter’s Angling Supplies, was the first to introduce these scissors to the tying community, he described them as “cosmetic seconds” from the medical industry, and the retail was about $100 per set. He always warned prospective owners about the tungsten inserts and how cuts should be practiced before blindly whacking away.

The trick is to slide the scissors down fibers to the point of the cut rather than push the point into the area you wished to trim. Like you will, I learned the hard way, yet it quickly becomes second nature. Scissors of this quality will allow the points inside the hook eye, which means you have to be careful, and like any med student you should practice.

Dr. Slick scissors imitate medical scissors, down to the gold colored handles. Medical scissors are not “gold colored” it’s real gold, as it’s both antiseptic and malleable it’ll eventually scrape off the stainless handles.

Medical scissors are available in a dizzying assortment of sizes, and can be purchased to accommodate the largest of hands. The smallest I would use is the 4.5″ length, it’s among the most common sizes available and like all medical scissors, has wide finger eyelets so that you aren’t having to cram big fingers into too small an opening. Surgery can last many hours, and these precision tools are designed not to be fatiguing to the user.

Buy semi-curved versus straight scissors. Semi-curved allows the tips to make the cut without your fingers and wrist obscuring the cut area. Straight scissors require the hand to be in the same plane as the cut – often that mass of fingers and wrist can get in the way of your vision, with Tungsten inserts that’s a bad thing, one careless cut and you’re pissed.

Cheap semi-curved scissors are designed for toe nails with the blade curving from base to tip, too much curvature to be really useful. Medical semi-curved scissors start their curve midway down the blade, a much gentler curvature that you will instantly prefer. (Note the accompanying pictures)

The larger “shear” scissors can be the traditional straight edge. You’ll be using it to cut big chunks of deer hair and fur off hides, where there’s little reason to be delicate or restrained. Many prefer a serrated edge on the shears as serration prevents material from sliding away from the cutting edge, these require practice as well; serrated edges cut positively everything and lack forgiveness – it’ll take some getting used to as it’s a marked difference from traditional smooth edge scissors.

The below photograph shows the Ophthalmology scissors I purchased from Bill Hunter and other medical supply houses. Each set has been used for nearly 20 years, due to their precision manufacture each will last a lifetime.

Do the math. With precision vises costing nearly $400, there’s little to complain about, a vise is used once per fly yet the scissors are used 10-12 times per fly. I’d rather buy a vise for $300 and a set of scissors for $100, a more efficient use of hard earned coin.

Medical supply houses abound on the Internet, and if you live in a major city you can visit and paw through them to pick the length, taper, and edge that suits your tying best.

The links included in the article demonstrate some of the range of points and styles available. Each of the scissors types can be further researched once the “name” of the style you like is chosen.  “Metzenbaum” and “Iris” are consistent across the medical community, all you have to do is Google the style name to find all the variations and prices.

Technorati Tags: Iris scissors, Ophthalmology scissors, fly tying scissors, semi-curved blade, tungsten carbide insert

All I wanted was some bulk cones of nylon thread, and a couple hours later I was engrossed in a bunch of products I never knew existed. All have possibilities for the fly tyer – especially those tiers with a sense of adventure.

Disclaimer : I haven’t seen these in person, and “thread” to the sewing industry can be “yarn” to a fly tyer – so you’ll need to eyeball these with caution.

1. Solar Active thread – apparently the thread gets brighter when exposed to the sun, it will also change color. $31.95 for a pack of four colors. A pack contains peach (becomes hot pink), yellow (orange), peach (wine), and turquoise (blue purple).
2. Polypropylene Thread – likely this is the yarn we’re used to seeing on the little cards. 5000 yards for $17.00, likely this will lower your flood insurance payment – buy 2 or more spools and your house will float.
3. Glow in the Dark Thread
   FuFu’s Glow in the Dark Embroidery Thread absorbs the light around it and offers 15 hours of glow time.  I see this as an interesting experiment, call it “Thread that makes you go, ‘Hmmm'” Colors: Blue, Classic, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, White, Yellow. 120 denier, 2ply (sounds like yarn) $13.95 for 1100 yards.
4. Moonglow “Glow in the Dark” thread offers even more colors, $15.30 for 500 yards.

5. Coats Iridescent Pearl Thread
Might be an interesting ribbing material, at 40 wt it’s too thick to actually tie the fly with, but it may have additional value as a rib, akin to the many uses of wire. 200 yd. spool. Thread is 60% nylon core, 40% coated polyester. 1 Spool – $2.75

6. I was surprised to find NYMO thread still around. Back in the 1970’s NYMO was the defacto flytying thread used by absolutely everyone. When they stopped making it the Danville and Monocord empire was born. It has been reborn as a “beading” thread for jewelry making, the smallest size available is “00” (2/0)- suitable for larger flies.

Technorati Tags: Thread, nymo, glow in the dark thread, solar active

I use more copper wire than the Intel Corporation, and my recent whirlwind tour of fly shops gave me a shopping list of items to find in bulk . Copper wire was first on the list, as a measly 30 foot spool costs $2.00 at the shop.

I use the standard size and the “ultra” wire size, which is slightly smaller. The electronics trade calls this stuff many things, but “magnet wire” seems to be a common title. It is a raw copper wire with an enamel coating, and comes in a variety of colors.

I prefer the enamel coated wire to “raw” copper as the enamel prevents the wire from tarnishing. I usually apply a rubberband to the larger spools to prevent unraveling, the enamel protects the wire against discoloration caused by damp flies returned to the box, and the rubber band securing the spool.

A half pound spool of magnet wire is about $10.25. In the 34 Gauge size (our fly tying standard) you get 3911 feet of wire for the price of five fly shop spools.

I am guessing that the Ultra Wire is 36 Gauge, but as it is on backorder I cannot confirm this. I got two 1/2 pound spools today, 34 Gauge and 32 Gauge for larger steelhead flies.

The hard part is electronic supply houses don’t care about the color. You have to ensure that you are getting the simple “brownish” enamel finish, not purple or green, or whatever they have in the rack.

As a reference vendor, Action Electronics was where I got mine, but I got assorted colors which are less useful than the natural copper color. You need to call or visit to ensure color selection – as I haven’t found an electronics site that allows me to choose color via the web.

Singlebarbed readers do not tremble when shopping with a coupon, so buck up.

Technorati Tags: copper wire, bulk copper wire, 34 gauge

I mentioned in an earlier post of finding a new material with great promise for fly tying, while fish and local water clarity are uncooperative, I’m restocking my fly box and absorbing some NFL action.

The two materials I am testing are Angelina and Crystalina fibers, both available from the garment industry as fiber, film, and cloth. Crystalina appears to be called “Ice Dubbing” – a refractive coarse material suitable for larger flies. It’s the Angelina fibers that have really caught my interest however.

Finer than Crystalina and suitable for all ranges of hook size, I am blending it with natural furs using a coffee grinder, then retying many of the patterns I use substituting the Angelina blend instead of the normal mixture.

The results are stunning as even traditional patterns get a dramatic face lift. More importantly, it adds a full range of color spectrum due to the opalescent sheen.

Coffee grinder blending requires that all fur added be no more than an inch in length, any longer and the fibers will wrap around the center spindle and bind the motor, quickly burning it out.

I needed to replenish some Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear’s and mixed a blend of Red Fox squirrel guard hairs, muskrat fur (because I had a ton of it on the skin) and 20% Angelina.

The raw Angelina is about 4-6 inches in length, so I trimmed it into the grinder along with muskrat shaven off the hide with scissors. You have to wad the material down into the blades to get it to mix well, but it only takes seconds to make a batch.

It’s personal preference, I would rather use blends of fur rather than a uniform dyed color. Bugs are an uneven coloration especially when tumbling in the water column, so I prefer having multiple colors and textures in fur for nymphs. Dry flies are not so much an issue as the fish can’t inspect much more than the portion visible to them.

The opalescence of the Angelina fiber really adds quite a few colors without dominating the result. Mixing much more than 20% of the fibers will have start to overwhelm the original dressing, I was just looking to give a little sparkle and solidify my proof of concept.

I like to use a base complement of nymph colors and sizes when fishing. Black, Olive, Gray, Pheasant Brown, and something mostly peacock. Those 5 colors should seduce something in any stream, and should cover most species of freshwater fish.

I have to order additional colors to make all those blends, in the meantime I am focusing on the natural mother of pearl fiber to see how it looks when added to traditional flies.                                                      

The photo is inadequate to capture the colors, but it hints at the effect. A stellar replacement for seal fur as the sparkle of “Angie” makes seal look dull in comparison.

Us bachelors lack ironing skills, fusing the fibers with an iron is next, if soft enough it should make dramatic spinner wings. I’ll be abusing the flies to see how the material stands up to use and whether the refraction qualities grow dull with sunlight. Hungry small fish won’t be much of a test, but it’s close by.

LiveJournal Tags: Angelina fibers, blended fur dubbing, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear

White lab coat time, as I’m fiddling with one of those materials you stumble across whose possibilities are virtually endless.

It’s a strange synthetic filament called Angelina. It is soft enough to dub like fur, and long enough to use as fine hair, it can be ironed to make bug wings (heat fuses the filaments together) or chopped up and mixed with dubbing to add an opalescent sparkle.

It is available as a fiber from the garment industry, apparently it’s also available as a cloth and as a thread.

It’s something that you can use in everything, especially during them long winter months when experimentation coupled with football and strong coffee brings your artistic side to the forefront.

It looks exactly like hair made out of mother of pearl, yet the filament size is so fine you can dub it onto a hook like fur.  It is available in about 45 colors and 2 cuts; straight, and crimped, bondable (heat fused) and non-bondable. The crimped style is slightly heavier hair than the straight version (large nymphs, steelhead flies), straight is perfect for dubbing smaller nymphs and even dry fly bodies. Every color retains the opalescent quality in addition to the coloration.

My camera cannot show the opal refractive qualities as it just isn’t good enough. I dubbed a #12 hook shank with Angelina fibers, white and pink, allowing you to see the fiber size. Click on both pictures to see a higher resolution image.

Angelina is sold in 1/2 oz. packages, a bundle of material 5″ long, 3.5″ wide, and almost 2″ thick. Cost ranges from $3.50 to $4.50 a package.

Most of the vendors pictures are as poor as mine, included are links to some sites that display a large range of colors.

This may be what they’re calling “Ice Dubbing” but not having seen that product I cannot say with certainty. If so, buying it in this flavor will be a lot cheaper than the little packages available at the fly shop.

Get the Angelina Straight Cut in whatever color you like best, it has the widest range of applications as it is the finest filament size. I purchased some sample packages (5 colors each) from Embellishment Village.