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Dyna-King Excalibur Vise Review

No, I don’t need another fly tying vise, especially one that possesses a nose bleed price.

I had been an extra good fellow this year, and therefore opted to treat myself to the last vise I’ll ever buy. A thousand dollars is my limit for any fly fishing item, and the speed with which prices are climbing suggests I’ll soon be unable to buy them entirely, as I avoid paying nose bleed prices for anything that isn’t rare or antique.

Once the price point on any any fly fishing item approaches a thousand dollars, technical detail and feedback is necessary to determine function, value, and its ranks among peers, and the fly fishing industry does a miserable job of giving us good information other than, “it’s awesome.”

Fly shops and the mainstream media are incapable of giving us real reviews of products for fear of offending manufacturers simply because they didn’t use enough superlatives … ending their supply of gifted freebies to review, and leaving us independent louts to do all the heavy lifting.

What I cannot do, is tell you whether this is the best fly tying vise ever … That type of rigor requires owning all of the vises of similar repute and quality, and then doing an exhaustive analysis of the features and foibles of each.

What I can do, is run 10 or 12 dozen trout flies through the Excalibur, which will be enough for me to find many of its attributes and flaws, and formulate some solid information and impressions of its performance to help you decide whether the high price of the vise is warranted – for you. I will follow up with another review in six months, once I’ve had the opportunity to add bass and striper flies (big flies and larger sizes) to the mix.

What possessed me to purchase this vise?

I have two other high quality vises and and wanted one of the newer “offset” style vises. “Offset” being my term for a vise whose jaws are removed from the stem or upright, and are several inches from the centerline of the vise. Offset vises use less force to tighten the vise jaw, and have a smaller handle commensurate with this reduction in effort. The mechanics of the jaw closure and adjustment are the same as traditional vises, offset vises simply do it with less effort.

I hoped that this design might offer some new advantages than the centuries old standard we’ve used for so long.

Why buy a rotary vise if you’re not going to use it?

After watching dozens of tiers and professionals at shows and exhibitions, I have yet to see a rotary vise used as such. I’ve seen the jaws rotated slightly to access the side of the fly or to inspect the ribbing, but full rotation and applying dubbing, wire, and other body materials using the rotational capability is something most tiers appear to find marginal.

I have watched a professional Glo-Bug tyer use the rotational feature exclusively to tie Glo-Bugs, and the rotation feature was extremely useful for his flies, but small trout flies and their ilk, leave little opportunity for rotary applications.

My assumption is that I’m no different than these other fellows, and the full rotation of the vise will merely be a “gadget” rather than a must-have.

Like a small child at Christmas

Upon receipt assume you’re not the only fellow that’s handled the vise. Every fellow that works at the fly shop you bought it from – has jiggled its handle, fiddled with the knobs, and tested it a few times before you even showed up. There’s the possiblity of damage in shipping, someone dropped it at the shop, or someone crossthreaded a fitting, or simply because they were unfamiliar with the vise’s function.

Lubrication: The first thing I did was remove all adjustment screws from the vise chassis and apply a dollop of lithium grease to each threaded screw post. This ensures lubrication of threaded elements and ensures each type of adjustment operates smoothly and with little effort.

Dyna-King uses some hideously thick silver goop for lubrication (think JB Weld), and I’ll assume it’s their means of ensuring the lubrication will survive a decade of use. I removed several globs of their lubricant off of the forcing cone and jaws and replaced it with a lighter grade of lubricant. I typically will regrease all components on a yearly basis, especially those in continuous use like the forcing cone.

Test the Fit: Once lubricated, tighten down all adjustment screws and test the vise for looseness in fittings or wobble in any of the machined parts. If you find any persistent wobble or looseness it’s possible the fit or milling is incorrect or the vise may have been damaged via someone dropping it while fiddling at a shop.

For a rotating vise, check for rotation when the vise should be locked in stationary mode.
For a rotating vise, check for tension while rotating to ensure all feels smooth. Dyna-King has a teflon tipped screw that applies the desired tension to the rotating element to ensure it rotates with the resistance you prefer, versus simply being “sloppy loose”.
Test the vise jaw height adjustment to ensure the barrel of the jaws slides smoothly up and down. This is the screw under the jaws controlling the jaw (and hook) placement when the user rotates the assembly, allowing the hook to be in the same “plane” as the rotating body.
Test the Forcing Cone and its collar to ensure smoothness of operation. It should turn smoothly to adjust the width of the jaws.

My Dyna-King Professional developed a wobble early due to a soft steel cog on the top of the stem that spread slightly with use. The Dyna-King folks were unable to repair it, so I added a matchbook cover spacer to the cog “valley” to take up the play and reduce the wobble of the vise head. Knowing the vise arrived in perfect condition allowed me to understand that I had likely dropped the vise while transporting it to a fly tying class or show, rather than a manufacturers defect.

Purchase all the accessories : I purchased a set of midge jaws for the Excalibur, a second forcing cone, and extra tension screws for the rotation adjustment (teflon tipped) and the rotation lock screw (rotation on, rotation off). More on this later.

This vise is likely to last several decades or more and the vendor may no longer be around or making parts for older models. If you drop nine hundred dollars for a vise, you need to buy all of the accessories that you will need, lose, or break, now. Buy them now while they are plentiful. Screws were $15 each, forcing cone was $35, and the midge jaws were $124.

NOTE: The Midge jaws for the Dyna-King Professional are not identical to the Midge jaws for the Excalibur, they are of different lengths. If you buy the Midge jaws ensure you are getting the correct versions for this vise, as the person filling your order at the shop may not realize this is the case. Place the order via phone if buying from a third party fly shop to avoid disappointment.

Forcing cones are the element most likely to break over time. Each time the vise handle is depressed the jaws are pushed through the cone to force them closed. Should metal fatigue eventually surface these cones will be the item that cracks under pressure, so having an extra is a really worthwhile investment.

Environmental Issues

Long tube bobbin allows only about 3.5 inches of clearance under bobbin

“Offset” vises like the Excalibur have a different footprint on your tying desk. Firstly, the vise assembly now sits five to six inches away, due to the distance the jaws protrude from the vise stem, and the pedestal base is now square instead of rectangular.

Due to the shape, the tying activity is removed from the center stem area, and the vise base needs to be bigger to ensure pressures exerted on the jaw from any direction doesn’t tip the vise over. Rotation use may mean you’re pulling up, down, or from either side, and winding materials under tension puts increased force to work in potentially any direction.

In a normal configuration, the jaw of the Excalibur is six inches from the pedestal stem. The pedestal base of the Excalibur is square, six inches wide and six inches long, considerably larger than a traditional pedestal vise base, which has always been rectangular.

Excalibur Pedestal compared to Dyna-King Pro Pedestal vise

As the Excalibur is actually the shortest vise I own, using a long tube bobbin coupled with the shortness of the vise means you only have 3.5 inches of clearance under the bobbin when it’s at rest (see illustration above). This is plenty to tie flies, but if you do a lot of tying with dubbed loops, which are often longer than three inches, it means your dubbed loop and tool may need to rest on the table edge versus hanging vertically from the jaws.

Six inches from vise stem to jaw tip, Excalibur takes up more room

In a default configuration the vise jaws are 7.5″ above the table surface. Compare this with the vise you’re currently using to see how that will change your visual plane. The Jaw adjustment knob used to center the hook shank with the rotation allows you to increase the jaw height about half an inch, and I have incorporated that extra height in my vise’s configuration.

Many tools have long handles, like the dubbed loop spinners, the Cal Bird tools, and a few others, and that extra half inch may allow a favorite tool to hang vertically from the hook shank, versus hanging off the edge of the desk.

It appears possible to loosen the allen screw on the jaw arm to tilt the jaws slightly higher still, or loosen the jaw arm to tilt the entire jaw assembly upwards, but it doesn’t appear to offer a great deal of additional height.

Note that the height of the vise is not that much of an issue, nor do I feel cramped, it is merely an environmental issue any tyer should be aware of as part of a pending purchase. Do you have the extra room on your desk for the pedestal, do you have the extra room for the six inch jaw offset (moving the vise to the left or right six inches), and does your tying include lots of long tools and materials hanging off the hook?

I find that due to the height of the vise my perception of the fly includes the ability to see both top and sides without rotation. The lower hook gives me a little higher sight plane, which translates into seeing a bit more of the top and sides.

Remove all unused or uneccessary gadgets

I won’t be using the rotation feature very much, so I removed the long bobbin arm off of the vise stem. This big clunky arm is for resting your bobbin on when performing full rotation, and it’s not likely to see much action. The size of the arm makes it necessary to move out of the way when tying, and it’s 10 inch length is exactly the thing that will knock over head cement bottles when swung out of the way. When attached to the vise stem it protrudes about 9″ from the stem, requiring you to have at least a foot of unused space around the stem to swing it out of the way. I jettisoned this with great glee.

I removed the arm clamp off the vise stem as well. This is the collar that clamps the arm to the stem. The arm and collar I returned to the box should I need them later.

I moved the material clip back to the rotating body to get it out of the way of fingers, knuckles, and other tools. “Offset” vices have more things in the way when operating behind the jaw, so clearing additional space will let a fellow with large hands not bump the material clip repeatedly. Traditional vises feature the jaw and hook the highest point with the remainder of the vise and handle below the fly. Offset vises have the arm holding the jaw at the same height, with a “valley” behind the jaw which rises to connect to the arm holding the jaws. That means big hammy handed tiers may have find things in their way, and the material clip is one of them. Big flies have a lot more big or long materials, and for the moment, most of my tying will be smaller.

The Purpose of a fly tying vise is to hold a Hook

Once I had the vise lubricated, and explored all the working knobs and dials, removed all the unecessary parts, I was ready to actually test the function of the vise. A fly tying vise has but one core purpose, holding a hook immobile while you whack at it with bobbin and mats.

The trick on any of the Dyna-King vises is understanding how to manipulate the forcing cone for the hook you’re about to mount. The cone is tightened for smaller sizes and loosened for bigger hooks. For trout sizes, it appears about a quarter turn adjustment on the forcing cone is warranted for the size 14, to 12 transition, or from size 12 to 10, and on the smaller sizes, often a forcing cone setting will work for two hook sizes. 16’s and 18’s were similar, and I expect this might hold for even smaller hooks – as the wire doesn’t deviate as much as the hook size gets smaller.

Once we hit size 10 and larger, we had the same issue with the Excalibur as we’ve had on the Professional. The hook is large enough to have to move it back from the tip of the jaw, which brings the bend in contact with the two grooves scalloped out of the jaw for big hooks. This can lead to hook movement when tying, as the groove doesn’t grip the hook – and the hook isn’t inside it, so you have a partial grip on the hook that might pivot under stress.

This is not an insurmountable issue, just something you have to be cognizant of … mid range sizes should be placed with a bit more thought to avoiding the bend partially in the groove for larger hooks.

Learning the nuances of the forcing cone takes a bit of time, but the results once mastered are fantastic. The “offset” design, with its small handle and reduced force, coupled with the feel of the “clunk” when the hook is locked into place, is really superb. This was consistent with what others had mentioned of their offset vises – and why I wanted the new design, as the feedback it gives makes the process less forceful and hammy handed.

Dyna-King Professional Midge Jaw: Note grooves or striations in the tip only

I tested the vise with the standard jaw, then replaced those with the midge jaw. There are numerous differences between the Midge jaw on the Professional and the Midge jaw on the Excalibur. We already mentioned they are not interchangeable, the Excalibur jaw being smaller than the Professional, but the milling on the interior of the jaw is also different.

The Professional Midge jaw has a view striations on the vise jaw at the tip only. The Excalibur jaw is both sharper and thinner, but also has striations of metal the entire length of the jaw (see pictures)

Excalibur midge jaw: striations (grooves) extend full length of jaw

Both jaws for the Excalibur worked quite well. The Midge jaw held hooks as secure as its larger cousin, and sharper tip made it a bit easier to tie really small flies. There is a bit of a learning curve to using the Forcing Cone, mostly learning how much to rotate the cone to increase or decrease the hook by one or more sizes, but in my testing I blame all of the hooks that wobbled or slipped were the result of operator error, not the vise or jaw itself.

In summary, with the proper forcing cone adjustment, the hook holding ability of the Excalibur is outstanding.

Design Oversight or Flaw?

The only issue I would characterize as a design issue or flaw is the location and function of the rotation “lock” knob on the chassis itself.

The knob on the far side of the vise is the teflon tipped rotation control screw that determines how freely the rotation occurs. The teflon tip presses against the rotational body and that resistance must be overcome before the chassis rotates further. In this manner you can rotate the jaws 90 degrees and it will hold that position.

The threaded knob on the bottom of the vise is the rotation “Lock” knob. It must be unscrewed about one and half full turns before the chassis achieves the ability to rotate. There appears to be a slot in the body of the vise that the screw head must withdraw from before the vise will turn freely. One and a half turns of the knob achieves the complete withdrawal of the screw head from that slot.

The problem is you have a loose screw that has gravity operating on it. If the screw loosens further with vise usage, and then you toss the vise in a backpack once the fly tying class is over, I can see this knob dropping out of the vise body, to be lost forever. Note: this knob is not dangerously loose when unscrewed into the “rotation unlock” position, it’s simply loose enough to wobble free over time, and under the right circumstances.

Now you know why I bought a replacement in the list of accessories above, The teflon tipped screw is liable to wear with use, and the rotation lock screw could drop off the vise entirely – simply due to gravity and me forgetting to tighten it back down after extended use.

Warning, below this line is all non-scientific opinion, and impression

You actually have only one REAL question about this vise, is it worth the price?

It is a superb vise. It holds the hook better than most, is of solid construction, will last a lifetime, and is a bonafide engineering marvel.

It is not worth the price.

My rationale is simple. Does the capabilities and construction offer a marked improvement in vise function and are the new capabilities offered by the device either unique – or do they measurably assist the tier in the perfomance of his craft?

The answer is no.

A lot of vises (both cheap and expensive) hold the hook well. Those same vises have both rudimentary or advanced rotational features, and therefore the only feature that has shown marked advancement from my current quiver of vises is the rotation.

Which I won’t be using much …

Why? Because if the bulk of my flies are trout sizes, the greatest number of turns of material on a size 16 or 14 hook, is five or less. The benefit to using the rotational feature to apply four or five turns of ribbing, is negligible.

Example: To rotate on the ribbing, I have to throw a half hitch or two on the fly, then swing the bobbin arm out to rest my bobbin on (a ten inch wide swath across the worksurface of my bench), clean up the head cement the bobbin arm just knocked onto my Grizzly neck, swear profusely, feed five turns of gold wire, then recover my bobbin from the arm, swing the arm out of the way, and tie off the wire.

That’s neither an improvement nor a lessening of effort, so for the trout tier, it doesn’t appear the rotational capability has much use. For larger flies that may take ten or twelve turns of chenille or ribbing, perhaps there is saved effort …

I will certainly attempt to become enamored of unfettered rotation later, on larger flies …

After ten dozen flies tied, what’s my basic configuration?

After a great deal of fiddling with knobs and dials, I run the vise with the rotational lock off, allowing the chassis to spin with tension or pressure applied. This allows me to place my left hand on the chassis and rotate the vise in any direction to examine the ribbing I’ve just applied, or the location and attitude of tails, wings, or anything else.

This free rotation style is why I object to the rotation knob hanging under the vise and subject to gravity. Since this is ALWAYS loose due to my style, a prolonged tying spree may loosen it further. Only experience and use can answer the question, ” Will I find the rotation lock screw in the bottom of my knapsack, later?”

I run the vise with the jaws fully slid upward to get that extra half inch of height. This “slide” is controlled by the knob under the jaw, and is loosened, the jaw moved, then tightened down again.

Stay tuned for the follow up review later this year. I will post additional configuration information and technical detail as I learn it, likewise on impressions for large hook use.

Full Disclosure: As with all of the products reviewed herein, each was purchased using my own money. We don’t do freebies or being gifted stuff so we can write glowing reviews of marginal items. Instead, we write marginal reviews of the really good stuff …

Kreinik by another name is still Ice Chenille

I made the mistake of trying to track down “cactus” or “ice” chenille, and rather than emerging victorious I am scratching my head over the outcome. This type of chenille is commonplace in the needlepoint industry where it’s sold as “edging”, something to border a needlepoint applique or fanciful throw pillow.

It’s a search engine nightmare, and tracking down the different types resold to us fly tiers is a real headache. You can find it under “eyelash” yarn, iridescent chenille, “scrubby” yarn, iridescent chenille thread, as well as using the familiar, “cactus” or “ice” chenille. Numerous vendors exist, many of which are in Europe, and use a different nomenclature for these products than we do. Mylar is called Lurex in Europe, so the search string changes depending on which continent you’re on. In addition there are many colloquial names like, “Cactus” chenille, “Ice” chenille, “Iridescent” Chenille, “tinsel” chenille, “Glass” Chenille, “Mylar” chenille, “Estaz”, and Lurex Chenille, Lurex Garland, among others. It’s made with a variety of materials, some with soft plastic like Estaz, or Kreinik’s “Micro Ice Chenille”, and some flavors feature a much coarser plastic, which we tend to call “Cactus” chenille.

What seemed like a simple item to track down quickly devolved into a multi continent , multi product mess, not the least of which was that fly tying shops sold it for less than needlepoint shops, which added additional mystery, besides being a first …

As I was looking to stock up on what I’ve known as “Micro Ice Chenille“, which is among the smaller versions of the product, I decided to leave all the other products for another day – or another fellow braver than I am …

“Micro Ice Chenille” is a trade name of Kreinik Threads, which is owned by another company called “Rainbow Gallery.” Searching for this product yields a few colors available from a dozen or so needlepoint shops, none of which have a comprehensive selection of colors. Likewise for the fly shops, as it seemed the selection was as sparse as the needlepoint shops. This is typically a bad sign in the yarn business, as it often precedes the vendor going out of business, or the discontinuation of the product itself.

I attempted to track down the status and found a couple old references to discontinued colors, but it appears the company is still making the product, although in less colors, and more importantly, they no longer make the “Fern Green” that is a staple of my warm water damsels and some of my better bass flies.

I’ll live … but only because I bought the last few spools remaining.

Kreinik’s base colors are available on their website, and many fly shops echoed this list, so it was obvious they were stocking the Kreinik product line, as the colors matched. Many shops had additional colors, so more vendors exist, but trade names and manufacturer information is scarce given the repackaging happening in both fly and needlepoint shops.

The best replacement I found was the result of using the search string, “Iridescent Chenille Thread” and while the size and texture was a match, they sold two different styles under the same name. One style of yarn is wrapped on a card (this is the identical version to Kreinik), and the other version was wrapped on itself, no card, and featured a thicker core thread holding everything together. Both worked well, but the tie off of the non carded yarn was bulkier due to the heavier core threads.

I ordered a couple of colors in both styles and they looked good, same soft mylar texture with several dozen new colors – including vibrant florescents, and available as a 10 meter skein, which is double the quantity of the Kreinik product, and about half the price ($2.39 vs $4.30), a great combination. The carded colors have the same thread core as the Kreinik Micro Ice and behave identically on both application and tie off.

Note this vendor uses the heavy thread core in its Cactus Chenille, better used on larger flies, not on the smaller trout offerings

The above picture shows the heavier thread core used in many vendors variants of these yarns, and you need to be concerned if you’re tying small flies as the heavier core will make a bulky tie off point.

The point of all of this is two fold, there is more than one name for cactus chenille, and once you find some you’ll find many more kinds and types of this yarn available. You need to choose your labels wisely, be mindful of the continent you’re on, and you probably need two or three different vendors to get a semblance of a color selection. Kreinek doesnt’ appear to be adding colors, so it may not be a credible source much longer (my instinct, not fact) .

Most tiers are using the subdued “trout” colors as that’s what’s sold by our fly shops. Mallard, Peacock, and Emerald Green, are the only greens available (Kreinik) , and myself and others would like some Olives, more Browns, and perhaps some Golden Stone type colors. Sprinkle in a few bright colors for Steelhead and everyone’s happy. The Kreinek catalog is sadly lacking all of that, which is a bad sign, so start looking for an additional vendor soon, and you may want to stock up on the colors you use most frequently.

Korry’s Little Shop in the UK has the best color selection but most of the colors we’re looking for are also out of stock. Remember to purchase the carded colors to ensure the same thread core, perhaps buying a skein of the non carded (thicker) core to eyeball before buying more.

I spoke with the proprietor of Korry’s Little Shop and she echoed the same issues I am having. Colors last for only a short time before disappearing, the landscape is ever-changing with most of the product lacking anything in the way of trade names, as it originates in China. Chinese cones are made into small cards for the millinery industry and the manufacturer or common name is neither translated nor transferred to the carded product.

Which puts us flytiers, in a bit of a quandary. I have confirmed the colors on a Chinese website, suggesting they are the supplier, but few if any of the colors are making it to our shores.

I’d like to find a cone of Olive, but it appears that’s not in the cards … and while that was a pitiful attempt at humor, it seems we’ll be dealing with the lack of cactus / ice / glass chenille colors for the foreseeable future.

ICE yarns sells a flavor called Metallic Glitz, but the colors available are fine for steelhead, not so much for trout fishing. ICE (vendor name) yarns is one of the larger players in this space, so this illustrates the paucity of our color selection. No one is making “nature” colors – most vendors are making “Christmasy tinsel/garland” colors instead.

“Icicle Tinsel Trim” used in a search string revealed the extent of the Xmas phenonmena, this vendor features the thicker thread core and the colors more appropriate for the holidays.

Kreinik sells 50m cones for about $50 dollars, but the lack of colors means that kind of outlay is really questionable. A cone of Olive would be great for my tying, but your flies will differ, so the value of the larger quantity hinges on your planned use. Finding a backup supplier with additional colors in the Olive, Brown, Golden Stone, range would be a nice hole card to have, given the colors cannot be depended on to last more than three or four years …

For those about to begin their own search, note that all these yarns are called “Eyelash” yarns by the yarn industry. As you wander through vendors supplies this is the category of yarn to use to get close to what you’re looking for – a filamentous yarn with short fibers emenating from a central core. Add the material type, Lurex or Mylar to string and you’ll start hitting options that resemble what you want. Now you simply need to wade through the options until you find a match.

That Which Stretches does not like Sunlight

I think every fly tyer learned an important lesson with the advent of the Latex Dental Dam craze of the 80’s. Realistic imitation was “in” and natural latex caddis pupa imitations spilled off the pages of Fly Fisherman magaine and into our fly boxes like maggots fleeing a corpse …

We assumed that the waxy softness of wrapped Latex Dental Dam would make the most wary trout succumb, based on its lifelike look and feel, and suddenly fly shops were selling prepackaged Stonefly nymph latex shapes, Latex insect bodies, Latex hopper bodies complete with legs, and we were about to make wild trout kneel before our collective squishy awesomeness.

… then we opened our fly boxes to restock them the following season, and found all that Latex oxidized into broken bits resembling cooked Chow Mein, and realized we had forgotten one tiny little lesson in Physics.

That Which Stretches does not like Sunlight …

Anytime I am contemplating some form of stretchy synthetic in my flies, I remember the painful lesson of latex, and attempt to engineer the material out of the mix, given how little luck I’ve had with elastics.

I have been tinkering with Czech nymphs and their ilk for a bit, and have been slicing the bags the materials came in to make the thin shell backs used on these competition flies. Plastic bags stretch a little, but are not a true elastic material, and I hoped it would last longer than other materials. As the shellback is typically tightly ribbed with wire or monofilament, these flies are less prone to catastrophy than their Latex kin, where the oxidation of the latex eventually unwinds the entire fly body.

“Scud Back” is a material commonly used as the shellback for many of these Czech style nymphs, and I had an idea that I might be able to find the material in bulk form as there are so few transparent elastics used commercially.

Transparent elastic tape is used in the garment industry extensibly, and is used to seal clothing openings, like necks, wrist and anklets, on a wide variety of sports clothing. The transparent color allows it to be sewn into the lining of the aparture without altering the appearance of the outside of the cloth, and is used on nearly every swimsuit, bra, or strapped garment made.

Called “Mobilon Tape” or “Lastin” it is sold in some form by nearly every sewing store, and not suprisingly, for much less than us fly tiers are used to paying. Scud Back is a 1/8″ wide strip of Lastin, available in both clear and dyed colors. 1/4″, 3/8″, and 1/2″ are common sizes of Lastin for garment use, but it can be purchased in 1/8″ wide also. Typically Lastin is available in 0.12mm and 0.15mm thicknesses, just remember that the thinner the material the less likely it will survive hot sun and repeated seasons in your fly box.

Note this is one of the rare times NOT to lay in a lifetime supply. Rather it would prove smarter to replace the material regularly to ensure longevity on your flies. Consider that bras and swimwear see a similar amount of sun and water, it’s likely your flies will last more than a season, but you’ll need to test this due to the uniqueness of your storage method, and your fishing.

I tend to draw the material tight rather than stretch the material over the fly, which reduces the strain on the material and increases its lifespan. My flies are stored indoors in air conditioned splendor, so they are not fried in an overly warm garage, or similar inhospitable space.

Lastin or Mobilon can be dyed, likely with a synthetic dye or acid version, but I am reluctant to weaken the material uneccessarily with colors, hot water, and the mishaps that can occur with increased oxidation. I will dye some later to learn what works best, but that is a low priority.

I have used permanent markers to color the material, but once dry, the color wipes right off.

Most of my Czech nymphs use the simple transparent shellback, but I am contemplating a Hot Pink or Flo Orange Shad fly for use in the American, tied Czech style, so I might add a packet from Hareline just to be clever …

Scud Back is made by Hareline, and sells for $2-$3 for three feet. Lastin / Mobilon sells at most stores around fifty cents a yard, or about $7-$8 for a ten yard bag. Considering how many flies you can tie with a single 10 yard bag, I think I would opt to buy it one bag at a time, mindful to toss it every couple of seasons to ensure oxidation is minimized.

The smaller 0.12mm thickness is perfect for smaller flies, as it is noticeably more pliable than the 0.15mm standard. Extra pliability comes at a cost, as the thinner material likely has a bit less lifespan before snapping. When applying the material onto the fly simply draw it tight versus stretching it to the attachment point, as this will reduce the strain on the material as it ages/oxidizes.

I recieved both thicknesses from garment sources, so you’ll need to read the advert to determine which they are selling.

Mandala Crafts sells 33 yard spools of 5/32 elastic tape for about $9. This material is advertised as a thermoplastic, but doesn’t mention the Lastin brand. The material is clear compared to the slight opaque of Lastin tape, and the material can be stained with permanent felt pen. While useful, it suggests more than a single type of thermoplastic elastic tape exists, so you’ll need to try a couple to see which you prefer.

Fly tying storage needs are changing

I wasn’t surprised I had nearly 32 sizes of brass beads, in 8 colors, it was all the nooks and crannies I’d wadded the little baggies into that was the revelation. Once you factor colors and sizes; Silver, Gold, Copper, Black Nickel, in at least four sizes; 4mm, 3.8mm, 3.2mm, and 2.4mm … add in those Olive and Coffee Brown beads you thought irresistible, and the White 2.4mm that you need for Shad, the four sizes of Coneheads for all the Bass minnows you throw … the combination of little plastic bags tucked into drawers, becomes a mess.

Then there’s the fish hook issue. Old hooks in paper boxes, newer hooks in plastic boxes, recent purchases in those silly plastic sleeves, and even though it’s the same hook in three different sized containers, it’s not possible to save them all in the same drawer, and you have hooks spread out among all of your storage choices.

You might say, I’ve had enough …

It used to be a few thread spools we couldn’t find a place for … or an odd lot of tinsels, but now our craft is full of little bits of plastic, little metal beads, things that rattle, things that sparkle, and all of it changes shape everytime the vendor has a fit of pique, regardless of what our storage can handle.

When I started tying it was the Porcupine purchase that made me realize I needed to upgrade my storage. Back then everything was in a cardboard wine box. The smaller the item the deeper it sank into the mix, so routinely I would plunge into the box looking for yellow hackle and have to dig. One day I plunged into the box and came out attached to my chunk of Porcupine hide, and the plasticine baggy it was in offered zero protection to my now-bleeding fingers.

I upgraded to a desk dedicated to fly tying. This meant the Porcupine could be safely stored away from both my loyal hound, and my grabbling digits.

I think we’re there again. Desks no longer offer the kind of small item storage we now need, as their drawers simply aren’t segregated enough to offer their contents efficiently when searched. Little boxes cannot be stacked next to envelopes of fish hooks, as we cannot see their labels and must “deal” them onto the table like cards, to find the Dry Fly #12’s.

Options for compartments are available for this cabinet

What’s needed is the ability for us to decant the vendor’s containers into a standard container of our own choosing, that will allow us to label and store with others of the same size and type.

… and that’s the easy part of the quest, defining the problem.

In all my wandering through craft stores, only the beading community seems to share our problems with storage and container. They’re afflicted by countless small beads and the need to keep them all seperate and within arm’s reach. Figure they got a dozen different sizes and unlimited colors, and their work surface is as cluttered as ours …

I’ve been eyeballing some of their storage solutions. Lots of wonderful little jars that would accomodate hooks swimmingly, we just need the jars to fit within the confines of our existing furniture solution … or add something they will fit into.

A 1″ inch jar is perfect for all the small hooks up to and including 6’s and 8’s, but the big hooks for poppers, saltwater, and the long shank streamers will require a larger jar.

One thousand 3.8mm brass beads will fill a one inch jar to the brim. 5mm beads will fit about 500-600 in a one inch container, so it looks like both the one and two inch jars are needed for a comprehensive solution. The two inch jar can handle the big hooks (by the one hundred pack) as well as the larger beads, coneheads, rattles, and fish heads needing storage.

The above links are for glass and plastic jars. I opted for glass over plastic, given many forms of plastic age poorly and become cloudy, brittle and opaque. Glass allows me to attach labels either to the glass or the metal lids – allowing me to peel or scrape them off year’s later with no damage to the container. Glass is heavier, and if I leave the container on the surface of my tying bench, will resist being brushed off onto the floor much better than plastic. Think several hundred size 16’s sprinkled onto your sock feet and carpet…

The small jars are part of the answer, but what to put the jars into is the balance of the question. Most desks contain four or six drawers in several sizes, and not all are suitable for the one inch size without stacking them. Stacked jars work, but it makes searching for the hook you want a little harder than specialized storage that shows ALL the labels on the jars at once.

I’ve opted to start with the Stamps and Storage Wooden Drawer Cabinet, to test its storage and retrieval of all my items. It can be purchased with different height drawers, so you can choose the jar sizes best suited for your tying. My first purchase was configured with six one inch drawers and two, two inch drawers. I purchased the dividers to compartment the one inch drawers into sixteen smaller squares, ditto for the two inch drawers. Each 1″ drawer can fit 16 jars, so I have a total of 96 1″ inch jars, and 32 2″ jars, or 128 seperate storage vessels.

Awesome. But Expensive.

The one inch drawers have no sides to them, only fronts and backs, so the strips of divider wood that make them into 16 individual compartments are necessary. The 2″ drawers have all four sides, making the subdividers uneccessary.

I’m thinking the 1″ drawers equipped with 1″ bottles are perfect for hooks, the 2″ drawers with 2″ bottles are for everything else. It’s likely that each unit may have a different configuration, should more than one cabinet be purchased.

The size of the unit will allow it to be used on your table, or located somewhere’s else. This is useful to pre-position all the frequently used sizes of hooks and beads, close to the work area for use. Offloading these items out of your desk storage will then allow you to reposition and optimize certain drawers for use with additional glass jars, making your desk hold additional small items.

Stamp and Storage cabinet drawer containing two inch glass jars and dividers — See all the labels at once

With 134 compartments in one cabinet (as configured above) you have all of your small things available in storage that will never change shape, and will always have accurate labels, as you can peel the old and replace with the new.

I will be stockpiling a few flies going forward, as Winter is long and I keep fiddling with new patterns and ideas. If this cabinet works well, I will add a couple more configured with only the 2″ drawers to contain additional jars. If you figure 10 nymphs and 6 dries, that’s only a single drawer out of the six, so I don’t need to go overboard on the small size.

One inch drawer containing one inch plastic containers

The 2″ drawers are better suited for the larger flies, so if I get industrious I might stash some leechs or big stoneflys. I probably not use these for feather storage as the handle area allows bugs access, and a sealed container is always the first line of defense.

Instinct suggests that while a beginning tyer could shift all of his hook storage into one unit, I should not. Firstly, because I have hoarded quite a bit more than your average beginner, and secondly, it’s the most commonly used hooks that i need storage for, not the odd, ancient, or esoteric crap I have squirrelled away. While you might still own Mustad 94840’s in paper containers, plastic containers, and plastic sleeves, you probably only own one type of container for Salmon double hooks, as they’re illegal in most California creeks.

I will be consolidating my trout nymph and trout dry fly hooks to these containers due to the mix of storage types the manufacturers chose over the last decade. The ancient Allcock hooks, and the Carrie Steven’s Streamer hooks I got from Partridge, are hoarded items that I don’t need close to hand.

Whether this makes it to my desk surface is another question. The one inch drawers work well for threads and tinsels, fish hooks, and small amounts of beads, but you’ll need to make sides for those drawers or buy the dividers from Stamps N’ Storage to ensure things don’t roll off the sides when opening and closing them.

The drawers have dividers in numerous configurations, so you need to determine what container size you’ll be using in order to purchase the dividers. I bought the larger size grid, with 16 compartments, but they make many more options. (Note that this 16 compartment option is only available after clicking the Configuration option on the purchase screen, it is not shown)

My desk has several shallow drawers that I had been using for hooks and beads, and now are available for other items, like tools, or packaged dubbing assortments. Offloading the small item storage to the cabinet has freed several drawers to pack with other things that are better behaved in shallow drawers.

The carous els look quite useful also, but I’ll wait on those until I’ve integrated the cabinet. Even without containers in them, I can see filling one with threads and tinsels, wires spools, lead, and bead chain.

Confusion over Ice Dub and Angelina clarified

There is a lot of confusion over Ice Dub and finding it in the wild. Years ago I wrote a piece on Meadowbrook Glitter’s Angelina fibers, and how they’ve since become Ice Dub. Since that time I have answered a lot of confused questions about the Angelina product and whether it is or isn’t what we know as Ice Dub.

I thought I might reiterate what it is you’re looking for and describe what it is you might purchase when looking for it … and how fraught with peril your purchase might be … and how best to fix it … which is a lot for a single post, but advanced fly tying simply ain’t for sissies.

What we are dealing with …

Meadowbrook Glitter makes many types of Angelina fibers. There are “straight”, “soft crimp”, “hot fix”, and several other flavors for which I don’t have a bonafide description or label. I will call them “small denier”, and “long straight.” All of these fibers are made from a thin polyester sheet sliced into tiny thin strips.

“Soft Crimp” Angelina is what we know as Ice Dub. It is a thin curly film soft to the touch and dubs onto thread fairly well. Soft Crimp Angelina has 15 denier wide fiber, whose filament is about two inches long, and is the only Angelina flavor that is Ice Dub.

“Straight” “Angelina is a similar width fiber to the soft crimp, but is NOT curly, is several inches longer than the crimped, and while it can be dubbed onto thread, is a little stiffer and less easy to dub than Soft Crimp. Straight Angelina is available in all the same colors as Soft Crimp, but Ice Dub has even more colors than Angelina, so Ice Dub has many custom colors unique to their product. Meadowbrook Glitter makes both the Soft Crimp and Straight fiber in about 27 colors, and Ice Dub has considerably more than that.

“Hot Fix” Angelina is a heat fusible fiber identical in appearance to straight Angelina, only the application of heat will make the fiber fuse into a mesh sheet or “bug wing” of iridescence. Simply drape fibers onto a clean surface in any pattern, lay a piece of paper over them, then pass a warm iron over the paper, Instant insect wings.

Why it’s a problem …

Angelina fibers were originally made for the glitter business, chopped into tiny fragments so folks could toss them in the air while inebriated. Angelina fibers are now sold to the millinery and yarn business, and that industry uses most of these fibers interchangeably, so they don’t care about the differences as much. Angelina fibers are woven into spun yarns to add flash and sparkle, and only the heat fusible fibers are of concern to the yarn crowd, as they don’t want their garments melting accidentally.

A fly tier intent on buying “Ice Dub” by the ounce can search for Soft Crimp Angelina on the Internet, and will likely get a mix of Angelina fibers, much of it the wrong stuff. The yarn or spinning vendor lists their Angelina fibers incorrectly, or without knowing which are what, and you wind up buying packages of the “straight” fiber Angelina rather than the Soft Crimp. The yarn vendor doesn’t seem to care about straight versus crimped, and you get a confusing mix of incorrect products when ordering online.

This is the source of the confusion, vendors selling straight fibers when you’re looking for soft crimp, and the product you get is close … but not exact.

As a test I ordered from five different yarn stores and recieved all three types under the “soft crimp” label. That means “caveat emptor” … and I cannot fix this for you.

The Good News being that while the straight and hot fix fibers are only slightly harder to dub, they are still very usable in fly tying and your money will not be wasted.

There are two kinds of fly tiers, those that go the extra mile, and those that buy packaged crap

While I can’t fix this issue of vendor mislabeling, I can teach you how to make Lemonade from Lemons, with the aid of a little knowledge and Science …

Think Taco Bell and it’s products served by high school kids. Any new product they debut will make use of existing Taco Bell products and processes, rather than something completely new. They’ll slap beans onto a taco shell, add a soft flour taco cover and call the Artery Hardening result a “Chalupa” … They already had the soft flour taco, beans, and crispy shell, on other products, as well as the process to cook and wrap them in greasy waxed paper …

The same is likely true of Meadowbrook Glitter, all their fibers stem from the same thin polyester sheets, so there has to be some simple process to convert straight to crimped, as everything but the shape is the same. The “hot fix” flavor suggests temperature modification may be the answer.

Enter Science.

Polyester has a melt point of 220 degrees fahrenheit, at that temperature solid polyester will turn into a liquid. At temperatures less than 220F, polyester will shrink, twist, and curl, changing both its form and texture.

Hot water from the tap is about 100F. All we need do is figure out what temperature will turn straight Angelina into something more resembling Soft Crimp. In addition, the heat fusible form of Angelina is an obvious special case, as it’s likely something has been added to its base polyester to melt slightly with warm iron use.

Doctor Frankenstein I presume …

Dyeing polyester is a lot of fun, and being no stranger to the process as well as owning several pounds of soft crimp Angelina, I figured I could add to my available colors of Ice Dub at the same time I deduced what the heat properties were on the baseline Angelina product.

Case 1: Heat fusible Angelina. Heat fusible Angelina begins to lose its straightness at around 130F to 140F. Hot tap water is about 100F, so this is only slightly hotter than tap water. At these temperatures the width of each fiber and its straightness are both comprimised, and the result is essentially a better form of Ice Dub, with a thinner filament size.

Case 2: Standard Angelina (straight). The straight Angelina fibers that are NOT heat fusible have a higher deformation temperature, around 155F to 165F. At these temperatures the same deformation of fiber width and straightness occur, making standard straight Angelina into more of an Ice Dub flavor.

Note: If you wish to do this on your own, you need to have a good thermometer and remove the Angelina from the water bath frequently to check the fibers for the start of the malformation process. I initially removed the material after one minute of exposure to an increase of 10 degrees fahrenheit. In this manner I could determine a roughly ten degree window where the material began to change shape. Leaving the material in the bath longer, or increasing the temperature more can increase the amount of shrinkage and deformation of the Angelina fiber. So you need to assume you will destroy some learning how to shape/dye this material.

Hell, you destroy materials simply dyeing them the wrong color, and as I can buy a quarter ounce of Angelina for the price of one teensy pack of Ice Dub, we’ll have plenty of mistakes and unsusable mats, and we’ll make plenty of things you’ll want to make again.

Reproduce the Range of Outcomes

You know what Ice Dub looks and feels like. You’ve got a package of Angelina so you know its characteristics, now pinch off a dab and toss it in a pot of hot water equipped with a liquid or candy thermometer.

Every ten degrees of temperature increase over 120F you should remove the materials and check for changes. Once you determine the curl and shrink temperature, destroy some by leaving it for too long. This will show you how much change is possible with the water temperature changes, allowing you to reproduce the effect again.

Keep in mind you might not know what the vendor sent you (he might not know either) so record the temperatures and try the process on another sample, if you bought more than one color. If you get one package curling at a lower temperature, chances are you have a hot fusible pack, so make a few bug wings to see what they look like.

Overdyeing Crystilina Aurora with Brown Jacquard dye, note the dye bath temperature with a candy thermometer

The above picture shows the “default Green” color that emerges first when you dye the Angelina fiber. This is “Crystilina Aurora” color and the opalescent refractions assist in making the result look green. This is “white” Crystilina Aurora dyed with Jacquard Brown iDye. The brown is beginning to take, but more time in the dye bath will be needed to get a dark brown.

Dyeing polyester requires a different type of dye

Polyester is a synthetic fiber, so you need a synthetic dye to color it correctly. Synthetic dyes typically will not dye protein, so you can dip your hand in the dye with no ill effect, other than suffering horribly from scalding water burns.

Spilling it on formica is a different issue, as most kitchen formica is synthetic, and every dollop, slurpage, or drip may dye your kitchen floor vividly.

RIT makes a synthetic dye called “DyeMore” for use on synthetic fabrics including Polyester. The Jacquard company makes “Idye Poly” for synthetics which will also dye Polyester. As Jacquard also makes an Idye for natural fibers, make sure you order the correct product. Jacquard iDye contains a packet of gel fixative to set the color, and the RIT DyeMore requires no additional fixative to set the color permanently.

The instructions on the labels of these dyes are a bit misleading, as they are designed for pounds of cloth, not tiny fragments of polyester. Often the directions will insist the dye bath be closer to 200F than the 120-160F range I described. Ignore the directions and test the process using a pinch or two of the Angelina material, testing shrinkage, curling, and color, before committing your entire purchase to the dye pot. THe physics are undeniable, as dumping several pounds of wet cloth into the pot is going to lower the temperature 20-30 degrees, whereas your little packet of Angelina will not have that cooling affect, and the small pinch of material will probably liquify into an unusable gum.

I tested both RIT DyeMore and the Jacquard IDye Poly and had great results with both. One of the unique things about polyester is that the initial color picked up by the Angelina is always a Peacock Green, even if you’re dyeing something Tan. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this phenomenon, simply leave the material in the pot longer and the proper dye color will eventually show.

I always yank some out of the pot if the initial green color is particularly fetching, leaving the remainder to acquire the actual color of the dye. This gives me two colors for the price of one.

Angelina has several white colors suitable for dyeing, each with a different iridescent or opalescent highlight. My favorite is Soft Crimp Angelina in the “Crystilina Aurora” color. This highlight is like shattered abalone shell and contains more colors than the other highlights, hence my favorite.

Angelina Fibers, exposed to different water temperatures

The above image shows the deformation of the straight Angelina fibers when exposed to hot water. The original sample is in the center, and the 155 Degree was a several minute exposure to 155F hot water. Likewise for the 135F specimen at right. You will have to watch carefully to get the right amount of change in your straight or hot fix Angelina, and as water temperature can differ at altitude you will probably require several attempts before you get what you like. Experiment with small pinches of the material before submerging your entire stash. Remember that Ice Dub has a shorter filament length than the Soft Crimp Angelina, so depending on what the vendor sold you there may be small differences still. Based on the above sample and temperatures, it appears this is “straight” Angelina, not the heat fusible or soft crimp versions.

As most of you are new to dyeing understand that you’ll need to approach this systematically. Your results will vary from mine due to simple things like size of pot, amount of water, amount of dye used, so don’t expect perfection on the first try. In my trials I used a full container of the dye, either Jacquard or RIT, mixed with about 4 inches of water in a large stew pot. The large pot allows the attachment of the candy thermometer without getting in the way of stirring the mix.

To make it easy on yourself, heat the liquid to the desired temperature and turn off the burner. This will allow you to soak materials for several minutes without scorching or destroying them suddenly. Once you’re certain of the time and temperature exposures you can get bolder in your efforts.

The above shows the results of testing both dyes and fibers. RIT DyeMore Sandstone, Gunmetal, Jacquard Green, Silver Gray, and Brown. Several of the greens shown are me pulling some out before the actual color takes over. Almost all the synthetic dyes yield a green on the initial dip with the color showing up only after some minutes in the bath. The Gunmetal color took nearly 15 minutes to show correctly, and I had to reheat the dye bath a couple times to ensure it remained near the desired temperature range.

With products as delicate as Angelina it is really easy to destroy them in the dye bath, so turn the heat off where possible to ensure you do not scorch the product or weaken it structurally.

In Summary, Angelina fibers are sold by many vendors without regard to whether they are soft crimp, straight, or heat fusible, and its possible to recieve any of these flavors when ordering the Soft Crimp flavor online, just as I did. Angelina will curl and shrink under heat, so if the “Soft Crimp Angelina” shows up and is the straight or heat fusible version, you can make it into a better version of itself with a dye pot and the appropriate dyes – or simply hot water.

Expensive bobbins and other engineering marvels distract your dollars from where they’re really needed

Only two items are used at every step of the fly, and rather than spending precious dollars on tools that are simply more expensive because they can be, spend your money where it really counts, by upgrading your scissors or your vise.

The fly tier’s vise and one or more pairs of quality scissors will always justify their cost simply because they are constantly in use, their quality levels increase dramatically with the dollars spent, and their capabilities increase with the increased outlay, as blades and tips become finer and sharper, or jaws become capable of a wider range of hooks, can rotate, and can attain the same nosebleed price levels as lesser tools, so you don’t feel left out.

Fly tying vises being too expensive to own more than one or two of them, thereby making me blanch at the thought of buying several for review, but scissors are enjoying a renaissance in both price and quality, and a canny fly tier intent on upgrading his tool suite should learn where the good scissors grow, and how to determine what he really needs in light of this vast unexplored continent of expensive cutlery.

Scissors, and the Vastness of Options

All the best scissors grow in the medical and dental professions, and what’s available from fly shops are the cheapest quality scissors, mostly made in India or Pakistan. Both regular and dental surgery have created thousands of different types of specialized scissors that you cannot imagine exist, until you are curious enough to visit an online medical supply house, and dive into all the names, sizes, and shapes.

The myriad of choices, shapes, cutting edges, and materials are likely to be a bit daunting to your untrained eye, but I include enough information to help you limit your focus to a few important qualities and the types of tips, frames, and edges available to make your choice and your dollars go further.

Tips

Tungsten Carbide inserts are obvious to the naked eye. Don't assume cheap scissors are tungsten unless you can see the inserts

For the fly tier the sharp fine tip is the most desirable element in a scissor. Medical scissors can have a tip fine enough to trim a single fiber from the inside of the eye of a hook, but that degree of metalurgy comes with a high price, both in dollars and in the education of the fly tier that spent the $600 necessary to own those scissors.

Medical scissors also come with blunt tips, rounded tips, curved, straight, and one rounded tip and one fine tip, but for most fly tying uses the dual fine tip is preferred. Fly tiers may lust after other types of scissors, once they learn of their existence, like Wire Cutting scissors would be superb for cutting heavy feather stems, wire, and bead chain. Medical supply houses often describe these as “heavy pattern” scissors, or heavier frames designed for increased force, and most come with one serrated and one straight edge designed specifically for cutting stainless steel wire.

Stainless steel wire is the preferred standard in dentistry and medical surgery due to its strength and possesses the highest intrinsic hygiene value, requiring less disinfecting chemicals to provide a sterile surface. Stainless steel wire would destroy most fly tying scissors very quickly, so the extra “beefiness” in frame of a heavy pattern scissor is welcome.

For most tiers the question of which tip will reduce itself to straight or semi-curved. Fly tying scissors are typically straight points, but scissors designed for fine work are often available in both straight and semi-curved. The curvature allows the cutting points and fingers of the user to not block the view of the area being worked on, giving greater visibility for precision cutting. Most tiers learn with straight points, many prefer the semi-curved once introduced to them solely due to the increased visibility garnered at the point of the cut.

Edges

The “Supercut” blade (typically with black handles) are superfine serrated blades. These serrations are much finer than anything available to fly tiers and will positively grab and hold anything ensuring no slippage during the cut. Tiers are familiar with hair or fibers slipping along the blade as it closes and we compensate without realizing it, often trimming two or three times to get a single even cut. Supercut scissors prevent any hair from slipping and you will get straight and even cuts on fibrous materials every time.

Tungsten Inserts are small insets of Tungsten Carbide imbedded in the leading edge of each blade. Tungsten is among the hardest of steel, so it makes a superior cutting edge. It is also the most brittle of steel, so you can destroy the points simply by dropping them onto a concrete floor. If you are not careful and cut toward the hook shank perhaps catching the tips on the hook shank, you can remove both tips in the blink of an eye, destroying the scissor in the process. Tungsten Carbide scissor usage requires the tier to relearn how to use scissors, and how to protect the points properly.

Most medical scissors are simply stainless steel which is a softer cutting edge and less prone to damage. Many medical scissors have “German Stainless” stamped or stenciled on them, which refers to the type of steel used versus the steel (or scissor) originating in Germany. Metalurgy analysis suggests sulpher and phosphorus are added to traditional stainless to make this variant, it is considered a “soft” steel.

Ceramic bladed scissors are a ceramic coating added to stainless or tungsten inserts to make the edges harder, sharper, and last longer than stainless or tungsten normally would. Ceramic coating also reduces glare on the scissor, and makes it resist corrosion better. Ceramic coated scissors are incredibly expensive, lusted after by every fly tier that handles a pair, and should be considered only if you have a friend whose a surgeon, a rich uncle, or win the lottery. Ceramic OR (operating room) grade scissors typically range between $250 to $600, depending on size and type.

… and yes, the gold coating on their handles is real gold.

What a Hammy Handed Meathead needs to know before buying the Good Stuff

Semicurved tips on operating room scissors. These are the tungsten carbide OR grade

Medical scissors are available in four grades. There’s the disposable scissors from Pakistan and India that are $10 or less, and make up most of the offering from fly tying shops, and are available by the squillions on Ebay at much cheaper prices. A decade ago these were really poor quality, but the sample purchases made recently suggest vast improvement on both fit and tolerances.

As these scissors are less than ten bucks each, you can order a sample pair to check the points and quality of blade construction before ordering more. These are great scissors for equipping a club fly tying class – or used as loaners for same. These scissors mimic the fancy scissors by using gold colored handles, and stencil “German Stainless” on the frame, hoping you’ll think the scissor is made in Germany.

Often these scissors are labelled with the term “TC” for Tungsten Carbide, but none of the samples that I bought had tungsten carbide inserts in the blades (see the below picture), so this is simply a sales tactic hoping to dupe the unwary.

There is the high quality disposable from both US and German vendors, and are usually in the $17 to $25 range. These scissors are typically better than our fly tying scissors, have fine points, are made in the US or Germany, and are typically only made of stainless steel.

The third grade of scissor is the “supercut” and tungsten carbide scissors. These scissors can range from about $75 to $250, and are better than anything offered by fly tying vendors. The above picture (at left) shows the fit of the blades on a pair of semicurved Tungsten IRIS scissors. Note that daylight cannot be seen between the two blades from their tips all the way to the screw fastener. This is the hallmark of the best scissors as they only cut where the upper and lower blades meet. Daylight means little or no cutting ability on that segment of the scissor.

The ultimate grade is the ceramic coated scissor, and is largely out of the tier’s budget. Paying $300 to $600 for a pair of scissors that you are certain to destroy should they be your first set of quality scissors, is for trust fund babies who can afford thousand dollar fly rods, and $200 nippers. I recommend learning to use tungsten carbide scissors first before moving higher on the food chain, and prior to ceramic coated you should have destroyed at least one pair of tungsten scissors learning how to use them properly.

These scissors (tungsten and ceramic) should be approached warily, as the fly tier needs to learn how to use scissors of this quality, given that flesh and ligaments can be soft in the comparison to some of the things you may be cutting with your inexpensive fly tying scissors.

Learning how “soft” steel can be

Stainless is considered a “soft” steel, and using a quality scissor improperly will show you how soft stainless can be.The screw joining the frame and blades is a much harder steel than the stainless of the scissor, so the more pressure applied to the legs of the scissor to make the cut, the more the screw will deform the soft stainless housing that surrounds it. Over time this screw hole deformity becomes “slop” in the meshing of the blades, and the legs of the scissor will show increased play in all directions. Eventually the scissor will be destroyed, or the screw can deform the screwhole to the point where the scissor no longer functions as such.

Test your existing fly tying scissors for damage in the same fashion. Simply grip each fingerhole and move the legs in opposite directions vertically. The distance the legs move away from one another in the vertical plane shows how much deformity or slop is present in the screw hole.

Your first set of really excellent scissors will be your ritual sacrifice, you will destroy them learning what you can and cannot do. Destroying good scissors should take years if you don’t do anything stupid, so be mindful of their use and assume you will destroy them via time-honored trial and error.

Rule 1: Heavy cutting needs to be done with heavy duty scissors . I have a “heavy pattern” scissor with standard stainless blades that I use to cut wires, monofilaments. stems of peacock and other thick flight feathers, and bead chain. These heavier scissors have lasted about 30 years of commercial tying with no obvious damage, due to my choosing the proper tool for this job. I may succumb to a set of inexpensive wire cutting scissors just to try them in a similar role.

Rule 2: Stop cutting toward the hook shank with tungsten carbide scissors, learn to cut “away” from the hook shank instead. Closing the tips on a hook shank will remove those fine points you paid so much for – so learn how to minimize risk. Use Needle Scabbards on your best scissors to protect them when not in use.

Rule 3: Fine pointed medical scissors are designed to cut flesh, skin and soft organ tissue. They are not used to cut heavy tendon and bone. This learning curve is identical to a surgeon-in-training, you have to learn which tool is best suited for what type of cut. Use your heavy scissors to cut leather for mouse tails, brass or stainless wire, or anything else rigid or thick.

Of the thousands of medical scissors, what should I be looking for?

I have linked to numerous different medical supply houses in this article so you can see the hundreds of types of scissors available. There are also plenty of explanations for the basic types of medical scissors and their uses available on the Internet.

A fly tier who is ready to make the leap from fly shop to doctor’s office should focus on these attributes.

IRIS Scissor : Iris scissors have small, fine tips and sharp blades. They were originally designed for ophthalmic procedures but are now used in a wide range of applications like delicate tissue dissection, cutting fine sutures, or removing delicate ocular tissues. Note the medical uses all mention delicate or fine, pay attention. IRIS scissors are best suited for the fine work needed on flies. Stick with this style in your initial foray, and get more emboldened once you’re used to the types and styles.

If you want to look at a new type of scissor, order the seven dollar version of it from a medical supply or EBay. Test the heft, length, blade, and cut, using the inexpensive version. If warranted, you can buy a better grade of the scissor once you’re comfortable with its attributes, capabilities, and shape.

Length: 4.5″. Scissors come in many sizes, for fly tying … stick with the 4.0 – 4.5″ lengths, depending on your hand size. I prefer the 4.5″ length, it’s typically the standard length for most fly tying scissors sold in fly shops as well. (4.5″ is 11.4 centimeters, Germany is on the metric system. and many supply houses list their metric size.)

Large fingerhole. Scissors are available in different fingerhole types, ribbon and standard. Medical scissors are designed for male fingers so all should have large enough fingerholes, but given a choice, opt for more room.

Fly tying scissors all have straight tips, medical scissors offer semicurved, slanted, straight, and scissors whose blades are tilted 45 degrees. Start with straight points and work your way up to the semi-curved once you’re more comfortable. Semi-curved scissors are designed to remove scissor and fingers from the same plane as the cut being made – meaning you have increased visibility of the work area so you have better control over the single hair you’re removing from the eye of the hook. I prefer semi-curved, but I use both styles.

There are many high quality makers of medical scissors and most reside in the US or Germany. I cannot vouch for all, but if you are concerned and wish to make a large dollar purchase, I recommend the Miltex brand, Miltex being a German made scissor. I have also purchased numerous Hu-Friedy scissors, and I can recommend those as well.

I have used Miltex scissors for at least 40 years and have never had a bad pair. I have destroyed a couple pair, but this was the normal process of learning about the scissors and their limitations. That first sacrificial pair paid for itself many times over as I did not repeat the same mistakes with others I have purchased.

… and Lastly.

If you’re contemplating a purchase please recheck the scissors length, and tip type before buying online. You may even want to call them if the photographs are grainy or too small. It is easy to mix a round tip for a fine tip or a blunt scissor, if you’re not playing close attention.

Some states require the purchaser of the medical scissor to be a doctor, and in those states a license or license number must be produced at the time of sale. Don’t buy from the supply houses that are limited by this requirement. All the eBay scissors and 90 percent of the remaining supply houses do not have a license requirement, so simply shop a different state.

As only the largest of cities host stores selling these items, ask your dentist or dental surgeon to look at his tools. Most dentists are boring conversationists, due to all their conversations being one sided, you being hampered by a mouthful of stainless steel and someone else’s fingers, so have him show you some of the scissors he has at his practice, or … tell you about the merits of the different vendors he’s used .. or where he purchases his tools.

… and when the SOB isn’t looking you can pocket a handful of the Good Stuff ….

Tools of the Trade: No changes to Whip Finishers

Fresh off my delving into bobbins, I thought I might dabble in the other mainstay tools to see if any are evolving. Most fly tying tools are in stasis, no significant changes have occurred since their introduction. Whip finishers appear to be one of these static areas, as surveying the web shows no new functionality, only a few minor tweaks to their design, and little to show for the increased costs inflicted on us by manufacturers.

Several decades after introduction, Frank Matarelli’s original tool has no real competitors despite advances in metallurgy and engineering. Reviewing the field of available options simply turned up copies of copies of Frank’s original design, and tools with new shapes and similar mechanics, suggesting little improvement is needed or possible.

Having been a victim of the ancient Herter’s Whip Finisher, and that experience scarring me forever, thrust me into a decade of “fingers only” whip finishes … until the callous on my forefinger started fraying thread mid knot … and I adopted the Matarelli Whip Finisher the moment I saw it.

Since then, very little has moved the whip finisher forward. Thread technology has moved into unbreakable, via Kevlar, and at the same time become more gossamer; Danville 6/0 giving way to Uni 8/0, yet the tool most used to finish flies has deviated little.

In reviewing what options exist, I found two “Familys” of change. The “flexible leg” group of Petitjean, Griffin, and Stonfo, and the “Extended Reach” group, led by Hareline and a host of inhouse brands, offering a larger version of the Matarelli whip finisher. The Petitjean family boasts different shapes and designs, but use the same mechanics as the Matarelli, and the Hareline Extended Reach copying the Matarelli Extended Reach, which is a larger version of their standard whip finisher. Larger isn’t so much a new feature, it’s more of a wrinkle on the original theme.

“Extended Reach” is a convenience that allows a tool-using fly tier to add a whip finish somewhere other than the eye of the fly. Some tiers prefer the whip finish knot to the half hitch, so the larger tool allows its use on other parts of the fly, as well as being able to do so on bushy flies and long shanked hooks.

In comparing the Hareline Extended Reach to my older Matarelli Extended Reach whip finisher, I found the Hareline to be about a half inch shorter (in overall length) than the Matarelli, and a poor fit to my hand. You’d think the larger tool would have a longer handle, but the Hareline only fits across half of my palm, and with the increased leverage of bigger tool and bigger fly, I found it to be a bit uncomfortable. The tool performed quite well, with only the grip and its placement in the palm an issue.

The Hareline Extended Reach whip finisher was able to place a whip finish at mid shank, at the tail, and similarly for mid and long shank hooks. The tool functioned well, spun effortlessly, and outside of the handle length would be a suitable replacement for the Matarelli I currently use. For those tying large flies and bass poppers, this is a handy addition to your tool kit.

Petitjean Whip Finisher

I had high hopes that the Petitjean would bring something to the table to justify its $35 price tag. Having reviewed the Petitjean bobbin earlier, and admiring the new capabilities its designer brought to the tool, I had hoped to see something similar in the whip finish tool.

As a whip finisher, the Petitjean performed its task well, but not flawlessly. The spring side of the tool proved quite weak and immediately bent toward the rigid side, which closed the opening in the thread and gave it less clearance when the tool is spun around the fly. A finger is needed to clear the spring side of the tool from the thread loop and draw the thread tight. The finger must push the spring side out of the thread loop so the knot can be drawn tight – and the tool “hook” can release the thread completely. In addition, the polished stainless was not slick enough to cleanly release both the Danville 6/0 and Uni 8/0 thread, and while the tool functioned, the thread seemed “sticky” and did not slide off the tool as easy as chromed stainless. I felt I had to coax it a bit to come off the hook.

The Petitjean worked well as a whip finisher, but it brought nothing new to the table and seemed to be lacking a few refinements that would have made it much better. A stiffer spring, a different finish, and the tool would simply be an excellent, albeit expensive, whip finisher.

The Griffin and Stonfo whip finishers are made similarly. I would test these to determine the spring tension before purchase as they could be affected by the same issue. (Each user will have to decide if this is a “feature” or an impedance. Different tiers may react differently)

The Matarelli features two righid arms of the tool, allowing the tool to be moved within the loop it creates to release the thread from the indented side and the knot drawn tight while the thread is captured by the hook. It doesn’t require a finger to push the spring arm out of the loop formed by the crossed threads, typically, it can simply be pushed downward to free the thread from the opposing arm, then drawn tight. Less interaction means more efficiency, and not having to remove a forefinger from your grip on the tool – to push the spring arm out of the loop, means the Matarelli model wins outright.

Many new designs exist but the mechanical principals are identical to the Matarelli, the wire bends appear different, but the mechanics of the tier are the same, place tool in thread, thread held by two “arms”, rotate around hook, disengage.

The Reigning Champion of cost, appears to be the Tiemco Dual Standard Whip finisher, which features only slight changes in the Matarelli design, and identical mechanics. It does have a half hitch tool on the end of the handle, but half hitch tools are a couple bucks, and shouldn’t warrant an extra sixty bucks in cost for the whip finisher. Cost for the Tiemco is about $70.

/beginrant

Hard to fathom why we exclude so many people from the sport using cost as a weapon, then ask for their votes to protect a watershed they might be fishing … if the cost of fly rods were cheaper. We need more people in the sport, not less.

/endrant

In summary, little to report in the way of evolution of whip finishing. Tools are static and growing in price, and the expensive whip finishers are not needed by beginner nor expert, as they offer little in new capabilities.

Manufacturers would be better served adding a thread cutter to a whip finisher than a half hitch tool, as you want to marry logical steps versus simply reaching for the tool twice. Completing the knot then cutting the thread increase efficiency and speed, searching for the tool to do a half hitch, then searching again to finish the fly doesn’t necessarily save time over owning a separate half hitch tool.

For us fly tiers, find yourself a good “shop” brand, and purchase the sub-ten dollar Matarelli clone, save your money for a more worthy purchase.

Part 2: Bobbin Reviews: More Expensive options and a feature I didn’t know I needed

In Part 1 of this post we reviewed a mix of high priced engineering marvels leavened with a few of the lower cost traditional bobbins. The hope is with the increased cost of some bobbins comes a variety of new capabilities and features, rather than simply increased cost for the same feature set found in less expensive options.

In Part 2 we’ll extend our earlier efforts onto a new crop of bobbins, some expensive, others less so, in the hope we can find evidence of bobbins evolving into something more, other than simply high priced gadgetry.

As with the first post, we’ll use the same series of simple tests for each bobbin; different threads, different flies tied – some large, some small, the ability to fit different thread spool sizes, loading the bobbin via mouth, thread management – if offered, and evaluate any unique new features on the bobbin not shared by the rest of the group.

Option 6: Dr Slick ECO Bobbin BOB4

Barrel Length: 1.75″

Overall Length: 4.5″

Cost: $7 – $10

The Dr Slick BOB4 bobbin is a simple recreation of the original Matarelli bobbin, with a dual “glass” barrel insert. There is no explanation on the maker’s website as to the “dual” designation, so I’ll assume the dual “glass” inserts imply an insert in the top and a second insert at the bottom of the barrel … versus a single insert extending through the barrel.

It is listed as a 4″ bobbin, and is 4.5″ from glass tip to bottom of thread spool when loaded.

This bobbin performed all tasks admirably, with no issues. Construction seemed solid, spool tension was adequate, and the only visceral reaction I had to the bobbin was the color of the glass insert. Both tip and bottom are black – which made the thread hole appear small and hard to find, especially if you’re loading black thread. The air flow seemed less when sucking the thread through, as if the hole were smaller than other bobbins, even though the barrel is wider than most. I was able to consistently load the bobbin via mouth, so the functionality was intact.

Thread tension, and thread management, is via “spreading the legs” of the bobbin forcibly, identical to a Matarelli bobbin, and the polished brass feet gave a consistent feel and provided smooth resistance to thread leaving the barrel.

This is a long tube bobbin. The overall barrel width is wider than most as it will not fit a 14 gauge needle scabbard, you will need to purchase a larger gauge if you employ them to protect your bobbins.

In short, this is a good quality, functional long tube bobbin, no frills or features, and is a good replacement candidate for the cost concious angler learning to tie flies and intent on possessing several more of these.

Bobbin: 4 Stars. No additional features outside of those consistent with the traditional Matarelli bobbin. A ceramic or “glass” sleeve is a common feature of today’s bobbins, so it is not considered unique for this test.

Option 7: Ekich Bobbin

Barrel Length: 1.75″

Overall Length: 4.25″

Cost: $140 – $150

New Feature: Thread Management

The Ekich bobbin has been around for a decade or so, and is likely the last word in thread management for fly tying bobbins. The marvel is the brainchild of Faruk Ekich of Canada, and his company, AutomaticBobbin.com.

This bobbin approaches thread management in a different way than spool brakes or simple tensioners, rather the focus is on both thread payout and recovery, versus simply making a spool brake to increase the tension on the spool.

The Ekich bobbin features a coiled spring that tightens as small amounts of thread are pulled from the spool, allowing this coiled energy to recover thread back onto the spool should slack appear in the thread via a user’s manipulation of the bobbin. The bobbin is precisely architected to provide about 33 grams of resistance to hold the bobbin and thread spool at the position of last use, and requires tension control of the thread via the user’s fingers on the spool, versus any mechanical tension adjustment. As the spring coils the bobbin can be moved toward the work area to recover thread back onto the spool.

This bobbin requires a little getting used to on the part of the user, and is the most expensive bobbin currently offered on the market, so you need to approach this knowing there is a bit of a learning curve, and significant costs are involved.

All fly tying bobbins have been engineered to dispense thread and the Ekich bobbin is engineered to dispense, and recover thread, which sets it apart from the rest of the pack. The small spring and its coiled energy can be used to recover thread, tighten half hitches, and plague the owner repeatedly when he forgets to release the pent up energy and cuts the thread when the fly is complete. The coiled spring immediately sucks the thread back through the barrel and you have to reload the bobbin over and over until you learn this lesson properly.

Spring energy can be dissapated simply by lifting the spool away from the spool housing with thumb and forefinger to allow the small peg on the housing to clear the thread spool, and it will immediately release all its stored energy. This peg fits inside the thread spool recesses and winds the spring as the spool is rotated dispensing thread. It has a 24″ capacity, so once 24 inches of thread has been pulled from the bobbin, tension changes markedly queing you to release the coiled spool. Note that wooden spools cannot be used on the Ekich bobbin as they lack holes in their surface that can engage this small peg. A few other spool types have minor issues, and notes can be found on the maker’s website for both workarounds and probibitions.

Bobbin function is admirable, with no issues on simple tasks. Loading thread via mouth worked well, the fit in the hand, including one handed operation of the “spool lift” to release spring tension, also worked flawlessly, the frustration associated with having the thread pulled back through the thread barrel on fly completion is completely mental … “old dude forgetfullness”, not a function of the mechanics of the bobbin.

I tested the trout model and it was NOT a long tube bobbin. The maker makes a Salmon model with a slightly longer tube (30mm versus 20mm for the trout size) that approximates the long tube style. This bobbin does not allow midge spools as they are too short to engage the rubber “O” ring, and midge spools lack the proper hollowed area to allow the spring peg to fit within them.

I tied large flies and small with the trout model and felt the 33g of precision control both a blessing and a curse. For small dry flies and nymphs the bobbin performed well until you approached the coiled spring limit of 24 inches of dispensed thread. At that juncture tension increased and it seemed prudent to release the coiled energy by lifting the bobbin up the spindel with thumb and forefinger, making the extra tension disappear and allowing additional work. This was an extra step not required of any other bobbin, and it was wasteful. The tension abruptly resets to 33g and it will seem suddenly sloppy-loose – compared to a moment ago.

As a fast moving, former commercial tyer, I am judgemental over wasted energy and unecessary steps, and I did not care for the required spring-coil adjustments. This is not something insurmountable, this is part of the “getting used” to this particular bobbin and its unique foibles.

On large flies and heavy threads, 33g was much too loose. Tying a big saltwater fly requires constant tension and pressure given how the amount of mats and their control can often be unruly. Resetting the bobbin tension to 33G under these conditions was a pain, something I did not like. The now relaxed tension was much too loose for the large fly and materials I was adding, and I immediately had to clamp down on the thread spool to avoid unwanted thread payout – especially as there are no warnings when you’re about to hit the 24″ dispensed thread boundary.

I did not find any information suggesting the Salmon size bobbin had a different tension value, so I have to assume it’s set for the same 33G as the trout model. This is great for 18/0 midge thread, but doesn’t work as well for Size “A” and a fistful of bucktail.

This bobbin might be well suited for specific types of fly, as I tested with the trout size and felt it worked best with small flies. The cost of the thread management is prohibitive in my mind, so I was not prepared to immediately purchase the larger Salmon model to see if it was better suited for the larger flies.

In summary, a good bobbin with unique features that require the user to adjust their tying style – instead of simply use. Bobbin: 3 stars, as the tension felt too weak to tie large flies, and the constant release of pent up energy was a wasteful step, that I often forgot. New Feature: Thread Management: 3 Stars. The thread management worked well dispensing and recovering thread, but the tension was constantly needing assistance from my fingers, even when my fingers were busy releasing coiled energy from the spring. The cost of this bobbin will make it prohibitive to own six or seven of them, so specific uses may make this bobbin more attractive to own compared to general fly tying. This is not a bobbin for a well heeled beginner to own, rather it’s a unique use bobbin for an experienced tier with specific demands. Good bobbin, excellent construction, with foibles … and a nosebleed price for thread management.

Option 8: Hareline Double Ceramic Premium Bobbin

Barrel Length: 1.75″

Overall Length: 4.5″

Cost: $11 -$15

The Hareline Double Ceramic fits a midge spool right out of the box, so I’ll assume that will loosen over time if using standard size spools. This is another Matarelli bobbin replacement, with only the ceramic insert to offer new functionality over the aging Matarelli standard.

This bobbin has the largest tube diameter of all those tested, and coupled with the traditional flaired ceramic cap will not fit a traditional 14 gauge needle scabbard cover. The inside diameter of the barrel is also larger than all others tested, so it should work quite well dispensing thin yarn or floss in addition to thread.

Not surprisingly, this is really easy to thread and the easiest bobbin to load with simple suction, given how much oxygen can be pulled through the barrel.

The ceramic material lining the barrel is the “roughest” tested – imparting a noticeable “grating: feel to the thread as the bobbin rotated around the hook shank. While disconcerting, as I’m used to silky smooth ceramic and stainless barrels, this did not actually grate on the thread, it felt that way. Occasionally I would hear an audible sound when winding, suggesting it wasn’t just my imagination as to the “rough” surface. Note that I use quotes when describing “rough”, the barrel is not rough nor did it sever thread or wear it in the slightest, it simply felt like it was destroying the thread, and didn’t actually harm it at all. Of all the bobbins tested this was the only ceramic that had this feel.

Bobbin: 4 Stars. No new features, a solid Matarelli replacement in a long tube design, that due to the barrel inside diameter should be considered for dispensing more than thread. This would be excellent for fine yarns and floss.

Option 9: SMHAEN Bobbin

Barrel Length: 2″

Overall Length: 4.25″

Cost: $65 – $85

New Feature: Thread Tensioning

The bobbin comes in two flavors; the red version of the SMHAEN is standard length and the blue is their midge version. Due to the constraints inherent in the design there is little ability to fit differing spools sizes due to the legs of the bobbin being joined by the tension adjusting arm. Not surprisingly it would not fit a midge spool in the standard model.

I purchased the standard version hoping it was closer to the long tube I was looking for, and like many of the other makers, the SMHAEN standard version is midway between a Matarelli standard and a Matarelli Long Tube bobbin.

The new feature available is thread tensioning adjustment, likely the largest range of adjustment currently offered in bobbins. The Matarelli relies on pressure from the bobbin legs, the Stonfo and Petitjean offer small adjustments via a tensioning slider, and the SMHAEN gives you a true thread brake, allowing you to lock the spool into an unusable configuration for light threads.

Upward movement on the tension adjustment (clockwise) tightens the thread, and downward movement of the knob loosens the thread. As the tensioner knob is available while gripping the bobbin you can adjust thread tension on the fly, in an intuitive and hand-friendly manner.

The SMHAEN has a prohibition on using Kevlar thread in the bobbin, so please note that its use may invalidate any warranty.

Bobbin operation was silky smooth. Thread can be sucked through the barrel and the bobbin loads easily via mouth. It has the thinnest ceramic insert of any of the bobbins tested and fits a 14 gauge needle scabbard perfectly. This fine tip is worth protecting with a needle scabbard as its thinness could be considered downright “sharp” if the ceramic chipped or cracked. I’m unwilling to test the ceramic inserts strength given smashing an $80 bobbin strictly for science is not my cup of tea.

Because of the design of the bobbin, its feet move the least of all the bobbins tested, and any variation in spool sizes may be an issue. This same tensioning arm configuration also means that changing spools takes three times longer than any other bobbin, as the adjustment knob has to be loosened to the point where the old spool can be removed, the new spool inserted, and then retensioned to the desired setting. This is a manual and cumbersome process compared to other bobbins, so frequent thread changes are undesirable.

This is a solid bobbin, pricey, but effortless to use outside of the spool changing issue. The ceramic barrel may be fragile due to the thinness of its walls, but this issue may require extended use and more opportunity for mishap, like dropping a pedastal base onto the bobbin while its resting on the table.

Bobbin 4 Stars. New Feature: 4 Stars if thread changes are infrequent, 3 Stars if you change thread spools often.

Option 10: Tiemco Adjustable Barrel Double Arm Bobbin

Barrel Length: 1.5″

Overall Length: 3.75″ to 4.5″

Cost: $34 – $85

New Feature: Adjustable Barrel Length

My compliments to the designer as they were able to devise functionality never seen in a bobbin that I didn’t know I needed …

That’s saying something.

The double feet on the bobbin did not move the needle for me, in fact I found them a liability in an unlikely manner. When threading a traditional bobbin you have to negotiate the thread past the two feet and into the barrel. With a double foot bobbin, you have FOUR wires in the way, and threading is a bit more of an issue. Four wires provides a bit more resistance to the thread spool, but I can’t say it was noticeable when using the bobbin.

The aparture for the barrel is quite small, as is the ceramic tube itself. It was easy to load the bobbin via mouth, but the four feet (four wires in the way) and small opening had me looking for reading glasses to assist the threading process.

What was a major change was the adjustable barrel, and how I no longer cared whether I had a midge, standard, or long tube flavor, as all those bobbins were available within this single chassis.

WInner, Winner, Chicken Dinner…

The bobbin barrel adjustment is identical to mounting a bit into a power drill. Tighten or loosen the cap, adjust the barrel to the length desired, then retighten the barrel housing to fix the barrel at that length. This adjustment can be made with the bobbin hanging from the fly as well as on the workbench. This functionality is immediately useful and can be used on nearly every fly tied. Adjusting the bobbin barrel length to your favorite setting, and tie with abandon on big, small, complex, or dainty.

The ceramic barrel, barrel housing, and chassis can be disassembled into three pieces. The barrel itself is 1.5″ long, so you can adjust the bobbin length about an inch comfortably. There is a minimum amount of ceramic barrel that must remain in the barrel housing to ensure a good fit and initial experimentation suggests it’s about half an inch of barrel that must stay in the tube to engage the mechanism properly.This gives you an inch of barrel to move in either direction.

Barrel fully extended the bobbin is about 4.5 inches long, with barrel retracted, the bobbin is about 3.75 inches long.

The ceramic barrel has a small diameter and as the barrel is extended, is at increased risk for a potential impact break. Tying at a show and dropping it into a backpack might expose it to a pedastal base impact as you add a vise, and while the ceramic barrel is a cinch to replace, I don’t see the vendor selling replacement barrels. This might mean the ceramic will never break, or it may mean you might have to learn to retract the barrel before storage in your tool caddy or backpack. The ceramic barrel is too small for a 14 gauge needle scabbard, but retracted, the housing accepts that size perfectly. I want to protect ceramic where possible, so this is becoming increasingly non-trivial.

For some reason Amazon is selling these at half price from a vendor in Japan. I bought mine for $34 thinking it was retail, and find all the shops in the United States are selling it for $80. Three different barrels are available on the bobbin, fine, standard, and heavy duty, but I only see the standard weight barrel available via fly shops.

I am going to purchase a couple more while Amazon has them at the lower price, just to ensure I have several.

Bobbin: 4 Stars. New Feature: 4 Stars. Really nice bobbin, well made and easy to use. New features operate intuitively, making it easy to assimilate them into your tying on the first fly. Really expensive bobbin so jump on the Amazon price while they still have a few. I hope this barrel technology will be used by other manufacturers versus making multiple bobbin lengths. Vendor needs to sell additional barrels so you can swap or replace your barrel.

Bobbin Summary

Over the course of these two posts we’ve seen only four areas of change in bobbins. Thread Management, Thread Tensioning, adjustable barrels, and the addition of a dubbed loop capability, everything else is the same feature set as the original Matarelli bobbin, with a few material changes to the bobbin chassis, like ceramic barrels. While some of the bobbins showed merit, some were easy to use, some required relearning a thing or two, and some were downright silly, several of the technologies hold promise.

As there are more than a single type of fly tyer, and many types of flies, different functionality may appeal to some versus others. Thread management is low on my list, thread tensioning a bit higher, but outside of the moveable barrel on the Tiemco, none of these are about to topple the low cost Matarelli type bobbins from their well earned throne.

Engineering marvels, all … and beastly expensive in light of what you get.

Hopefully you found a few questions answered without having to purchase all these costly bobbins. As always, I paid retail for all of the bobbins in both articles, with an emphasis on all bobbins boasting of new functionality (and nosebleed cost). In my mind, only the Tiemco offered a mature technology to me immediately, with the Petitjean … a glimpse of future function.

For the beginning fly tier, stick with the inexpensive bobbins for the moment. Changes to bobbin technology are in their infancy and the large dollar outlay is not warranted at the moment. As with fly rods, fly reels, and everything else in our sport, wait until your skills outclass your equipment before you plunk down the big dollars for bobbins (or anything else in our sport).

Disclaimer: As always I have paid full retail for all the bobbins reviewed above. This ensures cost is factored into the features reviewed, and my righteous indignation crops up appropriately at the precise moment needed.

Needle Scabbards, protecting your bobbins on the cheap

The Griffin bobbin I reviewed offered a small cap over the bobbin barrel as an enhancement, a thread holder. The cap ensured the thread remained loaded in the bobbin after use and the bobbin could be stored with thread at the ready.

I discounted the Griffin enhancement notion, mainly because the caps were small, they only gave you one, and it would be lost within the week. The idea has considerable merit however, only you need a 100 pack of caps to secure your existing bobbins, especially as most aren’t made by Griffin, and all the older models and odd sizes you’ve accumulated need caps as well.

Stuffing a bobbin tip into a tool caddy can put dust and/or feather debris into the barrel – which winds up in your mouth when you suck thread through. Yuck, Ptuii ..

The same type of tip used by the Griffin Bobbin is used on a variety of items from glue bottles to air compressor nozzles, but finding the correct term to purchase them proved elusive. These small rubber caps are called “needle scabbards” and can be purchased on the Internet in everything from 50 packs to several pound boxes.

As these are linked to needles, they are sized by gauge. The standard Matarelli Bobbin barrel is 14 gauge, so for most bobbins that’s the appropriate size of needle scabbard to purchase. As gauge number increases the inner diameter DECREASES, so larger sizes for saltwater bobbins would be 13, 12, or 10.

Amazon sells the 14 Gauge caps only, with a 50 pack costing about $11 dollars. JensenGlobal.com sells the other sizes on their website, but the postage costs are fearsome ($30), despite their being in New York.

I have covered all my old bobbin tips with these as the idea is a winner. The rubberized caps protect against dings or burrs inflicted on the bobbin tips when in storage, and allow me to load my working bobbins with thread and not have to worry about rethreading after I snag the thread on my bench when reaching for them. As many of the new “fancy” bobbins are ceramic barreled, these will be a great protective element – as well as a thread holder.

The folks at Griffin would be advised to sell these in quantity, as their “one per package” is a mite laughable, given our penchant for having it disappear into the trash when we rid our table of accumulated feather dander.

Petitjean Bobbin follow-on post

After surveying much of the candidate field, my instincts suggest that the Petitjean bobbin is the only bobbin offering capabilities and functionality that have never fit within a bobbin’s pervue. As such, its unfamiliararity and unique foibles require a deeper look at the bobbin, to assess whether its promise is realized already or it’s a prototype of something that can only be realized later with additional refinement.

Let’s Get Price Out of the Way

The 800 pound gorilla in bobbin assessment is price. There are plenty of inexpensive “house” bobbins offered by vendors that cost less than five dollars and are copies of copies of the Matarelli bobbin. These bobbins work flawlessly, and as such, should be the default option for most tiers interested in problem free functionality at reasonable cost.

Beginning tiers should not look at anything but “tried and true” until their skills surpass their starter gear. Ditto for the commercial tier, who is focused on speed and wants his tying gear to function flawlessly without his having to fiddle with foibles or shortcomings.

Seventy-five dollars for a bobbin is excessive. Regardless of the alloy used, the engineering marvels it contains, and factoring in its innate ability to ward off vampires and disable hungry zombies, it’s hard under any circumstances to justify this kind of cost.

If cost is king, you don’t want this bobbin.

What capabilities would be worth a $75 bobbin?

I found myself asking this very question many times over. I had come to the conclusion that the only way to justify the hideous expense would be in counting the tools no longer needed, or counting the minutes saved due to the tool’s assistance.

In looking at my tying bench and the costs of the many tools present, the only options that come to mind are vise, scissors and hair stacker. If my bobbin could replace any of those tools it would likely pay for itself.

Unfortunately, these options aren’t in any of the bobbins sold, so any real feature increase in a bobbin is likely to be minor, replacing only the inexpensive tools like threader cleaners, dubbed loop tools, and their ilk.

Hence, the Petitjean Bobbin.

All the things I found out since the last article on the topic

As I dug deeper into the bobbin’s use I had to create new tests to determine where the foibles existed, and whether some of my initial premises were correct.

Grip Does Not Matter

How I gripped the bobbin and which side I rested my thumb on was the first issue I found my comments to be incorrect.

I find holding the bobbin with my thumb on the tensioner keeps the thread contained within the wire guide. If I was left-handed, or wrapped the bobbin counterclockwise, my instinct now is that I would hold the bobbin 180 degrees differently.

It doesn’t matter which side of the bobbin is towards you – or whether your thumb is positioned in a certain way, holding either side of the bobbin works equally well. I tested this premise by gripping the bobbin randomly while it spun under the vise jaws. I found no additional issues with the thread coming out of the tip guide regardless of my hand position.

So how was the thread coming loose?

It was the advancement of the thread up or down the shank, and the speed with which I did so that cause the thread to come out of the tip guide. When I advanced the thread quickly down the shank the bobbin tip would be ahead of the thread, sometimes at an really small angle, it would scrub the rim and find the small aparture of the tip and come out. If I wrapped more methodically down the shank (instead of going from eye to bend in three turns) the bobbin acted normally no matter how I held it. It’s a mix of speed and angle that can cause the thread to come out.

The Plane of the bobbin may influence this behavior

If the bobbin is held parallel to the hook shank and the thread is advanced down the shank quickly, the thread may find the aperture of the tip guide and come out. If the plane of the bobbin changes the same law applies, but it may not be as obvious. The point is to ensure the angle of thread (between point of attachment on the shank and tip of the bobbin) is not too small, implying the tip of your bobbin is far in front of the point of attachment, where you took your last wrap. Remember the thread “scrubs” its way around the tip of the bobbin as the bobbin rotates around your hook shank, too acute an angle and the thread finds the opening and is released.

I tied several dozen parachute flies to test the bobbin’s attitude in relation to the tying area. In the first test the bobbin was held with the tip down and parallel to the parachute wing, wraps were applied to the wing post. In the second test, the bobbin was held with the tip pointing toward the parachute wing, and the bobbin was wrapped around the wing. Both tests were successful, and the thread did not come out of the guide.

It appears that only the acute angle issue, coupled with speed, causes the thread to find the aperture, instead of the attitude of the bobbin in relation to the work surface. The plane of the bobbin can influence the behavior, but the cause appears to be the same … acuteness of angle in the new plane combined with a meat headed fly tier intent on completing the fly quickly.

By now I’d tied about six dozen flies with the bobbin and most of the issues were moot. I’ve not used the thread tensioner while tying the trout flies as setting the tensioner once is all that’s necessary for similar sized flies using the same thread. Replacing the thread and changing the hook size to saltwater had me change the thread tension, but again only once.

Summary: This is a bobbin that functions well in the hands of an experienced tier. It is not without flaw, as the thread can pop out of the tip guide when you get forgetful and move the thread either up or down the shank quickly.

The dubbed loop tool is useful when tying nymphs, less so when tying dry flies, and I tied more dubbed loop flies than normal as it was so convenient to do so with this bobbin. The thread tension function tends to be “set it and forget it” if tying similar sized flies with the same size thread. This tension adjustment was the best I’ve tried so far – not a complete brake on the spool, but noticably increasing the tension.

The cost makes this a luxury item. This is not for the average tier who will eventually own a dozen of these bobbins. While the Matarelli bobbins copies are plentiful and cheap, most tiers will choose to own a dozen of them instead.

Rating: 3 Stars. The cost of the bobbin is prohibitive, and the thread can come out occasionally even when you’re used to the bobbin, New Functionality: 4 Stars. Good thread adjustment, dubbing loop tool works well, once you’re used to it.

In this day and age of the $700 fly tying vise, and the $1000 fly rod, the $75 dollar bobbin is in lockstep with what we’ve done to the sport. I can’t say I agree with where we’re heading, but I’m not surprised at any of this.

Personal Note: I really like the bobbin, but it does not justify my owning a dozen of them. This bobbin appears to be the only real advancement of the bobbin as a fly tying tool, but it’s cost is staggering in light of what you get. I can’t think of a capability that when added to a bobbin would make it worth a hundred bucks, but I have to applaud Mssr. Petitjean for his efforts and his vision.

Singlebarbed

Fly fishing the Unloved & Unclean

Category Archives: product

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