Gene L

Not many insects eat feathers. Moths do and so do carpet beetles, which would be my guess. I put mothballs in with my feathers to ward off evil.

I read the reviews and the Orvis kit seems to be the best. Vise got several complaints.

I've bought two fly tying kits in my life. The first one was about 30 years ago and from a mail order house. It included a Thompson No. 1 vise and that's about where the fair quality stopped. A patch of brown hackle, possibly Indian, a turkey feather, a half-hitch tool and some small patches of hair...one was red and one yellow, as I recall. A pair of OK scissors. I think it cost $100 or thereabouts. I'm sure there were other contents in the kit but I can't remember what they were. A hair stacker, too, I believe. I still have it. If the net would have been around 30 years ago, I would have been pre-warned about it. The majority of stuff in the kit was unusable, at least to my rookie eyes/hands. There was a booklet of instructions which gave directions for a Muddler Minnow. I think I tied one but can't remember. A lot of useless components. That was my first kit. My second was purchased this year. It included a Universal vise, which is the reason I bought it. A true rotary vise from back in the late 50s or early 60s, which is where the kit originated. Address on the box didn't include a zip code; it was that early. I paid $30 for it and it was complete and never opened.. Almost every thing in the kit was usable. A bobbin holder, an assortment of yarn, two packs of hooks, some kip tail in two colors, even had a round of beeswax. Instead of a patch of rooster feather, there was an entire neck. Not like modern hackle, but not bad for 60 years ago. A hackle plier, quite good one. But no scissors. Everything one needed to tie a variety of flies. Silver, gold, copper wires. I was impressed. A lot of difference in 30 years. The bad, the very good, and this brings me to the point of this post. If you had to put together a Fly Tying Kit using modern materials, what would you include to keep it under $150 (around there.) Specifically what vise, what scissors, What materials and what grade of hackles, what colors. It may be impossible to keep the cost to $150 so feel free to expand it within reason.

Pending Approval. It should be up soon.

See my Norvise bobbins for sale in Classified.

Muskrat used to be very much used. The rise of synthetics pretty well hurt muskrat sales. Depending on where the rats are trapped is an indicator of quality. Kelly Galloup has a good video on hides, mostly deer. It's informative, a lot of information there. I don't know about selling small game patches, or big game patches, for that matter. I think if I wanted to sell pelts I'd get in touch with major suppliers rather than selling them individually to tiers.

If I leave the top off, it collects stuff you don't want to collect. I don't have a problem removing the cap, but it takes two hands. Previously, I had some other brand of wax, and I nailed the cap upside down to the bench. One hand operation. But my OTHER desk doesn't allow nailing anything down. Which is why I use Velcro. I thought about using a rare earth magnet , which would probably do great, but the magnetic field attracts hooks.

Yes, but it takes two hands, unless you're using something to hold the cap while you unscrew the container.

I use wax a lot of the time, with gel spun thread it seems to go better. The only thing uncomfortable about it is having to use two hands. Overton's Wonder Wax has a large container with a screw on cap, which I guess most waxes have. To reduce the number of hands it takes to uncork it. I applied a patch of Velcro to my bench and likewise to the cap of the Overton's. It works fine, and you can unscrew and screw it up with ease. And if you move your work station, you can do so easily instead of nailing the cap to your bench.

Finally got the nerve to give it a try. Not the best scissors I have, Not fine tipped, more for large work. Goor for cutting hair and gross work. Anyway, they wouldn't cut the corners off small plastic bags, which I sometime use for duffing material. Can't take them apart with my tools. So I used a diamond stone. It only took about 2 dozen strokes on each blade and now it cuts like new. The reasons I chose the one I mentioned, is because it was dull (duh) and because I'd pretty well given up on them and was willing to sacrifice them to learn how. The Macro size didn't hurt either. The stone I used is about a medium grit. I didn't set out to make two razor blades, just enuf so it would cut the plastic bags. It worked perfectly well. Not razor sharp, but doesn't need to be.

The first time this happened I was at the vice, but not overworking my hand. Second time I was watching TV, no stress at all on my hands. And the right hand, which saw little action. So I'm not thinking of overwork, I'm thinking of something chemical going on rather than labor related. Hasn't happened again. I drink water and sparkling water all day, and it could be from the flavoring of the sparkling water.

Potassium might be the answer. About two months ago I got these nocturnal leg cramps. So my potassium level might be low.

The other night I was at the bench when my left hand locked down...thumb and forefinger just wouldn't move. It was like a cramp. Stiff, and a little pain (but not much.) A few days later, my right hand did the same, but not as tight as the left. It went away pretty quickly after I left the bench. Could be arthritis or could be an allergy (???. That seems unlikely but I'm throwing out speculations to see if any stick.

I have no problems from J. Stockard, fast and efficient. The reason for UPS via USPS is that it's cheaper on the shipper. The order is shipped UPS to the nearest PO and then delivered by USPS...at least that's the way it was explained to me.

Check with a local taxidermist. Should have them.

I'm looking for a plastic box for storing thread. Should have little posts to keep the spools from knocking together. I thought it would be a simple task to find such a box, but Noooooo. Hobby lobby turned up zero leads. I found plenty of boxes that would work, more or less, without the posts, but that's not what i''m looking for. Any ideas? I'd like to organize my threads by size and clear plastic should show the color.

Who uses the Norvise bobbin holder system? I've got a bobbin and about 7 spools I would like to trade for something you have...I don't know what, but humor me. Any interest?

Home ot/pt therapy to begin with, I'm in rehab now. Fact is, I've got too many rods and too many reels. I will keep some, some need to go. Even before I broke my hip. I had problems wading...I'd get dizzy even in shallow water and fall. So unless things improve a lot, my river wading days are over. Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I'll still will sell some rods, just not ALL my rods.

About two weeks ago, I fell and broke my hip. Which means my fishing from a stream is pretty well over. I've got a lot of equipment I won't be able to use, including several rods, from expensive to mundane, and a handfull of reels, mostly Hardy's. Any interest in getting these rod/reels at a great price? Prize is a 4 w tBill Oyster cane rod that was only fished four times.

I think I remember reading about the AK vise when it came out and that it lacked holding power. I suspect if it did it would still be made.I think the head is really fine, is it not?

I saw a review of vises under $200 by a guy who seemed to know his business. He tried out 4 or 5 vises. He personally had the Renzetti Traveler and expected it to come out the winner, but he rated the Griffen Montana Mongoose as a superior vise. Lot of good things he said about it. I don't have one, or a Traveler. I do have two Regals and lots of people love them. I've not tied on them enough to love them, but they're great vises. If I had to do it again, I'd go PROBABLY with the Traveler. I had one and it was generally OK. I can't get used to the rotating feature, however. Which is my fault. I like a HMH Spartan for simplicity.

What they had I didn't buy but probably should is Indian necks. A nice selection of them, $5 each two for $9. I don't need them but I probably could use them eventually.

Friday went to the fly fishing show in Atlanta. Got there about 11 a.m. Decent crowd for an opening weekday event, Quite a few vendors there; it seemed diminished from the last one I went to. Great tyers were there and casting demos were great. I didn't see a huge increase in price for rods, but I'm not in the rod market so I didn't look long or hard.. Lots of rods there and three or so bamboo rod makers. Fine looking rods and not prohibitively over budget. My buddy cast one, a 8 wt and was able to lay out some nice casts Glad I went. Didn't spend a dime there. Lots of hackle and furs, reasonably priced. I like to look and feel such, but I have way more hackle and fur than I need. After the show, went to Bass Pro, which is close by. Hardly any shoppers there, as quiet as a library. Went to the fly shop and asked the guy behind the counter if he had any beads. He told me to go down the shop to the accessories. It was clear we had a misunderstanding. My buddy with me said "brass beads for tying". Which I thought it was an odd response but it was cleared up.

I only fly fish. I don't have any other tackle for fishing. I probably miss a lot of fish that would fall to a Mepps Spinner, but that's the way I fish for trout, bass, bream...even catfish, although I don't fish for them.

I bought a vintage fly tying kit on eBay, primarily for the vise, which is a Universal 1. I've got a No 2. The No 1 is a different ballgame entirely, and in its way, much neater than a No 2, but I have difficulty camming down the cam to lock the hook in. But the rotating head is much better. You can lock down the hook by closing the cam with force, which the instructions advise you not to do. But it looks great and is worth collecting. As for the kit, it's a Universal product as well, and like the vise, hasn't been used. All the separate packages are in cellophane that's been unopened. Although kits have a reputation for being useless, this kit isn't. It has everything from the vise to hackle pliers. The address on the packets is without a zip-code, which I think indicates it was prior to the zip code, which was in 1963. When exactly, I don't know, but the cellophane kinda dates it as well. I can't over emphasize the quality of the kit, which includes a decent neck, matched duck quills, hooks, yean, silk thread (4 0) a bobbin holder, similar to a S&M, a number of cards with wire on them. Unlike later kits, virtually everything in the kit is usable, wire, quills, small bits of hair. I jumped on this at Only $32 for the whole thing, including the vise. I figure I got a bargain. I bought the kit for the vise and while I certainly don't need the components, but will probably use them at some point for nostalgia reasons. The "book" of instructions that came with the kit is 3 mimeographed pages explaining how to use the vise to advantage. I now have the No 1 as well as the No 2. Universal I read produced 4 vises, one of which is a non-rotating vise draw collet vise. The other (No 3?) rotates and I haven't seen one of these. While the No 2 isn't as free-rotating as the No 1, it's still a rotary vise and locks down securely to any size hook. Access to the back of the hook with both examples is problematical, but good for streamers.