Gene L

Looks good to me. I think it's not too sparse. You might think of ways to try to prevent crossing the thread on the head.

The product called "Tacky Finger" sold at office stores for counting money or papers works good on your fingers. It's cheap, and would probably do for dubbing wax.

Sheep can, indeed, swim. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAZ1t7UcbY Their wool is very lanolin rich which makes them kinda waterproof, and in any case, water in water has no weight. Getting out might be a problem, kinda like flooding your waders...you're ok while in the water, floating easily. Sheep don't like it but can do quite well. I had a friend in the carpet business, and he sent me some wool samples. They had been dyed and were dry and stiff, and don't lend themselves to dry dubbing. Great colors that looked buggy, but I could never quite work out a good nymph.

I'm somewhere between crappy and decent. I constantly second-guess my tying technique and learn something just about every time I watch a video. I can't sit down and tie a dozen flies, so each session is kinda like a new experience for me. I would like to tie fast and accurately, but cannot. I'm fully aware of most of my deficiences, and have come to know I'll never get above average.

I'd also recommend buying the strips. The part of the deer hide that's usable is relatively small, down the back where the hair is thickest. And of course the tails, which are so cheap you might as well buy the colors you need. Deer around here are not good sources, as it's too warm to produce long, thick hair.

If you scrape all the flesh off the hide and stretch it and turn the flesh side out in dry air, you really don't need salt. But you have to get all the fat and connective tissue off. Salt and borax on fatty skins, like bird skins, help a lot and are probably necessary.

My bud went through a trapping phase and gave me some muskrat and beaver pieces. It doesn't have to be tanned, just scraped and dried. Although tanning makes it more bendable and otherwise manageable. Sounds like your hide is too far gone to be used.

The 2012 is probably the one he's talking about. It shows an old fly, probably blind eyed, with a ribbed chenile or dubbed body with a green hackle and a green tail. The tippet is furled.

Your English is great. Better than McPhails!

I like Davie McP and Hans W. Ever notice while these two use LAW vises (I think) they never use the rotary function except to look at the finished fly. I can't understand about 1/3 of what McP says, but the steps are pretty self-evident. Both use stuff unavailable in the US, like seal fur. I sure wish I could tie half as well as they do.

The only thing wrong with toilet bowl wax is it's so dark. It's beeswax. You can add glycerine to beeswax and it makes it tackier. I have used that beeswax they sell for chapped lips, and it's fine. Handy, too. Regular Chapstick works. I use the stuff in the orange container (can't think of the name) and nailed the top to my desk so I don't have to look for it. It's real sticky.

As I said above, I think it's a horsehair line. Google horsehair lines and you'll see examples. Horsehair is still, apparently, used in Tenkara fishing in Japan, and apparently over here as well. The fly on the front looks like an old-time fly, fitting to the horsehair 2-hair tippet.

What did you use for the head? Looks pretty good to me.

I don't generally do this because I generally don't need to, but I'd like to give credit to Anvil for their quick response to my problem. I bought their Apex vise as a traveler and generally because I wanted to tie on a stationary vise after years of rotary tying. With my Renzetti vise, I clamp the hook very close to the vise jaws' tip. I tried this with the Apex and the hook slipped under normal camming pressure on a size 8 3x hook. I had to really exert pressure to keep the hook from slipping. I emailed Anvil and recieved an email the next day, asking me to call David, who machines these vises. I replied that I got the vise to clamp down on the hook, but with a lot of pressure. Today, I got another email from Donald (they're brothers) inviting me to call David, which I did. He told me about the two grooves in the vise jaws for holding larger hooks. We talked it through, and now I'm totally satisfied. The solution is to put the hook in the vise a bit farther than I'm used to on the Renzetti. He even offered to make me a special set of jaws to adapt to my tying style. I call this excellent service! David was helpful and accomodating, and the company not only stands behind its products, its response was far beyond what I expected. The vise is made in the US and each one is checked by David. Not many vises you can say that about. It's a good vise for the price, and the problem was mine entirely, just from lack of use. If you want a non-true rotary vise, you could do a lot worse than choosing this one.

I've also noticed the ad, and wondered about it. There has to be a reason for it, since they could furnish any picture they choose. I assumed it was a horse-hair tippet, but don't know. But it doesn't matter, J. Stockard gets almost all my business. "P.S. Why do their knows have such a large tag" I don't understand this question at all.

If you can't bore ten holes in a block of hardwood, you'll put out your eye with a mini clip.

Hans your flies have always shown an economy of form. Great looking fly, and a neat tie.

You can buy those clips at Radio Shack for a very reasonable price. You'll have a problem telling them what they are, so bring one along to show them. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062221 Here you go: $3.69 a pair.

I love me some soft hackles. The third fly looks like grouse or partridge. I'm curious myself.

I doubt you could tell the difference between an eraser done quill and a hair cream quill. If you shellac the quill on the fly, as you should, that will take care of any problems of denigration. I'm not a missionary for any particular method, by the way. If it works for you, go for it, whatever the method.

I just tried the Hair Remover (Sally Hansen) and it works GREAT. Just do as the man said, and strip off the herl with your fingernail. Previously, I tried the eraser trick and it was long and unproductive for me. I think because the quill has a curved surface, I always found holdover on the edges. I tried bleach/water 50/50 as reccomended, but it didn't work very well at all and left the quills brittle. You're only supposed to leave it in the mixture for 30 seconds or so, then rinse, but it didn't remove all the herl. I have a loupe and use that to look at the product. So far, the SHHR and/or the fingernail file do the best job for me.

Hard to do, for me at least. I've tried everything without notable success. There's always herl left on the quill, making a Quill Gordon fuzzy. Tonight, I think I found the ticket. Just pull the herl across a diamond fingernail file several times with downward pressure on your thumb. On each side, of course. It's not fast, but it's faster than the old eraser trick, and cleaner, too. Works for me, YMMD.

That does it for me and I'm 66 years old. If you decide to go with a magnifier, borrow one first. It's a really different experience.

I use reading glasses that are about two sizes stronger than I need for reading. Focus length is pretty limited, but there's no huge thing in front of me, like with a manifying glass. I tried that once, but just couldn't operate my bobbin that way. I don't tie any smaller than 22, and not much of that. On simple patterns, I could probably go smaller, but haven't tried, like on some caddis and scuds. The 2X reading glasses do a good job and you keep both hands free. I recently bought a tying lamp with 300 lumens power (how ever much that is) that gives daylight type light. It makes a big difference in how a fly looks. I previously used a helluva extension lamp that was WAY more powerful, but I didn't like all that heat and radiation coming in on my face.

Won't work with deer hair at all. As has been said, you need a soft, tan fur. I suggest you order some dubbing from a fly shop, hareline dubbing is, as I understand, made from rabbit fur with some glitter in it. But about any kind will do, and a selection of dubbing isn't very expensive. Hare's masks can also be purchased cheap, and is very good because it has the guard hairs that make the body buggy-looking, and the long hairs between the ears make a good tail. You just clip off some from all areas of the face and mix it up and you've got a lot of dubbing. Deer hair is great for spinning and for patterns like the Muddler Minnow. Just to add: J.Stoddard can help you out and it'll be there in a few days. It's a life supply. Check out their website.