Which direction to wrap the thread?

[Maj Bob 0]

I lead a really exciting life. One of the highlights is reading The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference, and the authors write that, when tying a fly, the thread should be wrapped away from the tier when wrapping OVER the hook, and toward you when wrapping UNDER the shaft. Is it correct, then, that a left hander wraps toward himself when wrapping OVER the shaft and away when wrapping UNDER? Or does it really even matter??

 

Thanks in advance for any/all responses. Cheers!

[Flies & Photos 0]

Hi Ben,

 

I've been tying for about 12 years. I've never asked, but as a fellow lefty I'm curious... Do you hold the bobbin in your left or right hand? I hold mine in my right hand. Does that mean I tie right-handed? Regarding your query about tying toward or away from yourself... I'd say, it seems the torsion you're applying to the fly is the same regardless of the direction. I'll bet the tying away from the tier was considered bad form or bad luck from the Izaak Walton days.

 

-Dave

[mike15851 0]

I'm fairly new to tying but only one answer comes to mind, Around the hook. as long as you are comfortable and it works for you keep doing it.

[gillfan51 0]

As I usually wrap body materials toward me over the vise, I wrap the thread away from me. This, IMHO, helps keep the material tied down and makes the fly last longer.

[oatka 0]

be verrrrry careful who you tell how you wrap your thread. there is a secret group out there that DOES go around checking with everyone to make sure they do it the right way. I have a friend (a righty) who was found wrapping his thread the wrong way, and he was sentenced to 2 years of only fishing for carp. of course, there is a slight chance his sentence was extra long because they also found unnatural materials on his desk like foam, plastic, epoxy, and other craft store items.

 

 

but, take my advise however you will, because i'm not a lefty..... but i did play one on TV.

[Firetiger 0]

Be wary of bearers of the one and only truth! There is no such thing in fly fishing (well, unless when I say so...)

 

Have a look at one of the many tying videos by Oliver Edwars on the net; he ties left handed and wraps his thread in the "wrong" direction.

Despite such flaunting of the tying dogma his flies seem to work out fine :devil:

 

J.

[perchjerker 0]

My only comment to this is to be sure, with a couple of exceptions, to wind your thread and materials in the SAME direction. This ensures that the thread torque is in the same direction as the torque on the materials, binding them tighter to the hook. The major exception to this is that you typically wind ribbing in the direction opposite that of the thread and the rest of the materials. Winding ribbing this was ensures that it does a better job of holding such materials as quill bodies and peacock herl and keeps them from completely unwinding when it gets cut by the teeth of a fish, making the fly more durable.

 

perchjerker

[CoachBob 0]

Fly tying is not unidirectional.

I have taught many lefthanded tyers, including my children.

Turn the vise around. Period.

Bring the thread over the top of the vise going front to back, unless you are counter-wrapping something.

You will tie in mirror image of a right handed tyer.

[utyer 0]

I am one left handed tier that wraps over the hook toward myself, and under and away. I learned from an old book of my dads, and a Herters Catalog, there was no one around to correct my "mistakes" so I just kept on tying that way. I once showed a few of my flies to a "famous" tier during a clinic, and he said that from the direction my hackles were tied, I was a right handed tier. It was 20 years too late to change then, and 40 years too late to change now. I don't think it makes any difference to the fish.

[AK-Edge 0]

I am a lefty also, and I go over the hook when I am wrapping away from me and towards me when I am going under the hook. I don't know if that is the technically correct technique or not, but it feels comfortable to me and lets me tie some pretty good looking flies.

[FrequentTyer 0]

There is a nuance here in terms of thread control. Since the thread is made of a series of parallel twisted fibers, a right hander tyer that wraps over and away will further twist the thread as he ties and will need to spin the bobbin to compensate (I think I have that right). So a left handed tier that wraps over and away would do the opposite and would tend to untwist the thread. I personally don't think under and away would be as effective because I would need to tighten things on top of the hook by pulling towards me and would either not pull as hard or wind up poking out my eye. But that is just my opinion and has not been endorsed by any secrete organizations

[smallieFanatic 0]

I lead a really exciting life. One of the highlights is reading The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference, and the authors write that, when tying a fly, the thread should be wrapped away from the tier when wrapping OVER the hook, and toward you when wrapping UNDER the shaft. Is it correct, then, that a left hander wraps toward himself when wrapping OVER the shaft and away when wrapping UNDER? Or does it really even matter??

 

Thanks in advance for any/all responses. Cheers!

 

Nope. No "right" direction to wrap the thread save around the hook. I wrap the thread opposite the way you described, works fine

[perchjerker 0]

Frequent Tyer:

 

The 'fly in the ointment' here is that there are both "right-hand" and "left-hand" twist threads; and then there is no twist to the "flat" threads. If a left-handed tier goes under the hook when going away from the body and over the top when coming towards their body, they are tying in the same direction that a right handed tier does when going away over the top and under on the return. The simple way to resolve all of this is to simply turn loose of the bobbin after every 8-10 wraps and let the thread return to it's natural configuration by letting the bobbin spin on it's own until it stops spinning.

 

IMHO, I think we are jousting at windmills with the original question. Wrap in the direction that is most comfortable and the easiest for you to do. The fish will never know the difference. As I think I have mentioned here before; the don't read our books and they do not participate on such fora as this!

 

perchjerker

[Hairstacker 0]

For practical reasons, I think I would teach a new lefty to wrap over and away. For example, aside from using a soft loop, one of the ways to place materials on top of a hook is to hold the materials in front of the hook at an angle and allow thread tension to push the materials on top. If you wanted to employ this technique using a wrap over to you approach, you'd have to hold the materials on the far side of the hook, which I would think would more challenging for a new tyer. May be a minor point, though, given the number of great lefties who tie that way.

 

-- Mike

[Old Hat 0]

I am left handed and tie right handed (hook eye pointing to the right) and over and away on the top. Just because that is how all the pictures in the tying books are.