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wrc2121

storage of materials

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Didn't know where to put this tonight. I know left over's usually mean food. but tonight I need to know where you usually but your left over materials that are use full for other flys? I saw the fly tying bench. I did not see any photos that has represention of materials for fly tied. Just a discribtion or how you deal will the materials will do?

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i keep my useful materials in their original zip lock bag (if it comes that way) and then into rubbermaid/sterlite plastic shoe boxes and use exactly what i need to tie each fly

 

i throw away the useless materials in a trash bin. i do not try to sort out the odd bits of feathertips, hackle stems, this fiber, that fiber, 1/2 inch of ribbing material etc

 

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It depends on what it is. Some I hang on my slat board in my tying room, some is kept in drawers in original package, some is kept in small drawers actually on my desk and some that I seldom or never use is even relegated to one of several huge tote bin I keep in the garage.

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i keep my useful materials in their original zip lock bag (if it comes that way) and then into rubbermaid/sterlite plastic shoe boxes and use exactly what i need to tie each fly

 

i throw away the useless materials in a trash bin. i do not try to sort out the odd bits of feathertips, hackle stems, this fiber, that fiber, 1/2 inch of ribbing material etc

 

Yep, same here. I can't always look at a material and remember exactly what it is, mostly the synthetic flash and body materials for saltwater, so not having the original package drives me crazy. Everything then goes into containers that are labeled.

 

Odd bits, not worth my time saving. I have yet to go through a pack of dubbing or a full skin (after 2 years of tying) so I can afford a little waste. Might be a different story if I tied thousands of flies or was on a very tight budget.

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Like most of you I'm going to jump on a deal. If I can save by buying in bulk I'm in. A vacuum sealer will set your mind at ease. I don't remove all of the air or it would crush my materials. I hit the seal button just before the squish factor. Leave an inch tag end on the sealed bag if you want to put a hole in it and hang it or just toss it in a drawer and forget about it. The thought of bugs eating my materials no longer keeps me awake at night.

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so every time you want a pinch of dubbing in a vacuum sealed bag you now have to destroy the seal, take and use some dubbing and then reseal the bag? seems too impractical to me

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The materials that I store in the vacuum sealed bags are bulk purchases. I only need to access them once or twice a year. I use ziplock freezer bags for smaller amounts of materials. I also leave enough tag on the vacuum bags so they are good to open and re-seal at least three or four times.

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I store all my materials in compartmental clear plastic boxes from the craft stores. I use the kinds that allow me to choose where the divisions divide for larger materials such as hackle, furs, and basic feathers, and marabou. For the smaller materials I buy boxes with built in divisions, for example for my home blended dubbings, hooks, rubber legs, flashings, congo hair, chenille, wraps, beads, and eyes.

 

I then label the boxes on the front with a marker and they stack within easy reach. In boxes with fur or feathers I put cloves and cedar in the boxes to deter critters. If I change the contents of a box, alcohol removes the marker and I re-marker the name of the new contents.

 

Hooks are in boxes with about 30 small compartments, with a full information 1/2" x 1-3/8" label stuck in at the back of each compartment where the brand, size, type, configuration, and stock number can be easily read while selecting hooks.

 

For dubbing blends, I have an Excel sheet that tells me what formula I used to blend each compartment of each box in the stack. So, If I was to use one up I can reblend it literally in a few seconds.

 

In my humble opinion digging through and resealing stacks of zip-locs sux. With clear plastic boxes, you pull a box from the stack and choose a material form a group of similar, close the box and place it back on top of the stack. The most often used boxes tend to be near or at the top of the stack for a given fly tying session.

 

There are two exceptions to this method, I keep raw materials for blending my dubbings in zip-locs. I rarely need to get into those zip-locs, if I do it will be for a short time because you can blend a heck of a lot of dubbing colors in a couple of hours. Also, I keep bulk feathers in non-compartmental clear plastic boxes stacked elsewhere, then I keep a selection of those in the compartmental boxes stacked at my tying station and bench. Be sure to add cloves and cedar to those bulk boxes!

 

Now, a stack of division boxes is a fly tyer's Christmas gift to cherish.

 

What could possibly be more logical or easier?

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Well, this might not be more practical but it is easier for me. I appreciate your disdain for my use of ziplocks, and if I had to access them more then once a month to fill my cubby slots I too would revile the zippy. In my case the system works. Once a month or so I refill the cubbys, once a quarter I refill the zippys and about once every eight months or so I have to refill my zippys from the vacuum bags. I tie at least six days a week and find it so much easier not to have to pull boxes for each material I need. Your system is very neat and tidy and my wife will never see your bench. I am the "ugly American" tier and don't mind my bench looking like a work in progress at all times. I am really digging how beautifully organized the systems many of you have. I guess it's like everything else in life, we each find a way to create a space that works for us.

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Different materials require different storage solutions. I keep most of my hooks in Plano boxes. For example, one box of 6 compartments for TMC101 #8 to 18. Then in each compartment I also put a smaller box of hooks sizes #20 to 26. A note of caution: ALWAYS secure your hook boxes with a couple of rubber bands to prevent spillage.

 

I take special pains with my bird skins. These are stapled to white cardboard with a folded paper towel in between. The mounted skin is slipped into a plastic sleeve which is then sealed in a long Zip-Loc bag with a crystal of para-dichlorobenzene. (The sleeves and long zip-locs were purchased in bulk from U-line.) The bagged skins are stored on edge in Snap-Top plastic bins. Whenever I use a neck I sort a few dozen feathers by size. The unused feathers are placed in Snack-sized Zip-Lock bags (one for each size) and stored with the parent neck. This saves me a lot of time as I can often find the feathers I need presorted.

 

Most of my other materials , from tanned hides to tungsten beads, are sealed in baggies and stored in a Snap-Top box. Exceptions include pre-blended dubbing and loose feathers some of which I keep in glass jars. (Nice to look at and see the feathers are not being bent out of shape.)

 

Like nightheron and a few others, I find Zip-Loc bags an effective means of segregating, organizing and protecting my precious material!

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Well, this might not be more practical but it is easier for me. I appreciate your disdain for my use of ziplocks, and if I had to access them more then once a month to fill my cubby slots I too would revile the zippy. In my case the system works. Once a month or so I refill the cubbys, once a quarter I refill the zippys and about once every eight months or so I have to refill my zippys from the vacuum bags. I tie at least six days a week and find it so much easier not to have to pull boxes for each material I need. Your system is very neat and tidy and my wife will never see your bench. I am the "ugly American" tier and don't mind my bench looking like a work in progress at all times. I am really digging how beautifully organized the systems many of you have. I guess it's like everything else in life, we each find a way to create a space that works for us.

 

 

Actually.... I think your set-up is kool! .. but won't work for my personality. I'd totally wreck the place with that set-up... and end up with a pile to dig through.

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