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I mainly us crazy glue and finger nail polish to glue my heads together. For the not im sure that most people on this forum use a good old whip finish. Just you-tube it for all kids if vids on how to do it.

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I have used several different products including Dave's Flexament, Loon water-based head cement and Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails clear fingernail laquer. Of all of them, I liked the water-based cement the best, because it didn't stink, it didn't glob up and have to be thinned, and it came in a nifty squeeze bottle with a needle-thin nozzle for precise placement.

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It's an option to even use glue or not. If you don't mind spending 5 dollars a bottle there are some cool glues out there that offer different properties. Lacquer is by far the most popular today. Sally Hansens nail polish is basically this. Or you can go to a Home Depot and get a quart that will last a lifetime. You will need some thinner from time to time.

 

I like lacquer becase it dries fast but often don't use any at all as I just tie for myself.

 

If I tie a flt to fish within a week I never use any because of the smell. If the fly is going to be fished later I use it. A good whip finish when tying off has never failed me. Also, learn to whip finish by hand. Go to you tube, see a tutorial, and within 10 minutes you will be an expert at it. It's one less tool to keep track of and I think kind of fun.

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I also whip finish most flies and do not use any head cement.

 

The only time head cement is needed is if you need a shiny head, for example, on streamers to simulate the head of a baitfish. I try to not use any chemicals when tying unless the fly pattern needs it.

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Also, learn to whip finish by hand. Go to you tube, see a tutorial, and within 10 minutes you will be an expert at it. It's one less tool to keep track of and I think kind of fun.

I find this curious...I've had several people tell me over the years that I ought to learn to whip finish by hand instead of using "that tool". Just a couple of weeks ago, a very well-known Michigan fly tier boasted to me that not only did he not use a whip finish tool, he also disdained using a bobbin, preferring instead a device that looked like the bottom end of a bobbin which held the thread under tension but forced him to manipulate the thread itself with his fingers. (Why?!?) Unlike dontheo, none of these folks could articulate the only possible reason for using one method over the other (personal preference). This well-known tier--as well as the other non-whip-finish-tool advocates I've spoken to--clearly seemed to think it a sign of weakness as a tier to use a tool for something that could be done by hand. That seems odd to me, because you really could apply the same logic to any tool we use, right down to the vise itself, and yet they seemed to reserve this disdain for the whip finish tool. I personally would never use my fingers, which tend to be rough enough to abrade the thread and which can't place the thread nearly as precisely as the tool can.

 

Just for the record, in case I didn't make it clear above: dontheo, I'm not saying that you are one of those who see using the whip finish tool as a sign of weakness. It was just your bringing the issue up that made me think of them. I actually think your reason is the only possible one, and for that reason, it is a good one. As John Gierach once wrote, "a real man does whatever the hell he wants." :)

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Well, that is the reason, time and having to look for it. I think you can also do a better job of laying down the thread right where you want it. My hands and fingers get rough too. Sometimes so rough that it's hard to execute a pinch loop wrap. I have a little pummice stone that i will have to use form time to time to smooth things out on my fingers.

 

Byron, I don't think I ever met a tier who has ever bragged or looked down on other tiers for their tying methods they use. Most of them will go out of their way to help you or just show you how they do it.

 

I think fly tying is like drinking wine. I don't care what I am serving to eat, I will drink what I want and any type of wine I like. I am too old to worry about what anyone else cares or does and if I would have thought like that early on in life it would have made things a lot easier. Plus, the only two others in the room when I tie are my Labs Sissie and Nipper and they are just waiting for me to drop something or take my eye off a cape that is too close to the edge of the bench:).

 

Now, I do wrap rods the old style way with tension on the thread from a pile of books on the floor it passes under. No particular reason, just the way I learned and I don't have a whole bunch of more things I need to store. Bench and storage space is very valuable when you have CMAD (Compulsive Material Acquiring Disorder).

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lol, CMAD, that's good, dontheo. I definitely suffer from that as well. :) I, too, wrap my rods mostly the old-fashioned way, with a couple of very heavy science textbooks providing the thread tension for my trim color thread, and a very simple tensioning device made from a c-clamp for my main thread, and for the same reason - it was how I was taught and it works beautifully.

 

I happen to agree with you on both fly tying and wine -- the whole point is to enjoy the experience, so I tie (and drink) what makes me happy and let others think what they will.

 

I also agree with you about fly tiers as a whole - by and large a friendly and endlessly generous and helpful lot. In fact, the Michigan tier I mentioned was in the process of tying one of his signature patterns for me so I could see how it went together when he made his comments about bobbins and whip finishers. You're quite right; I doubt he was trying to be condescending or boastful at all. I think I'm sometimes too quick to see those qualities in other men, perhaps because I grew up in a family that contained some world-class blowhards. You've reminded me to lighten up and give people a break, so...thanks. :) I need to hear that from time to time. And now I think I'd better leave off this thread as I've diverted it from its original topic.

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I use Loctite super glue to glue popper bodies to hooks and to lock thread down good. Clear nail polish to coat popper bodies and thread heads. Both are cheap and wok good.

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Guest rich mc

i have been using liquid fusion to seal the threads. i whip finish with atool, mostly because i like using it. i add the coating just for extra protection from pliers while removing thehook from a fish or branch . rich mc

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Also, learn to whip finish by hand. Go to you tube, see a tutorial, and within 10 minutes you will be an expert at it. It's one less tool to keep track of and I think kind of fun.

I find this curious...I've had several people tell me over the years that I ought to learn to whip finish by hand instead of using "that tool".

 

+1 to the above.

 

As long as you get a good whip finish, it doesn't matter how it is performed. I use a tool although I know how to hand whip finish. I am just faster and more precise with a tool. The goal is to get a tight whip finish with the thread wraps laid adjacent going toward the hook eye. I can do that faster and easier with a tool than by hand.

 

You will see some well know fly tiers hand whip finish and others will use a tool. My friend, Gary Borger uses a Matarelli as does Charlie Craven. Davie McPhail, one of the best fly tiers in the world uses a Matarelli whip finisher. He also lays a bit of head cement on the thread before the whip finish rather than afterwards. Check out any of his Videos.

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I also like the way I have seen Davey McPhail whip finishs on you tube sometimes. He sets up with his tool and then adds the lacquer to the thread, then makes the whip finish. That really makes the head neat and controls the glue.

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I personally prefer a whip finish followed by a small touch of Fast Dry Sally Hanson #110 for a semi-matted finish. For high gloss Hard as Hull applied over the Fast Dry application is the trick for me.

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