Whip Finishing

[Gary Madore 0]

In another thread (Tying Lessons) "Skunked" posted a link to a Maine fly fishing site that includes, among other things, some links to homemade tying videos.

 

The guy who's demonstrating tying uses 3 separate whip finishing knots to finish a fly (each knot of about 3 or 4 turns)...

 

I had it in my head that one knot of maybe 4 or 5 turns was sufficient.

 

What's y'all's opinion on this?

 

Thanks,

 

Cheers!

 

Gary

[fishyfranky 0]

Hmmm, 3 whip finishes with about 4 turns each... that's 12 turns in total!!!! Yet again that number 12 turns up....

 

 

[JarrodRuggles 0]

half hitch half hitch half hitch half hitch

[Guest]

Two knots of three turns has worked for me. Use to do one knot of six turns but too many did come undone even with head cement.

[Joe Hard 0]

5 turns normal,7 with monocord or slippery thread. only one not..... yet again 12

[artimus 0]

I use 1 knot with 4-5 turns. Head cement, sometimes. Do any unravel,; sure like one in a hundred.

 

Art

[BowTied 0]

I do one knot with 4 turns, then cement or epoxy. I think the times it does come undone has more to do with the thread breaking, not the knot coming undone.

 

Chris

[Bud Guidry 0]

no whip finish here, 4 half hitch by hand then loons hard head laquer, but then i don't tie fishing flies. Bud

[CapeBSalar 0]

I've never learned to whip finish a fly either by tool or by hand it's half hitch's all the way and my flies last forever. My uncle gets a special order every year and he sent me one of my streamers the one I submitted for the contest and it had caught and released 50+ brookies in a 3 day trip, same fly and it only slightly started to fray, body, JC eyes and the head never unravelled. I still have it and a letter that he sent me as a testament to my tying.

 

sorry bout the spelling errors, hey Will how bout a spell check option for our posts!!

[mgj 0]

depends on the pattern.

usually though it 3 or 4 turns w/ the whip finisher and that's it.

 

sometimes I use three half hitches.

 

usually cement the heads of nymphs, not the dries though.

 

mgj

 

[Alex C. 0]

I was surprised when I saw that too, I guess everyone has their prefered way of finishing a fly. I believe that one quality whip finish knot is better than 3 sub-quality whip finish knots. My flies are probably gonna spend more time in trees than in water anyway

[Po0gs 0]

3-9 half hitch here

[Guest]

I don't see any need to put more than 3 turns and a hitch. Dave Whitlock doesn't use any knots, he superglues the thread and cuts it off.

[Sean Juan 0]

Trout flies - 3 turn whip and a hitch no glue no problems

 

Salt - Mostly use mono thread two whips 5 each a hitch and hard as Nails...no problem

[Fontinalis 0]

On wet flies especially show quality wet flies, The whip finish either by hand or a nice Matarelli whip finishing tool is just not for tying off the thread. The Whip finish is also used to shape the head on the fly as well. Usually ten to twelve turns will 99% of the time allow me to shape a beautiful head and tie off the thread. Now on all other flies that I tye, I use about 8 to 10 turns. The flies do not have to be head cemented because if a good whip finish was done correctly, the head will not come apart. I use head cement but more because my elders tied that way and I keep the tradition. I do like the look of a propperly whipped finished head that is cemented correctly. By this one coat of head cement is not enough. Two thin coats is really what puts that well shaped head into a beauty pagent.

 

 

Fontinalis Fin