Quality Tools

[Poopdeck 0]

I like to tell new tiers not to fall in the quality tool trap. Tying flies is not difficult. In fact it is very simple. The tools and materials are equally simple. Your tools do not take a lot of abuse so "quality" is not important. I don't mind spending money on nice things when necasary. The cheapest of tools will work just as good as a "quality" tool for far less money. Seems people involved in this hobby equate quality with name brands and crazy prices not what simply and efficiently gets the job done.

 

I have never paid more then 5 bucks for a bobbin. Some of them are over 20 years old. I would like to see someone identify a fly tied with a 5 dollar bobbin from one tied with a 50 dollar bobbin or a whip finish tied by hand, with an 8 dollar or 50 dollar whip finisher. My first vise was a ten dollar Thompson AA vice purchased in the 80's to tie bucktails. Still in use today and it's the only vise I ever bought. I do have a Griffith rotary I inherited from my father and I'm guessing it's 20 years old. None of my tools would be considered "quality" yet they work just fine and have won the test of time

 

Don't buy into the hype of unnecessarily spending double you need to just because of a warped sense of expensive is somehow better. Fly tying is to simple for a tool to be ground shaking.

[FlatsRoamer 0]

Well said

[mikechell 0]

... expensive is somehow better.

I generally agree with you, sir. I myself, don't use expensive tools because I am, admittedly, cheap.

But expensive tools is usually not about the quality of the end product. It's more about the feel of the tool in your hand. The tools I use to work on engines/vehicles are not "top" quality, but they are in the upper range. I don't spend that money because the repairs will be better, I do it because my hands feel better at the end of a day of "turning wrenches."

 

Top of the line fly tying tools aren't going to give you better flies. But some of them make the tying much more pleasurable.

[retrocarp 0]

Yeah unfortunately I have to agree with Mike lol

As a Carpenter and Joiner by trade .....Get the best you can afford is a good approach

Or you could wait until you can afford the so called best.

The tools tend to last a bit longer and they generally feel good in your hands .

Yes Mike I am talking about tools now lol

[Poopdeck 0]

I agree with both you guys on well made woodworking tools and auto mechanic tools. I am a woodworker and a former shade tree mechanic and I don't skimp on those tools Since Those tools perform very difficult and strenuous tasks. Fly tying tools on the other hand don't. Wrapping thread around a hook is far less strenuous then picking daisies. If a roll of thread could hang under the hook by itself there would be no need for a bobbin and that's about the only thing a bobbin does better then my hand. I wouldn't have a need for a whip finisher if I had silky smooth hands where I could simply and quickly tie off by hand. A cheapie whip finisher works flawlessly. I like hackle pliers because on top of dry rough hands I also have sausage fingers. hackle pliers hold a feather. I may have paid five bucks for rubber padded hackle pliers I can't remember but they work perfectly.

 

There is certainly nothing wrong with spending money that don't need to be spent and some people like to have the best of everything. I'm cheap and believe there is simply no good reason to bust the bank when need does not dictate it.

[Bimini15 0]

I agree with Poopdeck on the need for pro tools for pro jobs where strength, durability, precision, etc. may be critical. A Harbor Freight router bit will not work out for you as well as an Amana if you put them through their paces, but if all I want to do is a little tying caddy...

In the end, I think that if you learn how to do a good job with lesser tools and materials, you will be great when you upgrade. And, many times you will realize that you just will not need to upgrade.

[flytire 0]

stick a needle in a dowel and you get a bodkin

 

stick a needle into a mechanical pencil and you get another bodkin (i was a draftsman, had a bunch of pencils)

 

save an empty bic pen or equivalent and you have a half hitch tool/deer hair packer

 

make your own bobbin holder with a eye dropper as shown on a previous thread

 

make a hair stacker from an empty chap stick tube or copper pipe and an end fitting

 

make a hackle guard from a mcdonalds straw or use your fingers

 

bend up a piece of wire into a whip finisher or again use your fingers

[flyfisher801 0]

Thanks everyone for the comments, they are extremely helpful. I'm going to go buy some stuff this weekend to get started, I'm super excited. Like a kid at Christmas time!

[Dave G. 0]

801, I started tying three decades + ago with a Thompson vice and a bobbin and the Orvis book I displayed in an earlier post. For a long time I used a single edge razor to cut thread and materials. I bought enough materials to tie woolly worms and woolly buggers and went from there. Next were midges, I thought I needed dries but did not not, not in these waters around here. But did need Griffiths Gnats which were easy to master after the woolly worms. So I spun up my own chironamid emergers, kind of spun off the Kaufman pattern in that book and caught lots of fish ! Today I have more materials than flies I tie, because some were kind of bombs. And of course have added tools. But that was the humble beginning of it all.

 

Have fun, don't over buy !

[rstaight 0]

I am a machinist by education. I am a manufacturing engineer by profession. I am a woodworker by hobby.

 

I understand the get what you pay for mentality. I will look at the high end tools to start with and say, do I really need that? If it is something I don't or won't use day to day I have no problem saving a few bucks. If something with a plastic handle holds up and works just as well as nice looking wooden handle, I have no problem saving a few bucks. But, if the high priced do dad can be justified, it's going home with me.

[Mike West 0]

stick a needle in a dowel and you get a bodkin

 

stick a needle into a mechanical pencil and you get another bodkin (i was a draftsman, had a bunch of pencils)

 

save an empty bic pen or equivalent and you have a half hitch tool/deer hair packer

 

make your own bobbin holder with a eye dropper as shown on a previous thread

 

make a hair stacker from an empty chap stick tube or copper pipe and an end fitting

 

make a hackle guard from a mcdonalds straw or use your fingers

 

bend up a piece of wire into a whip finisher or again use your fingers

 

 

 

 

I've done all this in my broke days and it works just fine...

 

I've must have 4-5 Bodkins I've bought and the one I like the best is the one I made myself(Music Wire, Hobby Lobby)like flytire said. And then my favorite bobbin holder is some cheap thing that I polished the tube with some 1200-2000 wet/dry sandpaper and wrapped the tube with lead for some weight and made an other weight out of lead wrapped with thread and coated with epoxy that goes in the thread spool for more weight. I can't tell you how many thousands of flies I tied on a Thompson Model "B" and that thing sucked!

 

Just buy a decent pair of scissors!

[rstaight 0]

I have to agree with Mike, you can skimp and cut corners on everything but scissors. Shell out the money and get the get a good pair.

[Dave G. 0]

So what is a good pair of scissors then, You guys say buy "decent" ones and leave it at that ?

 

What I have used for a bunch of years now is a $10 pair of small Fiskars I bought at the drug store. They have served me well but of course were not designed specifically for the tying industry. Mine are straight, they make a curved pair as well. But between those Fiskars and a Single edge razor blade, I seem pretty well covered. Still, the OP might like more direction.

[Bimini15 0]

Any fly tying scissors you can find at a fly tying retailer is going to be decent. I got a couple no namers with very fine points. Then I have a (not so) micro-point Fiskars pair that I did not buy for tying. Somehow it found its way to the bench. The only reason for using the last one is that I like the the handle better, but it does not cut any better and it has not replaced the other two for close cuts.

[mikechell 0]

$1.00 pair of scissors from the kids section of Walmart = not "decent" scissors.

Any pair of scissors that has a fine point and cuts thread and materials = decent scissors.

 

I buy scissors from the "health and beauty" section of Walmart for $6.00 or so. They last for a year or two, then get replaced.

I now have a pair of "Dr. Slick" scissors that I won in a grab bag. They have the offset finger position. I like them, but they don't cut any better than the "cheap" ones.