I quit saving scraps...

[vicrider 0]

Believe me, it's hard for a pack rat like me to do. I snip off 4" of wire for a ribbing. I end with an 1.5" left. I save it. I wrap a hackle and end up with a little piece left that might work on a size 24. I save it. Same thing with chenille, floss, herl, scud back, and all those other things you end with bits and pieces of. Then when you actually might use a piece of what you saved you can't find it in the mess anyway.

 

It was hard but I cleaned my desk yesterday and thru out a bunch of those scraps and odds and ends that accumulate as you tie. It might be different if I was on a really tight budget with limited resources but I have racks and boxes of fur, feathers, and everything else a fly shop would stock. The only thing I ever run low on anymore is hooks or beads and need to order at times. Even then I do bulk orders and go thru the catalog and end with a whole bunch of other furs and feathers I've heard mentioned but didn't have.

 

So how about you guys? Do you save a lot of things that just get in the way and are never used later anyway (rare exceptions) or when you clip something off your tie can you just throw it with a clear conscience?

[FlaFly 0]

That's me, in spades! At the rate it takes me to tie a single fly, I have about a dozen lifetimes worth of material, but I save every scrap. When I tie a fly I don't like, I strip it off the hook so I can reuse the hook. And I still keep buying new material when I see something neat.

[Chase Creek 0]

I don't save scraps at all. I usually have quite a bit, and I'll save a piece of something if I'm tying another of that pattern right away, but saving scraps for another day just takes up storage space.

[SilverCreek 0]

The only "scraps" I save are the hackles that are long enough to tie more flies. The rest of it goes in the trash.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I wasn't really that conscious of doing it until I started reading this thread, but I just went down and had a look at my bench and found that I do, indeed, save snippets of wire and hackles--not to mention chenille, yarn, vinyl ribbing, peacock herl, rubber legs and flash material--that look like they may be long enough to use on another fly. I also have collection bins for flies that get flubbed halfway through or that just don't come out right, or that get chewed to shreds on the river, with the idea being that I will someday strip the materials off and recycle the hooks. That's actually happened only a handful of times in 17 years of tying, though.

[tidewaterfly 0]

Guilty! I'm a pack rat too, & readily admit it!

 

I hate wasting anything, but what type of scraps I'll save depends on the scrap. When I tie such flies as Deceivers, I save some of that fluffy base material that I cut off of the tail hackles & use it for dressing some small trailer hooks for some lures I make. I see little sense in cutting up perfectly good large hackles or marabou, when that scrap works fine.

 

I don't look at it as saving scrap, instead it's making full use of my resources!

 

Now, small bits of chenille & some other stuff like that I'll trash. It unravels most of the time anyway. Wire might depend on the length that's left over since I don't tie a lot of small flies I'll usually can that too. I might also save small lengths of flash material, but not always. Usually depends on whether I intend to tie something with it right away.

 

I have gotten better with throwing away some of those scraps I used to save!

[FlaFly 0]

Some people seem to have a better sense of how much chenille to cut off the card, etc., so it comes out pretty close. I don't. If I cut a length off, it turns out to be enough to have done three flies.

[KOKOEK9 0]

I save some but not a lot, if I will be tying more of the same I do. I recycle my hooks. every so often I go through my tied flys and strip the ones that didn't turn out right

[flytire 0]

If you don't cut it off the card, there's no scrap

 

If you don't cut it off the spool, there's no scrap

 

But that takes practice

 

I don't save any scrap either. It goes in the scrap bowl on my desk

[JSzymczyk 0]

I long ago gave up trying to scrimp and save every millimeter of material. I gave up on the fantasy of fly tying being a means to any kind of money-saving. Having some scrap materials is just the "cost of doing business" so to speak. I can see for commercial tyers that they NEED to get 20 woolly buggers from a card of chenille instead of 18, over their lifetime it might make a difference of a few dollars in the bank. It's just a hobby for me (which has lasted my entire life more or less) so I'm ok if I have an inch of hackle left over on a fly and I clip it off and it goes in the bin. That's not to say that I am intentionally wasteful, because I'm not. On the very unusual times when I am tying up 10 or 15 of the same pattern in one session, I will make all the materials go to their fullest extent. Normally I will tie up 2 or 3 of one pattern/size, and it's not critical to me if I have an extra inch of wire ribbing left after each one.

[shoebop 0]

What do you do with all the scraps? That's my quandry. You put them in a bowl or other container and then you have a mess of stuff that you couldn't find anything in... if you even think to look in there. I don't have the space or the energy to organize the scraps. So I throw them all away...except hackle tips for wings on dries...and combed out underfur for dubbing...and of course hackle shorts for tailing...oh and sh#t here I go again.

[mikechell 0]

I only tie what I need for a couple of fishing trips. And at that, I only tie a half dozen or so patterns. For the fish I chase, I don't need to carry two dozen different permutations of each bug just to "match the hatch". (I'm betting no one else needs to either, but a lot of anglers do)

 

Since I only tie what I'll need for a couple of trips (more if I don't lose flies), I don't go through much material. Hence, no need to save all the little pieces. If it's long enough to tie another fly, I tie another fly right then. If not, it goes in the trash.

[Stevester 0]

My name is Steve and I keep piles of scrap material on my tying desk. There, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

[mikechell 0]

clap clap clap ... yea, Steve.

Typical response from all the other 12 steppers in the room.

[tidewaterfly 0]

 

If you don't cut it off the card, there's no scrap

If you don't cut it off the spool, there's no scrap

 

This is what I do also. The ends will unravel some & I'll trim it off, but I tie from the card or spools as long as they're small enough. I've got a couple of big bulk spools of chenille, which are not something I can tie from direct. I'll remove a good length, perhaps 20 ft or so from them & put it on cards & will sometimes end up with short pieces.

Can't be helped, but when a spool has 3000 yards on it, I don't get concerned about saving an inch or two.