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Jcb68

Hook Placement In Vise

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Good Morning all.

This may be a repeat question sorry if so.

I am just starting to tie my own flies and question how much of the hook tip to expose in the vise. Is there a reason to leave it exposed? I catch the thread not to mention my finger on it all the time.

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It is commonly accepted practice to have the point of the hook exposed. Part of the experience is learning how to catch the thread and/or your finger . . . almost never. Also if you have the hook point buried in the jaws of the vice, you are still going to have issues tying thread and materials at the rear of the shank.

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It is also good practice to use the hook point, barb, and bend as landmarks for measurements and to standardize proportions.

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I usually leave the hook point exposed. And suffered the consequences, including a trip to the emergency room to remove one I forgot to debarb before putting it in the vise. I agree with pretty much with Stippled Popper and Flicted in that it's part of the learning process and as points of reference when tying. I do try to leave a minimal amount of the point exposed when I put the hook in the vise. It depends on the hook size, the width of the gape and the placement of the hook in the vise. I usually place my hook higher up in the jaws with most of the bend exposed.

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From just behind the barb and forward all hooks are tapered to a point. No vise can clamp this section anyway, so it is good to leave the barb exposed. Place the hook in the vise with the bottom 1alf of the bend in the jaws.

 

Then tie on your thread and wind back to the point just over the barb. Wrap the thread around the hook while moving the bobbin slightly forward as you go under the shank and then move the thread up and back as you come over the top. PRACTICE this for a few minutes until you get this down.

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And just for the record, if you find yourself with a hook buried past the barb, there is an easy, safe, and quick way to remove it yourself w/o doing further damage.

 

Make a loop with mono, slip it over the hook shank with the loose ends facing away from the eye of the hook.

 

Press down on the eye and shank of the hook.

 

Pull the loop backward in the opposite direction away from the eye.

 

The downward pressure frees the barb and the hook slides out.

 

Neosporin and bandage.

 

Rocco

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i dont think ive ever impaled myself that deep with a hook in the vise where the mono loop removal method was required :)

 

out on the stream it does work

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Barbless hooks come out much easier, but they don't have the barb as a proportion landmark.

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Good Morning all.

This may be a repeat question sorry if so.

I am just starting to tie my own flies and question how much of the hook tip to expose in the vise. Is there a reason to leave it exposed? I catch the thread not to mention my finger on it all the time.

 

 

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And just for the record, if you find yourself with a hook buried past the barb, there is an easy, safe, and quick way to remove it yourself w/o doing further damage.

 

Make a loop with mono, slip it over the hook shank with the loose ends facing away from the eye of the hook.

 

Press down on the eye and shank of the hook.

 

Pull the loop backward in the opposite direction away from the eye.

 

The downward pressure frees the barb and the hook slides out.

 

Neosporin and bandage.

 

Rocco

I think we have different definitions of "slide". I do agree that technique works

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What to do has been thoroughly covered, Why to do it that way is (and it comes as no surprise to me) not stated, until you get into Silver's first video. You expose the hook point so that your vice grips the hook where the sides of the hook are parallel. This is to distribute the gripping force over the widest possible area of the hook. If you cover the hook the clamping force is all applied at the "shoulder" of the hook, where the spear starts to taper. Gripping there reduces the area gripped and can damage your vice jaws.

 

There is a demonstration of this I use in tying lessons. Take a 12" rule. Hold it out to someone and ask them to hold the rule between two finder tips. It is very easy to move the rule in this grip. Do this again but have them grip between the sides of outstretched index fingers. It is now much more difficult to move the ruler.

 

Cheers,

C.

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... Why to do it that way is (and it comes as no surprise to me) not stated ...

Actually, Utyer stated the "why" on post #5.

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Everything said is important. One other thing you absolutely never want to do is position the hook in the vice in a manner that you think will protect you from those accidental jabs only to see the hook shooting out of your vice and across the room. Now the only way to find it is to have the wife or kid step on it and impale themselves. I am still looking for that size 20 dry fly hook.

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ideally, the hook should be mounted where the vise head catches small part of the bend and some of the spear of the hook.  On a model perfect or round bend hook the start of the bend is directly above the barb.  

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