halcyon

Lovely as usual Hans. Hope all is well with our friend in low places Bruce

Paul, Absolutely stunning! Your mastery of technique, materials selection, and proportion are marvelous.

The Western Capercaillie is the largest member of the grouse family. The females are mostly alike and have dark brown mottled feathers. The males of the various sub-species are darker starting with black in the south and west of their range across Europe and Asia to almost all white as they extent north and east. For the most part it is the female that is used but there are patterns that use the black male.

This is great! Finally the site loads quickly and doesn't look like a rag mongers junk shop. And the damn annoying pop-up is gone. I can come more often now. Thanks for the upgrade and hard work. Bruce

This book has a rather extensive list of RATs with photos and patterns. "Hair-Wing Atlantic Salmon Flies", Keith Fulsher (Author), Charles Krom (Author)

I believe more properly they should be called RATs as the name comes from the initials of the designer of the original patterns Roy Angus Thomson. He designed at least the Silver and Rusty RATs, Poul Jorgensen designed the Blue RAT in the 1990's. There are numerous color variations today all maintaining the character and style of the originals.

If you are asking about the Vince Marinaro thorax dry flies and/or the Lawrence Threadgold footprint dry flies then what defines them both is the way the hackle is mounted. These types of flies are father and son of the same design. Namely, the hackle is tied in so that some faces backward and some faces forward creating a footprint on the water more closely imitating the footprint of the a real mayfly. Vince did this using two hackles (in his day dry fly hackles didn't have the length and stiffness of today's genetic hackle). Lawrence does it using a single longer hackle. Both methods produce the same cone of hackle points on the water. Lawrence has also extended this idea to caddis (Sedge in his native England) patterns.

I agree with Frank that it depends on the pattern. It also depends on the effect and final look of the fly as well as your personal style preference. Thus whether you use the wool as a dubbing or as a floss, the type of wool is also important. For example, sweater wool tends to be either course short fiber typical of that used in outdoor sweaters, or brushed out rabbit angora in "fashion" sweaters. The former has individual strands that are larger and more tightly twisted than the angora yarns. Crewel wool yarns are generally made in one or two strands lightly twisted of Merino wool or Merino lambs wool which is a much longer staple wool of much finer denier. Therefore it is both easier to untwist to a floss and stronger than short staple wool. Another great wool is angora goat wool which is long staple, thin, and translucent (like seal fur and polar bear guard hair) and can be purchased as raw locks, carded locks, or chopped dubbing.

The last time I checked with the maker the Echich bobbin holders were $100 each and had a 1 year warranty. When I asked why only one year he said he didn't know how long the spring would last and he didn't want to have to replace them because they were expense. How's that for customer service? Bruce

The first point you need to confirm is that the GOOP version you have is not Styene based (most are now by the way). If the GOOP is a styrene based formulation the only solvent that I am aware of that will actually dilute it instead of turning it into a white glob of slime is PERK (this is modern dry cleaning solvent and is Federally controlled in quantities over 1 oz. contaners.) PERK can be purchased by the ounce from fly shops that carry styrene based head cements.

I beg to differ. Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails that I purchased over the past 3 decades has used acetone, then toluene, and now methyl acetate and butyl acetate. But I have never seen MEK listed as an ingredient on any bottle of Sally Hansen products.

You can find both soft bound and hard bound copies here http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResu...mp;x=45&y=6

From my experience of over 30 years using the Matarelli it is worth every penny and is superior to the look-alikes. Firstly, the Matarelli is made from hand polished surgical grade stainless steel. The beads mounting the brass handle are silver soldered in place. And the angle of the hook is very carefully designed for the job. There is a difference in ease of use and ease of removing the tool determined by the angles of the wire. The choice of stainless steel and the hand polishing means the thread is never frayed by the tool allowing the knot to be properly formed without fraying and the consequent loose knot formation. And you don't have to go to the shop and check the Matarelli to see if it will turn or if the wire is smooth, every one is perfect when you get it. Let's see, $15.95/30 years = a true bargain.

All Dyna-King models have standard jaws with hook grooves. All Dyna-King models midge jaws do not. The only difference between standard jaws or midge jaws over the model range is the overall length of the jaw unit. I tried to get a special order set of standard jaws without grooves several months ago and basically was told to pound salt. Years ago special orders were always gladly accepted. The picture you are referring too show one set of standard jaws and two sets of midge jaws showing the two different lengths of jaw units covering the complete Dyna-King vise model range.

The most comfortable magnifying system is one that is not worn and is on a movable arm by itself. It should have no frame or rim and it definitely should not have a light around it. In addition it needs to be optically correct from edge to edge and it should be 1.5X to 2.0X magnification and definitely not over 3X magnification for fly tying, rod building or jig making and the like. Most preferably it should have a infinite focus point from the viewing side of the lens. That is the object you are focused on should be in focus to you from a few inches behind the lens to as far back as you can get in the room. Otherwise you trade visual clarity for eye and muscle strain. If you prefer to wear your magnification then the suggestion above of drugstore reading glasses is the best bet as they are optically correct lenses. The half lens type is even better as you can look over the lenses for normal vision and because the top of the lens has no frame on it your eyes to reflexively refocus each time you look up or down. You don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money but cheap lenses are worse than none at all and you get free eye strain and muscle strain thrown in.