10 replies to this topic

[DH_in_AL]

Greetings,

As a newbie in fly tying I was going crazy trying to figure out how to get excess glue/cement out of my hook eyes.

You know what I mean, after whip finishing the knot you go to put a couple drops of head cement and alas, you also fill the hook eye.

Well, by accident, I found a novel way to clean out the hook eye. WHen you are taking feathers from a neck/saddle there is always that little
small feather frond that is attached to the inside of the feather where it comes out of the skin. I have been just throwing those little
feathers away because I saw no real use for them. However, if you save those little feathers (I keep mine in an old prescription bottle), whenever
you get glue/cement in the hook eye, take one of those small feathers, strip a little of the fuzz at the base off, then push the exposed stem
of the feather thru the hook eye, grab it with tweezers, and pull it all the way through to remove any glue/cement in the hook eye, then drop it
in your waste basket.

Voila! No more cement or glue in your hook eye.

I don't know if this helps anyone, but it sure helped me.

[flytire]

an age old but good tying tip

2 thumbs up!

[MowestFlyfisher]

It does work great been doing that since i started tying a year ago. i thought i was on to something too till i found out everyone has been doin it for years. lol but its good that you figured it out on your own.

[Mickalo]

I had a bunch of left over syringe needles when one of cats had to have injections so took a few of them a glued them onto small plastic tubes. These also work great for cleaning out the hook eyes on various size hooks.

Mike

[NJ All Day]

Yep, you could also use peacock herl.

[Chris Patterson]

I usually use a bit of mono. Same principle and works great

[Steve P]

I just don't use glue... personal preference but the only glue I use is what I use when I need to attach something like eyes, and that is super glue and never seems to get in the eye from that far back, have yet to have a fly come apart before I lose it to a tree or other back cast/underwater hazard, and I've been tying without glue for about 4yrs now.

Steve

[NJ All Day]

I just don't use glue... personal preference but the only glue I use is what I use when I need to attach something like eyes, and that is super glue and never seems to get in the eye from that far back, have yet to have a fly come apart before I lose it to a tree or other back cast/underwater hazard, and I've been tying without glue for about 4yrs now.

Steve

I'm on and off with glue, depends on the fly. Mostly I will just use a 5 turn whip finish or maybe 2 whip finishes. But if I need the head to look nice I'll add a coat or so of Sally's. I just don't like the smell and the amount of time it takes to dry.

[Steve P]

I'm normally a two whip, 4-5 turn kind of guy, glad to see I'm no the only anti glue guy out there. I will say that I do like to add a tiny (and I mean tiny) drop of super glue to anything I tie with mono thread.

Steve

[NJ All Day]

I'm normally a two whip, 4-5 turn kind of guy, glad to see I'm no the only anti glue guy out there. I will say that I do like to add a tiny (and I mean tiny) drop of super glue to anything I tie with mono thread.

Steve

Yea mono is very slippery.

[Stippled Popper]

There have been excellent suggestions on how to remove glue from a hook eye once it has gotten into it and is still
wet. In my opinion some of the delivery systems(brushes) included with many heads cements are poorly suited for
the task. The brush can be too large to avoid getting cement in the hook eye even if trimmed to a point as is frequently
suggested.

I don't have a picture of one of these brushes because I pull them out and toss them the first time I open a new
bottle. But the paint brush in the following image is close enough to make my point. My solution to the problem is to
use a needle to apply head cement. To make it easier to hold, I wrap 3/0 thread around the rear of the needle to make
a handle. Several coats of Loon Hard Head are used to seal the thread, but not so much that the thread wrap is glassy
smooth. If head cement doesn't get into a hook eye, it doesn't have to be removed. The needle method has worked with
every head cement I've used that didn't have the consistency of water.



I have two other diameter needles so handled for other tying purposes... had to think of something to do with the left over
needles in packs I've purchased to make stippling tools for others. The idea came to me when the needle of the
commercially available bodkin I was using came out of it's handle. This probably isn't suited for everyone. But some may
find it useful.