Mark Knapp

That looks like a nice silver one. Glad he didn't go to waste. Be sure to salt it or borax it to keep the flesh eating bugs off. Nice job.

Thanks Mike

Yep, stay tuned

I got a really nice bunch of hooks in the mail from Dave today, Thanks Dave. Thanks everybody, ready to start on the base in the next day or two.

I hope the good days are more of a trend than an exception. All the best.

Nice flies, nice water, nice fish, what else could a guy ask for. Good on ya.

I literally took mine apart, put back together again, uploaded the picture and wrote this since my last post. It took 5 seconds to get it apart and five seconds to put it back together again. This is what it looks like. Hit it with a soft blow, It should take just a bump. Mine was actually a slide fit. Make sure all three screws are lose on the barrel.

Who you calling a cave man? 😁 Good idea though. An email can't hurt.

I think it easy to over-think these things. Like Poop, I'm not afraid of an oops once in a while. Then again, a little finesse goes a long way. Just go easy. I could have several dozen or a hundred flies tied before that thing came back from "the guy".

No Problem. You can also try propping up the hub body (with the bearings inside) on the edge of a wooden work bench and tapping on the handle hub with a soft-blow hammer. Easy does it.

Thanks guys.

This is a project that has been on the back burner for a while but now I'm moving it to the front. Some of you have asked me to post pictures of the build as I go along, so here we go. First step, make the post. I had a bunch of spade-eye hooks from and estate sale so I made a test piece of damascus from them to make sure it would work. I didn't want to waste a bunch of good hooks unless I knew it would work. Essentially, a bunch of hooks are put into a metal box and the voids between them are filled with powder-metal. The box is welded shut and put into the forge, heated to forge welding temperature and compressed into a solid block of steel. Then the box is taken off and the bar is drawn out to length and rounded. Here's how the bar looked out of the forge. There's about 2000 hooks in there from size 16 to 2. The bar is about 5/8" in diameter. Then I turned the bar to just a couple of thousandths of an inch over 3/8ths inches. And sanded it to finish size. Then the bar was etched in Ferric Chloride to show contrast between the hook material and the filler material. The result is a little less exciting than I wanted it to be but I learned a lot. It was a good test. I'll make another one with more hooks and less filler, hopefully the result will be more dramatic.

Mine doesn't do that. My suspicion is, that one or both of your bearings are jammed and when you turn the head it turns inside the race of the bearing instead of the balls. I would think will need to be taken apart cleaned and the bearings replaced. Short term, I suspect if you oil the shaft, and apply force to the handle end while you turn the head, it may "Get Back to Where it (you) Once Belonged, Jo" (The Beatles)

I need as much as I can get, the hooks all get compressed into a block of steel so it takes a lot to make a piece of steel. Variety is good. I'll have to sort out the galvanized and stainless hooks because they don't weld well. I could sand blast the galvanized hooks. I'll put the rusty ones in a tumbler to remove the rust. Thanks everybody.

Thanks Nick. Sending now.

Two more size 9/0, 7 inch Clousers and one more 11/0, 8 inch Clousers in the box. Just about ready for a pike safari. All we need now is some open water. Another 11/0, 8 inch Clouser ready for the box. These are, of course, variations on a Clouser. The originals called for deer hair. Its very hard to get deer hair long enough for an eight inch Clouser so I substituted dyed mountain goat hair. I also added feathers and on this one, some marabou. An 8 inch crease fly on a 11/0 Owner hook And a 7 inch Crease on a 9/0 Owner hook.

Good post Dude.

You could make some really nice ice jigging sticks for your next ice fishing trip. 😋

Changes by David Bowie "Ch-ch-changes, just gonna have to be a different man Time may change me" Good luck buddy.

Thanks mister.

Thank you SC

Big game season is coming. I'm filling up the boxes for big pike. In this box are 7 to 8 inch Clousers, crease flies, deer hair poppers, foam head poppers, and streamers. I'll do a few more Clousers and some more streamers. I'm going for a 40 inch plus pike on a fly rod this year. Wish me luck. To date, my all time best is 38 1/2 inches.

Yep, I was in a tee shirt. My buds a little older so.....

I wasn't born with an addiction gene but I've seen a lot of how addiction can harm people. My hat's off to you guys.

Thanks everybody.