DFoster

GOLDEN ACE- VARIANT. It's winter, time to try new things- Lately I've been using the really small iridescent white/gold tipped feathers off a Starling skin for cheeks in place of Jungle Cock. On certain patterns they look really nice. These are a little to far back from the head. The Starling has a pretty tight curve to the stem so they don't really like to lay flat and it's a fight to keep them in place. If anyone has solved this problem I would love some advise. Also I only had small size Mylar on hand and this fly calls for wider tinsel because of the wire. HOOK: SIZE 10 1X STANDARD NYMPH THREAD: #70 OLIVE ABDOMEN/BODY: WOUND MARABOU - YELLOW RIB: SMALL MYLAR TINSEL -PEAR OVER WRAPPED WITH FINE GOLD WIRE UNDER WING: MARABOU - YELLOW WING: WOOD DUCK - LEMON BEARD: GUINIE HEN – BLUE CHEEKS: STARLING NECK HEAD: OLIVE THREAD

Anytime spent casting a line on the river is a gift-

Thanks to Covid my wife has had a lot of extra time to do that thinking thing. It's getting expensive. Life needs get back to normal soon!

I do have to think about which way the exhaust is facing be fore turning it on or very bad things can happen- 😮

Thank you Moshup. I've posted before that my tying area occupies a corner of my wife's sunlit and warm office. It is mandatory that everything looks nice, be kept clean and all hooks must be accounted for. Failure to do so and I will result in banishment to my unheated and windowless basement workshop 🤪. 10 years now and I haven't lost a hook, although there was a tungsten bead that has eluded capture- Magnets, can't live without them!

Exactly, dirt sticks to oil and grease. Bits and particles from tying eventually work their way down into the lubricated points, even if they were lubed 20 years ago when the vise was new. That funk will cause anything that moves or screws to have more difficulty doing so and it won't matter if the vise is expensive or not. I can say my vise "feels" better after a cleaning because the moving parts move with more ease and to me that is worth the minimal amount of time it took to clean it. As for wiping the exterior with oil, both my Renzetti and HMH owners manuals say the salt in the oils from your hands will eventually cause rust or pitting if left on the surface. I think wiping with a silicone cloth is a good way to prevent that. A thin layer of oil is what they recommend if the vise is going to set unused for a while especially in humidity. I tie much less in the warmer weather because I'm on the water so I'll wipe a little oil on. Like you I maintain my things, expensive or not because I count on them to work when I need them. Lets just say I know this guy who instead of spending the last warm November afternoon of 2019 fly fishing had to rebuild the #@$% carburetor on the snow blower because he stupidly forgot to add #$% fuel stabilizer when he put it away the previous spring and snow was on it's way for the next day. AND or what the rebuild kit cost I could have gotten a nice cape!

I like nice things and I make every effort to properly maintain the things I own. I'm not a frugal person at all and don't mind spending extra for quality. With any high end product I buy the deal is I spend the extra money and maintain the product as directed and in return I expect it to last well beyond what a throw away copy will. It doesn't always go that way and when that happens I never buy from that company again. Maybe it's a character flaw? In my view vises like Dynaking, Renzetti, HMH ect. are not Bic shavers but precision tools worthy of a few minutes spent cleaning and lubricating each year.

Nice work!

It took all of 3 minutes to disassemble my "toy", and another 5 minutes to clean, lube and reassemble. John Larrabee the owner of HMH told me that I should clean and lubricate this vise "at minimum once per year" so that's good enough for me. If you don't mind me asking what's the name of the vise you manufacturer ? That's how it works, until it doesn't.

I had a Traveler for a long time and it was as reliable as a steel anvil. I'm not a prolific a tyer but after 5 years I never had any issue with that vise. Bimini check this out- Mark I treat my TRV the same way I would a firearm since it's made out of pretty much the same metals (stainless, brass and tool steel). I spoke with John Larabee from HMH at the fly fishing show last year, he said once per year take the vise apart and use white lithium grease on the bearings and a few drops of gun oil on the threads. He also said wipe the exterior of the blued tool steel jaws down with a very thin coat of oil just as you would a revolver.

My wife is in Disney World with our Grand Children, leaving me all alone 😮 for 4 days with my tying desk. The quiet has been wonderful, only disturbed when the dog (who now has a love for steak) needs to go outside for a run. Taking a break from tying, I decided it would be a good time to perform the annual maintenance on my vise. I gave it a thorough cleaning. Removing all the particles that have accumulated and as well as the old oil and grease. Per the manufacture I applied new white lithium grease to the moving parts and a few drops of gun oil to the tension screw thread. I've been tying on the HMH for a couple of years now and would guess I've done several hundred flies. I examined the inside of the jaws with a jewelers loop and he show no wear at all beyond the gun blue wearing off which is to be expected. Is anyone else doing the same thing? I would love to see photos.

My desk is in a corner of my wife's office, some of her customers are in the medical device and high tech industries. Feather fluff, fibers and hairs included with formal letters and samples would probably leave a bad impression. So to that end I keep my tying area very clean and neat. I have a small hat box that I got at a flea market. When possible I do my cutting over it. It has a lid and is lined with velvet and that does a really good job at holding onto small fibers. The hand vac gets used at the end of every session.

+1

Wow not one but 3 quality vises! I'm with you - the trash pan is genius. I use a ladies hat box (round) from the 1940's for clippings.

Nice room Bruce. I wish I had space to have my laptop adjacent to my desk. I hoping when I pin down a material cabinet the top will be flat and I can place the laptop on it.

I didn't tie this but I thought it looked good.

Nice looking fly- I love the translucence of the horse hair body.

Count yourself lucky to own and use one. In my opinion they are the finest vise ever made. The amount of European copies out there is testament to the perfection of the design. As a fan of the LAW the HMH copy made sense for me because of the reasons I stated above and it's been a fantastic vise so far.

It was a concern for me. Too many times in my life I've been told "we don't make that model widget anymore" which leads to the choice of buying the new version of the same widget or hand making parts. Calling the factory for a replacement is the option that creates the least amount of stress for me.

I absolutely love my vise. I tie flies from #22 up to #2 and it holds all of them with no issues. The quality is such that I can't imagine any part of it wearing out. Everything on the vise is either, stainless, brass or investment cast tool steel. The only non metal I can find is the internal rotary drag disc and a small bushing under the knob that adjust the jaws. I've tied hundreds of flies and you would never know it. The jaws look exactly like the day I got it. No dings or pits. That said it would seem not all TRV's are the same. It may be that HMH had some quality control issues, I don't know. The first generation of TRV's definitely had some bugs that according to the owner of the company have since been fixed. I did use one at the fly fishing show that would not hold a #14 trout hook no matter how tight I turned the screw. I also read a guy on another forum that said he had one that would hold large hooks fine but not small trout sizes, he returned it and the next one he got would hold the trout sizes fine but didn't do well with the larger hooks. My vise particular vise holds small and large securely. There are several forum members here that have them and I haven't read any post about their vises not holding hooks.

Thanks Bimini- there is a thread about my rod rack project under the forum's fly fishing tab. Here's the link. @partsman @Mark Knapp Thanks guys, it's still evolving but getting there. Next up will be material storage. I've been looking for an inexpensive flat file type cabinet to replace the trunk under the window which houses my materials, furs and feathers. Because my tying area is in my wife's home office anything I add has to look good. So plastic craft storage containers are not an option. A small flat file cabinet would be ideal but I can't justify the cost of a new one. ($500- $4,000). I'm looking for something beat up that I can refurbish but all the local flea markets are cancelled due to covid and they are proving tough to find through the usual local sources. I came close a few months ago when my wife's company purchased a commercial property and the previous owners left a beautiful cabinet which they couldn't use. They agreed to give to me free of charge. It looked perfect in the photos but turned out to me huge! 5' tall 6'wide and 5' deep. Way to big for the room not to mention it seemed to weigh as much as a Volkswagen. Oh well the hunt continues, eventually something will turn up.

Here's some fairly recent upgrades to my area. Changes include a taller vise stem, profile plate and bobbing cradle for the HMH. I also built a new square vise riser. I like having the open desk area to the right of the vise. In the corner is the new rod rack a built last week.

Original LAWs are commanding thousands of dollars in the collector market. They have become so valuable that I personally would be afraid to use one to tie flies out of fear of breaking it and that's a shame. This seems to be a high quality more reasonably priced but still expensive alternative aimed at those of us that prefer a LAW style vise. The European copies are really nice but I purchased the HMH version because they have been in business for decades and are made in Maine. So no expensive shipping charges and I have the assurance I can get replacement parts if I ever needed them. You don't get that when buying from a guy building them one at a time in his English basement. Just my 2 cents.

Mike forgive me if some asked already but will this also be the new home of your tying area?

Bazzer69 (Barry) has one, I seem to remember it being in the $700 range. I don't know it that also covered shipping.