Help with John Russ methods

[LisaLou 0]

Hi, I have been building my library and buying tying books.  I got a cool pamphlet style book from 1955.  “Practical flies and their construction”  by Lacey E Gee and Erwin D. Sias.  It has line drawings and no photos.  There are tons of them on auction.  I got one along with a book I was really after, but did thumb through it right away.  Don’t overlook it.  It’s a really neat book and I’m going to try a deer hair bug soon, based on the method they show.

My question is this.  There are a few paragraphs about the dry trout flies of John Russ of Iowa City, Iowa. His flies were popular in Yellowstone and he copyrighted the name  RusstieD.  I am having trouble understanding the description and there is no drawing.  I cannot find any references to him on an internet search.

”The eye of each hook becomes part of the head of the fly, thus covering the raw edge of the wire and preventing leaders from becoming chafed when casting or playing fish.  Also, the head of the fly is built up on the eye of hook and a neck is left between the head and the hackle.  This forms an excellent anchorage for the “tippet knot” reducing the chance of slippage and losing a fish and the fly.”

I get there is a neck/gap between the head and the hackle.  Is the head completely covering the eye of the hook, so you are knotting the tippet around the neck?  
Or is he just encroaching on the eye, covering the part where the eye loop closes, covering that spot with the cut end of the wire?

What about the part about anchoring the tippet knot?  What’s the neck between the head and hackle all about?  

Thanks for any input.  I really enjoy reading old pattern books for my various hobbies, but they are often light in illustrations and sometimes it’s hard to visualize.  I’m not sure there is much worse than the descriptions and abbreviations used in old crochet, knitting and tatting patterns, but I’m just not picturing this.

thanks, LisaLou
 

[Heff2 0]

I may be wrong but I think they are speaking about adding enough thread to effectively close the gap where the wire of the eye comes around to meet the shank on an older(and some newer) hooks.  There can be a small gap at that point the tippet can fall out of and even a rough edge that the tippet can get cut on.  New hooks are better and this gap is almost negligible but if you are using 30D nano silk or other  fine thread it might even slip into the eye when finishing the head.    

Edited April 17 by Heff2
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[Gene L 0]

Agree with Heff2. I think the "wire" is the hook wire and he's suggesting covering the gap in the eye.  As Heff2 said, it's not much of a problem with new hooks.  The eye of the hook is the most difficult part of hook making. 

[flytire 0]

i'm not gonna speculate or try to decipher what the authors are trying to convey in a few sentences written almost 60 years ago, but i do know that Mustad hooks way back then were notorious for having a gap at the hook eye to the hook shank. maybe fill the gap could be assumed?

back then mustad and partridge were the big hook manufacturers

[LisaLou 0]

I guess the general consensus is to encroach and cover the small gap where the wire meets itself to form the loop of the eye.  I thought that must be it, but was trying to figure out how the “Neck” between the hackle and head played into it.  I thought maybe there was some old or regional knotting system that fell out of popularity.  I guess the neck between the head and hacklendoesn’t have anything to do with securing the knot, it was just his style.

  It totally makes sense now that it was pointed out to me that manufacturing has improved, so that covering the gap isn’t an issue as it was years ago.  Thanks to everyone for the input.  

I know modern materials like UV resin have changed things up, but sometimes there is a little gem of knowledge hidden in these old books, especially the self published ones.  Years ago it used to be common for churches to self publish recipes of the congregation to raise money.  Everyone is going to put their best recipe forward for that kind of thing, so those books often have great recipes and lots of hand written notes.

Thanks, LisaLou

[chugbug27 0]

3 hours ago, LisaLou said:

I thought that must be it, but was trying to figure out how the “Neck” between the hackle and head played into it.  I thought maybe there was some old or regional knotting system that fell out of popularity.  I guess the neck between the head and hacklendoesn’t have anything to do with securing the knot, it was just his style.

The "tippet" knot referred to is probably just a reference to the tippet-to-hook knot. My guess would be that the space on the neck to anchor the tippet knot (between hackle and eye) was for a turle knot. At one time, not sure exactly when, it was a typical, common knot used for dry flies. (There's debate on another forum now and again, for instance, as to why the Catskill dry fly has a space between hackle and head, and one side of the debate usually insists it's for the turle knot.)

[LisaLou 0]

Chugbug I am sure you are right!  I think a Turle knot would nestle in nicely between a head and hackle, in the neck area.  It’s funny I misread it and was looking up turtle knot at first.  This image is from Wikipedia.  Thanks to everyone for all the comments.  I’m so tickled this little mystery seems to be solved.