How do you keep the hook eyes clean?

[Robert M 0]

When you paint and coat poppers how do you keep the hook eye clean? Wax before mounting?

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

I haven't found a real easy way around it, still have to take the wax off.

To help make removing the paint easier with my old paring knife, I make sure the head is set back from the hook eye approximately one hook eye length. That makes cleaning the hook shank easier for a sure seal of the paint job with the topcoat. Rarely is the inside of the eye clogged with paint where I need to clean that out. Now, if you're dipping the whole head in paint, then you're on your own.

 

Kirk

[bowfin47 0]

Pass a few scrap feather fibers or a butt from a peacock hurl though the eye before the headcment or paint dries...

[Robert M 0]

Pass a few scrap feather fibers or a butt from a peacock hurl though the eye before the headcment or paint dries...

 

Tried that and it smeared paint on the popper so wont do it again.

[Robert M 0]

I haven't found a real easy way around it, still have to take the wax off.

To help make removing the paint easier with my old paring knife, I make sure the head is set back from the hook eye approximately one hook eye length. That makes cleaning the hook shank easier for a sure seal of the paint job with the topcoat. Rarely is the inside of the eye clogged with paint where I need to clean that out. Now, if you're dipping the whole head in paint, then you're on your own.

 

Kirk

Did both, the dip and dig and just hand painting and yes I clogged up most of the eyes. Cleaned them with my fingernail and and old hook to get the rest of the paint off. I'm gonna try dipping just the eyes in candle wax on the next batch to see if it is easier to clean when I am done painting. Will report back on outcome.

[tidewaterfly 0]

I hand paint most popper bodies with a brush, and rarely get much paint in the eyes. Use a brush to coat with epoxy too. Pipe cleaners will work to remove paint, while it's still fresh. Works with fresh epoxy too but I dip them in alcohol first. After the paint or epoxy dries, I snip off the end of the pipe cleaner with a pair of cutters, and it's good to go again for the next batch.

 

For spraying paint, a small piece of painters tape over the eye has worked fine for me, and should work for brushing too, but I also do as Kirk has suggested & try & keep the eyes from being right against the body.

 

I haven't dipped poppers in a long, long time. I ended up with a very uneven coating, and a lot of drips.

[bluegill576 0]

I don't know of a good way to prevent it, but an easy way to clear the eyes of epoxy/paint is to get your bodkin or a needle and heat it up with a lighter and it will clear the eye right out.

[tidewaterfly 0]

but an easy way to clear the eyes of epoxy/paint is to get your bodkin or a needle and heat it up with a lighter and it will clear the eye right out.

 

Yeah, but be careful, and only after it's dried. When doing this with fresh paints or epoxy, you may ignite the solvents depending on the type of paints! That could ruin your evening, not to mention the popper body!

[phg 0]

Pass a few scrap feather fibers or a butt from a peacock hurl though the eye before the headcment or paint dries...

 

Tried that and it smeared paint on the popper so wont do it again.

 

This is actually the best way that I've found. You just need to be careful, and learn to control the quill as you pass it through the eye. I can't say as I've ever smeared the paint....

 

After it's dry, a bodkin or hook point can be used to poke out the eye, providing the coating isn't too hard. I once had a fly that got CA into the eye. I had to throw that one away.

[perchjerker 0]

Simply insert a round toothpick into the eye before painting. It also serves as a 'handle' to hold them by.

 

Frank

[cameron 0]

I buy these things

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?I=LXABT1&P=8

but I buy them at Lowe's. I mount them into holes drilled in the end of a 5-6" dowel. The dowel is the handle and the alligator clip holds the point or bend of the hook until I paint the mouth of the popper, then I use a second holder and transfer it, this time gripping it over the eye if the hook. I get paint on the clip sometimes, but I have no trouble with paint on the eye.

[flytire 0]

i simply chip it off with my thumbnail. comes off every time

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Paint or finish in the eyes of hooks is something that I deal with fairly often - but have a significant advantage over freshwater tyers since I'm using larger hooks for saltwater.... Most of the time I'm dealing with FlexCoat that's run from the head of a tarpon fly down into the eye of the hook. I wait until a batch of flies (usually two or three dozen) have been on the drying fixture at least 30 minutes or so and is beginning to set up. Then I either use a toothpick or the quill portion of a feather (with fibers stripped away to clean out each eye -my usual routine rarely has more than a few in each batch that need to be cleaned)to clean out the finish after I've turned off the rotisserie motor (and whatever I use is wiped clean after each hook). For flies and jigs with filled in hook eyes that have already dried I use a different technique entirely. Most aren't aware that you can buy drill bits in very small sizes at a well equipped small hardware store (big box stores won't even know they exist....). I'm talking about drill bits so tiny that you have to wrap the base with masking tape to even be able to use them.... I bring the hook sizes I'm going to need the bits for to get the right size. Once that paint or finish has hardened the right size drill bit in a decent quality battery powered drill will make quick clean work that looks as though it was part of the manufacturing process (I do lots and lots of jigs as well as flies so production shortcuts are important to me). Hope this helps

 

Tight lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

[Stippled Popper 0]

This probably only applies to tiers who like me have the luxury of being able to take as much time as you would

like to have to work on your poppers.

 

The size of the brush you use to paint a popper effects how much paint gets on the eye. I seldom get paint

into the eye(only on the outside surfaces). Like flytire has already suggested I just use my fingernails for

removing paint that has gotten into the eye. You can wait until the paint is dry and acrylic craft paint still

comes off with little effort. (Which is why you need a protective top coat) Of course if you are dipping them in

paint, paint in the eye is always going to be an issue.

 

I use a brush to apply every type of top coat I use(artists quality reusable brushes if water clean up is possible).

Clear coat in the hook eye only rarely happens to me. For the polyurethane coats, I don't apply as many

coats in that area as I do for the rest of the body which helps. With a little bit of care and if enough of the shank

is sticking out of the front of the body such that it would be possible to tie in a hook guard in that space if you

wanted to do it that way and with the right size brush, clear coat in the eye shouldn't be that much of an issue

unless as above you are dipping or globing on large amounts of clear coat in that area.

 

Holding the popper with forceps securing the hold in the rear of the popper and resting the arm against the tying

table provides stability to perform removal when necessary using methods suggested above. And don't wait

for the top coat to fully harden before removing it.

[Tee Nootsie Brasseau 0]

It has been said...its is mostly an impossible to keep all eyes clean of paint and epoxy....but...through years I make last step of packaging a popper to clean the eye. I use exacto blade and bodkin and finger nail...when paint and epoxy I use small brush and be caution about the eye....take care not to get lots on eye....all methods stated will work form some. Clean em up good before you deliver them....nothing agrivates like trying to put a bug on in the bateau and the eye is full of paint.................Tee