making your own tools

[mike15851 0]

I found a video on youtube that shows a way to make your own bobbin holders. I don't really like the design but I think it would be very easy to come up with a better,easier design that would work better.

 

[Chase Creek 0]

I've made a couple of bodkins with handles of buffalo teeth and deer antler tips. Although not exactly a tool, I have bobbin holders made from sections of Birch limbs.

[Piker20 0]

I've made a couple of bodkins with handles of buffalo teeth and deer antler tips. Although not exactly a tool, I have bobbin holders made from sections of Birch limbs.

 

I picked up a nice deer head and wondered what glue is best for fixing things to antler, say a wading stick, or bodkin or similar.

[netabrookie 0]

Its me again... I thought of anoyher one.. Its not actually making a tool, but how to utilize an existing one to suit our needs. What Im writing about is a way to cut foam strips. I have seen and used scissors to cut strips, I use a cutting pad with an x-acto knife or razor blade and a straight edge alot, but.....if you want to do some serious cutting, go to your local wally world or hobby supply store and purchase one of the x-acto paper cutters. Its like an old school paper cutter from school, except smaller. You can mark your desired width of the strips with little dots on the foam and then lay it down on the bed of the cutter and cut away at a production rate if need be. Just be careful though, or you will get carried away and strip every piece of foam that you own. I have tried it with thin skin also, but I will stick to the straight edge and x-acto knife. A rotary cutter for cutting cloth for quilting and such also works, but anything with a wheel on it makes me want to go fast, and sharp blades and excessive speed dosen't sit well with my finger tips...

[bowfin47 0]

Frank Pamelia graciously allowed the Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers to publish his excellent article on building bobbins in the Jan, 2011 edition of the GCC's newsletter, The Gulf Streamer, http://www.gulfcoastfff.org/uploads/Newsletters/Gulf_Streamer_1101.pdf

 

 

It is the best article on this subject that I have ever seen.

[mike15851 0]

not that's what i'm talking about. I think i might try that one if i ever get time.

[Crackaig 0]

When tying a lot of salmon flies I use a length of toothed belt, mines from an old timing belt from a car, to hold the wings. I can stack a bunch of hair, split it into wing bunches and place them between the ridges.

 

To hols back the hackle while I form the head, especially when tying on double and treble hooks, I use an rubber band in a length of plastic tubing.

Use a length of wire or mono to pull a fine rubber band into a tube (from a cotton bud or biro refill). You will have two loops, hold one and open the other up to fit over your bobbin. Slide the tube up the rubber band, so you have a small loop around the thread, and work this over the eye. It will drag everything back out of the way. It is also useful for holding the materials out of the way while you trim the bodies on a bomber.

 

Cheers,

C.

[mike15851 0]

I cut nebulizer tubing into 1/4" pieces and slide one on my bobbin tip and while I'm not using it I use the piece of tubing to hold the end of the thread so it keeps it from getting tangled, plus it keeps the tread from backing down the tube. While I'm tying dry flies I will use it to hold the hackles and wings back while tying the head and applying head cement. It works great, it is super cheap and it has multiple uses.

[switch10 0]

I built a bobbin holder out of a metal clothes hanger, some super glue, and a rubber band(not really necessary). I also built a material catcher from and old pillow case (any fabric would do), a metal clothes hanger, and super glue. Also, next to my whip finisher on the right, I made a magnetic hook-grabber/dubbing brush out of a nail file.

 

This is my first post here, hopefully someone finds this useful.

[DrVette 0]

For the first 10-12 years that i was tying we never heard of a whip-finish. Everything was done by half-hitch and if you didn't get 3 or 4 of them just right over each other the heads would come apart. To help place them better we all used old ball-point pen barrels since they taper down nice and back then they were larger diameter to fit over the hook's eye while sliding the hitch into place.

 

I was in middle school when i learned to tie so many of us figured out how to make a vice using pop-cycle sticks. Just glue 2 sticks horizontally onto a vertical stick then a rubber band around those two to pull them together to hold the hook. A PITA since you had to remove and replace the rubber-band every time you remove/install a hook and if you didn't come-up with a strong way to attach the vertical stick to some base it would be prone to breaking or moving when you wrapped something a little too tight. I eventually made a vice out of antler by finding a piece that had a thinner horn that would be near horizontal after screwing down to a base. Carefully sliced into the tip of the antler with a thin cut-off wheel to make a slot about an inch and a half or so. Then i drilled a hole perpendicular to the slot to hold a small bolt with a wing nut. It took me several tries but it lasted untill a friend of my Grandfather gave me an old Thompson vice he broke. Turned out he bent one of the 2 small pins that went to the collar...i found a nail the right diameter and cut me a new pin...i think that i still have the Thompson but wished many times i hadn't thrown that antler vice away when the jaw finally broke.

 

We didn't even have bobbins at all. We just cut about 2-3 feet of thread and had to manage the loose end as best we could. Hemostats were the closest we had to hackle pliers for the few who could manage to scrounge some. Some used tweezers with a rubberband for pliers. It is amazing how many flies we learned to tie like that with almost no tools. Try using the old grade-school type scissors some time and then talk to me about frustrating. Most of my classmates hated it and quitt but a few of us kept trying...i wonder how many are still at it??? If i remember right this was around 1978 or so. There is not one tool out there that you can't learn to go with-out or ad-lib to get the same result,except maybe a good pair of scissors. That is probably why own about 20+ pairs of different types now...over compensating?

[hopperfisher 0]

instead of buying a $12 comb for hair, yarn, etc. I use an eyebrow comb. They cost $2 for 5 of them on ebay and shipping is mostly free. And I drill out and mount a bodkin type needle into the back end with epoxy or Gorilla Glue. Having a hard time uploading a pic but just go to ebay and search "eyebrow comb".