Tying without a bobbin

[OneStoneFly]

Questions to anyone here who ties without use of a bobbin: 1) How do you keep your fingers from snagging the thread, and 2( how do you maintain thread tension when not holding the thread? Thanks. PS - I assume you use a vise to hold the hook

[Bill Terry]

When I first started tying flies, the book I read to learn how to do it described tying without a bobbin, so that’s how I did it for several years. To avoid snagging the thread, I polished my fingertips with a piece of pumice. I still do that, and it helps considerably.

I didn’t maintain tension when not holding the thread. Every time I needed to let go of the thread, I threw a half-hitch or two onto the hook.

A bobbin makes tying so much easier.

Yes, I did use a vise.

[DrLogik]

When I started tying flies it was back in the mid 1970's and I tied without a bobbin. I used half hitches every time I had to let go of the silk thread. It worked great.

The Chase bobbin came out around then. I saw one for the first time at a sportsman's show in Cleveland Ohio where I lived. They were cool but only the "pros" used those. Plus, I didn't have the money to buy one.

In some respects, working without a bobbin does have its advantages because you don't have this gizmo dangling below your fly, and you pretty much have unrestricted movement around the fly.

Yes, I had a Thompson AA vise.

[chsparkman]

I also started without a bobbin in 1972. To keep the silk in place when I let go I attached the hackle plier to it. To keep from snagging I used sandpaper on my fingers and that worked pretty well. I have to say I like tying with a bobbin much better. I started with a cheap stamped steel vise that came in a Hank Roberts fly tying kit. A year later when my grandpa saw me struggling with it he bought me a Thompson A. I still have it and use it occassionally.

[roycestearns]

Tying wax is the key, not dubbing wax, tying wax. Anyone that has tyed in hand / without a bobbin knows, the waxed thread will stay put when you release tension.

[DrLogik]

Royce,

Bingo. I used bees wax until I got some white "shoemaker's" wax from the local shoe repair shop. It was hard but tacky and really held the silk thread, much better than plain bees wax. I still have a small chunk of that left but I found a company in Tennessee (Salari Wax Co I think) and bought a 1 pound block years ago.

[bluesjay]

Hi Guys, I saw Ernie Schweibert tie without a bobbin. He cut a length of thread, and then used half hitches if I 'bember correctly. It was at Frank Meek's house In Steamboat.

Jay Edwards

[JUSTAPAYNE]

I found this film today : Hand tying, vise tying and bamboo fishing.I love it !
https://youtu.be/dJICunsnLtc
Jean-Louis

[jim royston]

I've seen where a hackle plier was used to retain the thread

[ted patlen]

Salmon tyers using eyeless hooks and snelled gut or twisted gut loops used to wind the tying silk forward and place it "in catch" between the front of the hook and the gut. The Dettes and Darbees (and I assume many others tyers during the 1930--50) utilized a similar idea of placing the tying silk in catch. They attached a highly polished piece of bone, wood or metal shaped somewhat like your pinky to the edge of the desk directly below their vise. They simply slide the silk between the edge of the desk and the "retaining clip". I have no idea of the actual name of this clip, if there is one so I called it a "retain clip". When they had two materials tied in but only wound one at a time (like a floss body then silver rib), they employed a spring clothespin heavily weighted with lead wire. They all used some sort of half hitch as well and Ray Bergman used a variation of a half hitch he called a jam knot.

What did the tyers centuries before do? Well, at least think logically. Does anyone know for sure?

[Phil13]

My Dad used a piece of cork attached on the bench below the vice jaws. The cork had a razor slit in it. He would simply tension the thread by pulling down on it and slip it into the cork. He was then free to choose hackles, etc. before pulling the thread free of the cork and continue wrapping.


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[flyroder72]

Here is an item to hold the thread that is out of the Thompson catalog #12.

[moregrayling]

deleted

[ted patlen]

... how do you maintain thread tension when not holding the thread? ...

As far as I know (can't remember where I read it), the Catskill-greats used clothespins weighed with lead wire.

or a half hitch.

[WiFlyFisher]

I remember starting tying as a kid back in the 1960s. I used one of my mother's spring-loaded clothes pins which I had read about. The issue was knowing how much thread I needed to cut for each fly pattern. The half hitch really helped because I needed to remove the clothes pin every time while securing the materials to the hook, then half hitch and then reset the clothes pin onto the loose hanging thread while I got the next material ready. The trout flies looked awful, but they worked much to my amazement.

I read in one of my older fly-fishing books about tying flies with wax, silk thread, and no bobbin. A few Winters ago, I tried tying a few flymph style soft hackles with no bobbin for fun. I used Bailey's wax with Pearsall's Gossamer silk thread. Coating the silk thread piece first with Bailey's cake wax gripped the thread securely to the hook. Although it did work, I still felt more comfortable adding an occasional half hitch.

John

[pittendrigh]

Earnie Schweibert tied without a bobbin. He had to know in advance approx how much thread he would need. He left it hanging in between steps.

I tied with Earnie a few times, when I was in high school, at the Henryville Club on the Broadheads in Pennsy\lvania. He autographed my copy of his book with "Sandy, embryonic devotee of the long rod and the fragile fly."

He had some absolutely giant streamers he showed me, tied by him for sea run brown trout in Argentina. He is the one, with those flies, who got me started tying fly rod lures.

[ozarkwater]

My Dad used a piece of cork attached on the bench below the vice jaws. The cork had a razor slit in it. He would simply tension the thread by pulling down on it and slip it into the cork. He was then free to choose hackles, etc. before pulling the thread free of the cork and continue wrapping.


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Sounds like a decent idea, will try.

[Rio Grand King]

I began as one of the "hang your thread from a clothes pin" guys.
It was quite a revelation to get my first bobbin from Buz's. Got the bodkin at the same time.

[john8]

Many classic salmon fly tyers tie in hand, so they hold the fly or hook in there hand and tie the fly with no bobbin. As mentioned they use wax to hold the thread in place, prewaxing their thread. Most of the fly tyers who tied flies for the classic English or Scottish companies (Hardy, Farlows, etc) in the last century tied in hand. So they did not use a vice or bobbin, usually the men tied salmon flies and the women tied trout or sea trout flies.

[ted patlen]

Harry Darbee was asked "I see you don't use a bobbin, why is that?" He reportedly replied, "See this bobbin, put a treble hook on it and go catch a bass."