John, great info! Did Coopers use a vise? As far as I can determine Cooper didn't use a vise, the use of which was just beginning to come into common use in the last quarter of the 19th Century. The hooks are actually quite fine in the wire and more delicate than those in common use today. Sneck be...

ForumGhillie wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:01 pm John excellent, thank you for posting.

Do you have any of his flies?

Just a few hundred.......I have his fly wallets, materials, and manuscript collection. Here are some examples.

Mr. Cooper's Obituary describing how he prepared his feathers.
Some of the envelopes from the HWC collection.

Sorted and bundled materials from the Henry Walbran Cooper Collection

I isolate everything to at least two, and usually three levels. I.E. Clean, DRY material goes into a well sealed zip top bag. Groups of corresponding materials go into a larger zip top bag. Finally, these go into Lock n Lock containers, the very best airtight, stackable, containers on the market. ww...

Very fine metallic wires have been available for centuries and were used to decorate clothing and other fabric products, especially military garments, as were flat, round, oval, and embossed metallic tinsels. I think that their tendency to tarnish when exposed to air and water water may be one of th...

Oddly enough, these are called "worm hooks" but weren't used for bait fishing, instead they were used to dress a pattern called the "Worm Fly". In Veniard's A Further Guide to Fly Dressing , 1964, the dressing is given on page 134 with this description: "This is another patt...

Worse? It bears no resemblance in color or form to any stage of the natural Ephemerella Subvaria whatsoever. Looks like another of those "This is my version of a (fill in the blank)" flies based on nothing more then the whim of some well meaning thread jocky with too much enthusiasm but to...

These sets are very rare, besides the one I have, this is the only other intact set of Orvis Flymphs I've seen. What makes these especially interesting is how close to the original Pete Hidy Flymphs these are and the Orvis people went to some pains to maintain authenticity and accuracy of the dressi...

After several years of me badgering him to do so, Per Brandin is working on some 10' hollow built rods specifically for fishing Spiders. I've cast the first couple prototypes, one a 4 and the other a 5 and both will do the job with aplomb. However, Per called me last week saying that the second roun...