Fly Tying Tools

[Johnno]

I recently bought some Tenkara hooks. The shape reminded me of the English bait hook which Gary Borger used for his Fur Caddis Larva fly. It occurred to me that Tenkara rods are similar to the loop rod. I wonder if the Japanese were influenced by British fishermen.

Probably the other way around! Tenkara is probably older than Walton.
Flyfishing is an ancient art in the Orient. Even beads were being used by them on flies wayyy before Europeans did. My father was in J Force after WW2 in Japan and used local glass beaded flies for trout in the mountains there and he was told they were centuries old..

[ronr]

jeweler's vice

IMG_3441.JPG (342.85 KiB) Viewed 1396 times

My father-in-law was a jeweler and did a lot of custom, hand engraving on jewelry and gun stocks. I inherited his old Ball vice when he passed and have tried to find ways to use it, but enjoy just having it and thinking about him. We spent many days on the water and in the field together.
The mention of jeweler's vices in one of the replies to your question prompted me to dig it out. I tried to figure out a way to use it in fly tying, but without the full set of implements, I never came up with any use other than a dandy paperweight.
Sorry the image is skewed. I'm sure one of you can fix that.

[daringduffer]

That is a very robust piece of equipment. I very much enjoy specialized tools like this one. I have a very small toolmakers vice with incredribly close tolerances regarding parallelism (0,002 mm in 80mm) and angles. I don't need these qualities but I admire those who have made it.

dd

[swellcat]

[jcwillow777]

Great post! Thanks for the historical download John. I just ordered another book, The Fly Fisher's Craft. I would have never heard of many of the books I have purchased in the past year and a half had it not been for members on this forum, particularly John. Edit - I just ordered Practical Fly-Tying by T. R. Henn. My collection is growing, but I'm sure it pales in comparison to many member's libraries. Keep those book recommendations coming!

[Old Hat]

That's a good one for sure. Many years ago I took Darrell Martin's day long Antique Angler class at the FFI conclave. He covered most of what was in the book including a lot of hands on projects from the book.