Marguerite, I've found that the real trick, for me, comes when I tie the
squirrel in. Tie it in so that the end is graded with the fine point towards
the bend and then the hair getting bigger towards the eye of the hook..do it
in rather a step wise fashion and be sure as you tie it in that you run the
thread over 2/3 hairs, lifting up the ones behind it, then over the next 2-4
hairs, etc as you work towards the eye as you first tie the hair down. Put
some flexament on after you've done this and before you bring the hair back
towards the bend. Leave plenty of room for the eye. Now, you will have a
downhill slope towards the bend of the hook so as you flip the hair over and
backwards towards the bend, it will be that your thread will, mechanically,
run downhill towards the bend of the hook so as you tie in that wrap, for
the bullet head, you will carefully wind the thread on top of each other and
going a bit towards the back of the hook. For what it's worth, I never use
any thread stronger than 6/0 Uni as it seems that, for me, that thread has
plenty of strength and really good bite. I find that Danville is too
slippery and Kevlar wrecks my bobbins and offers no help in actually holding
the hair down. But, remember, this is a personal opinion. Joyce
