Re: [VFB] Finally!!! Joyce

[Tony Spezio]

My first vise was a homemade affair. I bought my first "store bought" 
vise in 1946. It is a Thompson "B". Cost was 2.50. I still have it. My 
total set of tools was the vise, a pair of  Thompson hackle pliers, an 
old pair of scissors, piece of  bees wax and a wood cigar box with some 
Herters tinsel and floss. No bobbins in those days, thread was regular 
sewing thread that I waxed with the bees wax. Dubbing was cut off the 
skin of a rabbet or muskrat that I trapped. Most of my hackle came from 
the chicken market where my dad worked on Saturdays. The hooks I used 
were "Life Saver Brand" They were less expensive than Mustads. If I 
recall correctly, they were 25 cents for a box of 100.
Well I rambled on enough, lot's of memories are being stirred up.
Tony

Desert Eagle wrote:
Hay, watch it Tony,
   I remember when I bought my first fly tying kit in about 68. Got it at
the Firestone store in Monahans. It was a Herters and had about 2" of dust
on it, paid a whopping .50 cents for it I think. Had to sell a lot of papers
to get that kind of cash back then. Caught my first trout a fly I tied from
what was in that little box.
Fond Memories,
Jimi
I missed Joyce's message about tying in the old days. How would a young
lady like Joyce know about that.  !!!!!!!
I do remember the days before waxed thread on plastic bobbins, vises
that turned, bobbins, Zelon, Rayon, packaged dubbing, necks with long
hackles, saddles with hackles that can be used for dry flies, hooks
smaller than sz 14 and the list goes on.
I could go on about how we tied flies back then but I don't want to bore
anyone.
Tony
DonO wrote:
 

Joyce is sooooooo right on.  New tiers can't remember what it was like
trying to get decent feathers to tie small dries 3 or 4 decades ago.  A
   

size
 

range on a neck was pickled clean in no time, as many times it took two
feathers to tie a decent dry.  They were harder to tie with, had short
   

sweet
 

spots, and the finished product didn't look anywhere near what you see
today.  Tying was more of a challenge-turned-frustration than anything else
when it came to small dry flies.  If you had the money back then, you could
wait your turn and maybe get a quality Metz, or at least what we though was
quality, at the time.  Most tiers had shoe-boxes full of necks with the
middles striped out and the rest going to waste, unless they stooped to
trimming hackles when all else failed.  This trimming wasn't ever accepted
commercially because of how webby the larger feathers were, and trimming
   

put
 

the webs at the tips- not good unless you wanted wet flies.  This was the
motivation for Henry Hoffman and others to start working on the saddles for
dry fly use.
When I got my first 'new generation' Whiting super saddles about 7 or 8
years ago, I was so engrossed in tying with them that I didn't stop tying
dry flies until I had run out of hooks, about 6 or 700 flies later.  I
ignored everything else as I was having so much fun tying with the new
stuff.  Interestingly, I didn't even put a noticeable dent in the saddles I
had after that many flies.  Then I got my first cree.  Wow!  I tied more
   

dry
 

flies in 6 months (with pleasure) than I had in my entire life (40 years of
tying).
So I for one don't take these new feathers for granted, and Joyce and other
long-time tiers will all agree. I can tie 8-10 flies with one hackle before
I need the hackle-pliers to tie the tip portion.  Even the old tying
instructions for dry fly hackling needed to be revised.
You're right Joyce.
Counting flytying blessings.
DonO
----- Original Message -----
From: Joyce Westphal
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 8:03 AM
Subject: Re: [VFB] Finally!!!
What a great thing to live and tie today. Don't you just love it? Counting
my blessings. Joyce

   

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