Streamside Gear Survey

[chase creek]

Sure beats the plastic boxes! I'll be following this thread.

[hankaye]

gingerdun, Howdy;

Put out a few feelers, one reported back already with the idea that the
leader pocket material 'might be a thin hided critter, like squirrel or opossum
could even be muskrat…..

I just linked the forum page to the PM’s I sent. so there is no problem with the
photos.


JohnP, Howdy;

Yep, suprising how many do both....what forums do ya hang-out on ?

hank

[JohnP]

JohnP, Howdy;

Yep, suprising how many do both....what forums do ya hang-out on ?

hank[/quote]

Hi Hank,
I am a former member of the American Mountain Men and used to hang out at the Traditional Muzzleloader Message Hide and Historical Trekking. I have not burned much powder in a couple of years, but I hope to get back to it this year.
Since this is way off-topic, feel free to PM me if you want to chat more about frontstuffers.
Take care,
John

[William Anderson]

Lance, again, seeing your dad's wallet is just cool. I get a kick out of seeing these things. It seems a little large for what I would be looking for in a design. I guess I still like to think of carrying a few boxes, or wallets, small and specific. Something 4.5"x3" would be about as big as I would want (I think, you don't know until you spend some time with it). I can imagine carrying 3 of the smaller size wallets, each with only 2-3 pages. Here is one that I showed as a comparison to the ultra simple version I made. Here it shows the metal snap and flap that seem the most logical design to me. I'm toying with the idea of inbedding two small concealed magnets in the snap locations that wouldn't be seen. It doesn't advance the idea of going back to an older item for its traditional value, but it is a solution that I think would make for interesting functionality. Anyway, both of these wallets show a similar snap, the second is about 5" x 5" but is very stiff and thick and isn't something I want to carry in my pack. The first only has lambs wool interior which also doesn't thrill me, but the size and design are a good starting point. Very much like the one design you've shown.

This is about 3" x 4.5", soft pigskin






This is about 5" x 5", stiff hide leather, lambs wool and felt combo. It's really nice, but a bit more bulk than I would want to carry. You couldn't slip it in a shirt pocket.









For me the wallet is something similar to fishing flymphs. I don't do it for any traditional purpose and the pursuit of historic methods is interesting, but only if they seem the most effect methods. Or maybe I fall somewhere in between. I wouldn't fish spiders if they weren't killer patterns, but then I've never been as excited about pheasant tail nymphs as I have the North Country spiders.

[gingerdun]

William,
Those are interesting little wallets. Are they available commercially now?
Your idea of the magnetic snap was also suggested by my wife, who uses them for the little handbags and clutches she designs and sews for a local craft shop. I was concerned about whether the magnets might harm a cell phone if they ended up in the same pocket. The snaps on yours seem like a good, functional solution. The tools for attaching snaps to leather or fabric are affordable, and would make these wallets an easy do-it-yourself project.
The sheepskin lining inside the leather cover seems unnecessary, adding too much bulk for not much advantage over the two-sided felt pages. I like the smaller size too, one that fits into a shirt pocket.
I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have some time to start making some prototype designs. Thanks for letting us see these.
Lance

[William Anderson]

Lance, both of the wallets above are vintage. The small one is growing on me in it's size and simplicity. From the looks of it, I would imagine it's owner probably carried no more 20 flies with him. That's something to think about.

Here is something I was able to put together with what I had, plus a snap. The leather is very pliable, so its soft and makes for a great case construction, but doesn't feel stiff enough for the flap. It's going to be a nice piece of leather that meets both criteria. I really don't know a lot about leather, besides some furniture work and a highly evolved shoe fetish.











I'm going to have to keep fussing with this to find just the right combo. The truth is these small wallets can not replace all the other boxes, they can serve only a very specific function. It just happens that they offer what I need for about 80% of my fishing, barbless #18-#12 spiders and flymphs. Barbs are too frustrating with the felt I'm using. Maybe the professional grade wool felt will be more forgiving. I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are on that. I fish barbless flies anyway. So the risk is that without the barbs they may slip out of the felt. So compared to the high density foam boxes with the micro slits, its a hard sell in terms of security and the amount of flies you can carry. I can easily keep over a hundred flies on these that only have felt on the interior and a single (double thickness) leaf in the center. Many more if I were trying. Shouldn't that be enough? There is still something to the leather and felt that makes exploring this worthwhile. I haven't found the barbless flies especially vulnerable in handling them and doing back-pocket field testing. The wire bodies nymphs and biot midge patterns are slipping around and need another home, but the dubbed bodied flymphs and nymphs and the silk bodied spiders seem fine. I just need to find the balance between security and capacity and the qualities that make these so attractive. It's not for everyone, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were not a large number of folks who might prefer an alternative to the foam and plastic.

[gingerdun]

William,
This is great stuff. My wife and I have been doing much the same thing here, but nothing quite ready to show yet.

DIESNGAGING HOOK FROM FELT— As for the 100% wool felt and barbed hooks, there is a technique for disengaging the barbs. Fold the felt back so the hook is on the high point of the fold. Then pull the hook gently away from the fabric to lift up a little tunnel of fibers. Then push the hook back to the felt and slide the barb through the tunnel. May take several tries before you are clear. I haven't tried the synthetic felts that are sold in craft stores—and don't plan to do so.

BARBLESS HOOK PROBLEM— Your observations about the tendency of some flies on barbless hooks to fall out of the wallet is an important point. That will require more testing. Some commercial wallets are closed with a zipper, which would help save flies that come loose—but that is not a satisfactory solution.

MINI-BARB HOOKS— Have any of you had experience fishing the Daiichi Mini-Barb hooks? That barb would hold the flies in the felt, but also cause (I presume) minimal harm to the fish. Don't know much about the real effects of the mini-barbs. The barbs on nymph hooks look smaller too, partly with the trout in mind, but also to make it easier to slip beads onto the wire—but I don't know if they are as small as the "Mini-Barbs." I'd like to hear more opinions on barbs, but that should perhaps be on another topic thread. Do other hook manufacturers specify mini-barbs?

DRY-FLY HOOKS— Pete Hidy often used dry-fly hooks for flymphs, since he liked to fish them near the surface—so these dry-fly mini-barbs from Daiichi could be appropriate. Anybody disagree?

Below is a Daiichi chart with a few Mini-Barb designations that I have marked in Yellow. The Nymph hook chart doesn't say anything about barb type, but some look like minis.

Lance