Fly Tying Tools

[wsbailey]

I don't know if there is a definite answer but there is this:

https://books.google.com/books?id=BvxIA ... ce&f=false

The jeweler's or clock maker's hand vise has been around a lot longer. I imagine some creative types added a table clamp at some point.

[Greenwell]

I believe that Ogden was the first to illustrate a fly vise but the very fact that he called it "improved" leads one to the conclusion that the vise had been in use for at least a while and needed "improving."

[Greenwell]

John,

I believe that the vise had a rather gradual acceptance into fly dressing, finally becoming common in the late 19th century. The illustration in Ogden on Fly Making appeared in 1879 and is considered to be the first. Frederic Halford used an early Thompson "Model A" vise and wrote about it in his Modern Development of the Dry Fly, 1910.

There are many early illustrations of other fly dressing tools, primarily scissors, hackle pliers, and dubbing needles, which along with the vise constitute the four most important pieces of hardware in the fly tyer's kit.
Alfred Ronalds shows a pair of hackle pliers, which he calls "forceps" in his 1836 Fly Fisher's Entomology, that are identical to the style I use and have used for 50 years.

As to illustrated instructions of fly dressing, Blacker's Art of Fly Making, Wade's Rod Fishing in Clear Waters, and "Ephemera"s Handbook of Angling, 1847, to name a few, all show the basic steps of fly dressing, some being better than others. The most helpful illustrated directions in the earlier books, at least to me, are in G.P.R. Pullman's Vade-Mecum of Fly-Fishing for Trout, 1851, and John Jackson's The Practical Fly-Fisher, 1853. Jackson's simple text vignettes show very clearly the method I use for dressing Spiders and Pullman goes into more length on dressing a variety of flies.

I have always been sorry that there are no fly tying instructions in Aldam's Quaint Treatise, the flies in this beautiful specimen book are some of the finest I have ever seen and I would love to have knowledge of the techniques used.

For the very best "modern" instructions for dressing flies in the hand, see T.R. Henn's Practical Fly , 1950 in which the author not only makes the case for learning to dress flies without a vise, but goes on to both describe and illustrate the method(s) very clearly.
Of course Darrell Martin has written extensively on past methods and his The Fly-Fisher's Craft, 2006 & 2016, is a must have for for anyone interested in forgotten fly fishing lore.

[letumgo]

I love these sort of posts. Fascinating reading.

Thanks John.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Thanks, John. I always appreciate your historical input.

I had the opportunity to meet Darrell Martin at the Eastern Washington Fly Expo. I was doing a demo (of flymphs and wingless wets, of course). I looked across the room and saw a man with a loop rod. I excused myself and went up to him, asking if it was, indeed, a loop rod. He said it was, as he took it apart carefully. Turns out it was Darrell Martin. He was a little dismayed that he was supposed to give a lecture on the history of fly fishing and no one showed up for it. I let him know that I would have been there if I wasn't already committed to tie at that time.

At the banquet that evening my wife and I were having dinner with Mark Romero and his lovely wife when Darrel walked up. He said he asked around and he'd heard we had something in common. I said that if he meant I'd like to catch a trout on a loop rod with a horse hair line, then yes. We exchanged info and parted company.

A couple weeks later I get a phone call and an invite to his house for lunch and a chat. He had a library that I would love to have, brass reels that he had crafted, and a ton of fly fishing history. We had a nice lunch, made snoods of horse hair by hand and using a machine he had, and talked for quite a while. When we left I was given a couple bundles of horse hair (white, from a lusty stallion) to help me on my way.

Some time ago I passed some of that horse hair on to a member or two on the forum.

Not staying in touch with him was a missed opportunity, but life got in the way.

[wsbailey]

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.

[Mike62]

This is wonderful stuff, gentlemen. Thanks for posting it.

[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 5492 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