In more than 45 years of tying flies things have piled up. There are boxes and bins and totes and bags of materials everywhere. It just happens. While I’ve collected a ton of material over the years; the one place I’ve succeeded at being a minimalist is the array of tools I use at my tying bench. I use a very basic vise, a few bobbins, two dubbing needles, three tweezers, one el cheapo pair of hackle pliers, a homemade dubbing brush and a hair stacker. No whip finisher. Cutting tools are one category that gets more expansive, and there are scissors that are specialized for different purposes. One tool that comes in handy and didn’t break the bank is a simple pair of cheap fingernail clippers. For cutting some of those really tough materials like flat mono, D Rib, and heavy wires that will quickly ruin your good scissors; nothing cuts the tough stuff closer or quicker than a pair of nail clippers. Chauncy Lively and Poul Jorgenson were two of my early influences, and both often used nail clippers to form cut wings on some of their dry fly patterns. That could be another topic on another day. Good scissors are a great tool, don’t make them do things that an inexpensive pair of clippers can. Till next week ……… www.ramsayflies.com #regalvise #unithread
