Article by Steve Allen
While scratching around on eBay for more fly-tying materials that I don’t need, I was presented with this “lot” of tying materials. What caught my eye was the low price. As I cycled through the photos, I saw this appeared to have been a previous fly fisher’s complete fly-tying kit. What also caught my eye was the age of the tools and materials, most definitely mid-20th century. The tooling was complete with all someone would need to tie; two vises, hackle pliers, bobbin, scissors, hackle guard, and a bodkin of sorts.
When the kit arrived, I sorted through the bags of grouped materials. As happens many times when I purchase books or other items that may have sat around collecting dust for decades, the seller had use scented dryer sheets to “freshen up” the items prior to listing. I really wish people wouldn’t do that. I found most of the feathers and fur were still packed in the original “Tack-L-Tyers” cellophane sleeves, a hint to their age. Tack-L-Tyers was from Evanston, Illinois. They started selling fly tying kits the 1930s and were among the bestselling kits into the 1970s.
There was also quite a number of materials from the Herter’s Company. The kit included a George Herter’s Professional Fly Tyers Manual, copyright 1955. There was a Herter’s #3 vise, which was a copy of the D.H. Thompson Vise Company Model B cast iron vise. I searched without luck to find who manufactured Herter’s vises. As was standard practice for the Herter’s company, they copied other existing products and added their own name. The Herter’s #3 and the Thompson Model B are so similar I have hard time not believing they were manufactured by the same company.
There was also the original vise that Tack-L-Tyers shipped with their kits, it was simply designed to be used either left or right-handed as opposed to the Herter’s vise, being cast from iron, that is right hand only due to having to be clamped to a table edge. The Tack-L-Tyers vise is stamped “Pat June 9 1925” and on the other side of the wing screw is stamped “Economy”.
I got out my 1966 Herter’s Catalog and turned to the fly-tying materials section. There was the #3 vise, which sold back then for $3.85. Back when I was a wee lad, I would page through my hand-me-down Herter’s Catalog for hours, and would have loved to have had one of these vises. The kit also included a thread bobbin, the Herter’s Model 42.
As I paged through the tying materials section of the catalog, I came across some of the other materials in the kit. I found two mammal tails six inches long that were alternately black and white. I had never seen these in any modern catalog, but they were listed in the Herter’s Catalog as Monga Ringtails. I found online that these were used for salmon and sea trout flies as an underwing.
The kit also contained a very nice assortment of tying floss. The spools were still full and the assortment of colors just right. Some are marked Superla brand and are also in the catalog, they sold for three spools for thirty-five cents.
In one of the bags of loose materials were white duck wing quills to make wings for wet or dry flies. I found them unusual that the barbels were grouped together in pre-formed wings.
While paging through the fly-tying tool section I found a listing for the Herter’s Wing Maker. This was a device stated to have been invented by George Herter. The Wing Maker was not included in the kit but these duck quill wings were surely created using this device.
Most of the cellophane bagged feathers were in pretty rough shape. They were somewhat insect eaten, brittle, and faded, and the quality was pretty bad to say the least. The patches of deer hair went into the trash as they were too brittle. There was a small plastic box containing an assortment of hooks and even a bit of tyers wax.
I found a very nice pair of micro scissors that were stamped “Revlon” that are so small they make my bench scissor look like sheep shears. And, they are still sharp enough to cut floss.
I spent an hour or so tying with only the materials that came in the kit. I felt like I was at the local chapter of Trout Unlimited during the Iron Fly competition; ”you can only use what’s in front of you to tie the fly”. I don’t know how I ever got along without a rotary vise. The little Tack-L-Tyers vise worked good enough, but I really had to tighten down the thumb screw for the jaws to keep the hook in place. I’m left-handed so I was able to shift the jaws to the left-handed setup. The Herter’s vise is only usable right-handed. That only really became an issue when I tried to hand tie a couple of half hitches backwards.
For some, it’s the journey, for others it’s the destination. I find the history of fly fishing and fly-tying very fascinating. When you think about it, in their most basic forms, fly tying and fly fishing do not require electricity to enjoy. I know many of us are drawn to tenkara for its simplicity providing a means to engage in an outdoor activity with a minimum of modern encumbrances. I view fly tying through a similar lens.
When you go back into the history of fly fishing, from Dame Juliana Berners through the nineteenth century, fly tying materials and tools were very basic. The feathers from game birds that were harvested for subsistence, along with fur and hair collected from barnyard animals that were tied on to hooks by hand were the order of the day for decades… dare I say centuries.
I’m not recommending that a new tyer start out in this manner but this exercise showed me how modern fly-tying tools and materials have made fly tying so much more enjoyable. It also let me walk in an old-school fly tyers shoes, back before rotary vises and graphite rods. I like to believe the fisher to whom this kit belonged fished with a fiberglass fly rod as well.
Steve Allen is retired in Northeast Tennessee after a career in supply chain and retail outing goods management. In addition to fishing and fly tying he is an avid amateur radio operator, participates in shooting sports, and with his wife enjoys canoeing and kayaking, hiking, and gardening.
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