ON TACKLE MAKING, ETC. 161 



has any taste or appreciation of tackle making, can hardly 

 miss his mark or lose his way. Some tyers use a vice, 

 some trust altogether to their fingers. Where the fly is at 

 all beyond the simplest, I generally use a vice myself, as it 

 gives more freedom, and another pair of fingers as it "were, 

 and with two pair of spring pliers to hold the silk or the 

 hackle in place, one ought to be able to get on in time 

 once master the method, however, and all the rest is 

 a matter of practice. 



RECIPES. I have mentioned 



WHITE WAX. This is made with a lump of resin, about 

 one-sixth the quantity of beeswax, and one-eighth of 

 tallow ; melt them together in a pipkin ; then pour out 

 into cold water, and then work the mass about till it 

 becomes quite pliable and tough in the fingers ; lay it by 

 for use. 



VARNISH is made of the best spirits of wine put into a 

 bottle, and about half the quantity of broken up shellac ; 

 let it stand till all is taken up by the spirit, and when you 

 use it, let it be quite dry before you put your tackle into 

 the water, or it turns white and crumbles. 



COBBLER'S WAX, when it becomes too hard and brittle 

 in cold weather, may be worked up before the fire with the 

 smallest fragment of tallow, and will soon become quite 

 soft and usable. 



