ANGLER'S FLIES AND HOW TO TIE 



pattern is stocked by Hardy Brothers of Aln- 

 wick, England, under the name of the Captain 

 Hamilton hook, numbers 4 and 5 in this brand 

 being the best sizes for all-round use. 



Tools. The tools required in fly-tying are 

 few and simple. They include a small pin 

 vise which may be obtained of a dealer in 

 jewelers' tools at a cost of about fifty cents. 

 Get the kind in which the jaws are set by a 

 thumbscrew. This you can attach to your 

 work-table by means of some simply devised 

 standard and a clamp. The horizontal position 

 of the vise best facilitates the work. (Some pro- 

 fessional tiers do without the vise entirely, hold- 

 ing the fly between thumb and forefinger 

 throughout the whole operation.) In addition 

 you should acquire a pair of sharp nail-scissors 

 with long slender curved blades and sharp 

 points; one or two pairs 

 of hackle pliers, easily 

 fashioned from spring 

 steel or tempered brass 

 wire of about an eighth ^"-P^ <* actual size > 

 of an inch in diameter or less; a bodkin or sti- 

 letto, made by thrusting the butt end of a 

 darning needle into a slender wooden handle; 

 and some special wax for waxing the tying- or 

 winding-silk, to be had of the tackle-man for 

 five or ten cents. Some use ordinary shoemak- 

 ers'-wax, both dark and light, applied from be- 

 193 



