I put head cement on all the flies I tie. More out of habit than anything else, I think. I've only had two flies ever come apart on me. One was a commercially tied fly that survived one bluegill (not known for their teeth, are they?). The other one was one I tied...and it began coming apart...on a very good day where I was bluegill fishing, an was up to about 50 fish. I just kept fishing with it. In fact that half undone fly is still in my box. Usually I'll manage to loose this type of fly in a cypress branch on a backcast long before it'll catch this many fish.
My opinion about people having this type of argumentn is that they have too much time on their hands...they ought to go fishing instead!!! Mark Delaney Peter Gramp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Like many fly tyers, I usually use acetone (lacquer thinners) to thin my head cement, but when I used it to thin Dave's Flexament, the flexament turned a horrible opaque colour instead of the usual clear. Did the "precipitate" in the lacquer thinner cause the flexament to go opaque? Sort- of... the precipitate is caused by the solvent (acetone) and is the flexament going out of solution. A "real life" example is Koolaid (a powderized drink mix for those who may not know)... I don't know about you, but when a kid on Scout trips, we would try to stick every crumb of the powdered drink-mix into the smallest volume of water possible. In other words, we'd pour a small cup of water then try to mix into it a 'full' cup of the powdered drink mix. Well, if we kept it up and kept adding the drink mix, we'd end up with a "glop" of wet powdery gunk at the bottom of the container. While the reason for the precipitation isn't quite the same, the concept of precipitation (going out of solution and making a 'glop') is identical. To draw the parallel full circle, the Flexament (while not a powder) would form a 'pseudo-powderized glop' in the liquid acetone (again, while not the same cause for the precipitation, it is a similar outcome). If I remember the MSDS (it's 6am, so I likely don't...), Dave's flexament uses a 25/30/45 % mix of (I think mineral spirits, but forget) to MEK (methyl-ethyl-ketone) to tolulene. While acetone is often misnomered the 'universal solvent' in some chemical circles, it truly isn't... Some things dissolve and/or dilute easily, others don't dissolve at all. There will be a test tomorrow, so I hope you took good notes ;) To get this 'thread' back to fly- fishing (and away from the chemistry), I wanted to open this 'can o' worms': A local debate at the TU meeting has been whether to use head cement or not on flies. The argument against its use, as I understand it, is two-fold: First, some hypothesize that fish can smell it. Second, others claim that it is a cover-up for a poorly tied fly, where it is used in place of whip-finishes. Without stating my own preference TOO loudly, what is your opinion? Of course, these same people against the 'smell' of dried cement also soak their flies in a garlic and vienna-sausage-oil mix overnight... again, I'll let you guess my opinion on THAT one... ;) Just my 2 cents... off to work now... Pete --------------------------------- Sponsored Link $200,000 mortgage for $660/mo - 30/15 yr fixed, reduce debt, home equity - Click now for info
