[bassrecord]

There are two types of fly tying tools, personal and commercial. For commercial tyers, the objective is speed and production. I look for helpful tools like big handle scissors that I never put down, racks that hold materials in a uniform manner, jigs that hold bugs for fast uniform drilling and similar devices. My popping bugs have 17 unique steps but only three are classical fly tying steps. So I mostly look for tools that aid the painting, sanding, woodworking steps. In the commercial arena I find many times that there are tools that will do the job - the challange is finding the specific tool that will do the job quicker, faster and more accurately!

I don't know how you tie, but I usually tie in lots of 100, sometimes 1,000 and used to regularly do lots of 10,000. To do this I stage all the necessary material including hooks, corks, hackle, rubber legs, weed guard mono, flash, etc. and lay everything all out. Then I start gluing cork bodies to hump shank hooks, then dipping or spraying sanding sealer, then sanding smooth, then dipping or spraying the primer coat, then the top coat, then eyes, then scale, then top coat. Between each step there is a 100% physical QC inspection and rejects are sent back for re-work. This process continues until I get about a 90% yield ( at least 7 dozen out of the original 100 starts). I like to go into hackling, which has a much higher yield than painting, with around 90 bug bodies, all same color and same hackling requirement for speed. I may have as many as 5 or 6 lines going simultaneously.

For personal tying, I look for tools that make my job easier. I have a tool that pulls rubber legs through cork bodies, another tool that ties knots in pheasant tails and my Dad who was a welder made me a bobbin holder. For personal tying, new materials often force the tier to develop new tools, or, to find better tools than sold in stores.

Whenever I identify a need for a tool, I try to see if one already exists that meets my needs. For example, I started tying before there were any rotary vises and vises were all table clamp vs. pedestal stands. For years I fussed around with mirrors to see the other side of my fly while tying, plywood to clamp my vise to, and similar mickey mouse contraptions until rotary vises and pedestal vises became available.

Hope this helps.
Good luck!
John