Peterjay

Thanks guys - that's good info.

HJ - if you don't mind a really dumb question, what happens if zinc accidentally finds its way into casting metal? Will it wreck your mold?

Congratulations. You've found yourself a teriffic bargain at $4/lb. A lot of the old-timers around here here made their striped bass jigs from 95/5 (tin/antimony) solder. It's really good stuff - it would make a great additive to pure lead. I was going to use it, but I had trouble finding any in this area that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I found pure tin to be cheaper, even though the market price has risen dramatically in the past year. At $8.50/lb., I've been making 2 1/4 ounce jigging spoons for under $2 apiece for materials, including hardware; like you say, it isn't bad when you break it down, especially when you consider that it doesn't require painting or plating.

I stand by my assertion that there's a difference between being greedy and being a criminal. If the seller is misrepresenting his product or colluding with others to fix prices, that's a different story, but potential buyers have to assume some responsibility for educating themselves. If someone refuses to take swimming lessons, then falls off a ferry and sinks like a rock, is it the captain's fault? That said, I agree that the culture of greed in the business world is wrecking the country. Our current economic quagmire can be traced directly to unbridled corporate greed, but not all business people are like that. My wife and I own a small business and we've never ripped anybody off and never will. Honesty is good for business in the long run. If you screw somebody, they're not coming back and they won't hesitate to put the word out. If you establish a good relationship with a buyer, you've got yourself a regular customer and a lot of good will. Besides, it's the right thing to do. Lotsa soap boxes lying around here today. Mine is going to be unoccupied now if somebody wants to climb up.

I tried the scrapyard route a year ago, when I started pouring tin, and what little I found was overpriced. Especially considering you only have the dealer's word on how pure it is. A good way to proceed might be to use Rotometals' price as a benchmark, then scout out eBay for a deal. There are always people selling alloys on there. Just make sure you know what you're getting and that the dealer has positive feedback. I've recently seen pure tin on eBay selling for as much as $45 per Troy pound plus shipping. (a Troy pound is smaller than an Avoirdupois pound - Avoirdupois is the system we use in everyday life) In contrast, I just took delivery on 40 pounds of pure tin from an eBay dealer for $8.50/lb. (Avoirdupois) shipped. The price difference is nothing short of amazing. The guys selling at outrageous prices aren't necessarily crooks - they're just looking for people who don't do their research. Or maybe as Dave suggested, you don't need an alloy at all. Clean lead isn't expensive - just make sure you have a benchmark price to use as a reference, so you don't wind up bringing a knife to a gunfight.

If you don't want to deal with scrap metal and want to be sure of the composition of the stuff you're pouring, sites that cater to bullet casters sell various kinds of lead alloys. Buffalo Arms is one that comes to mind. Rotometals also sells a variety of non-ferrous alloys. You could also do some scrounging around on eBay. I've bought 40 pounds of pure tin in the past few weeks on eBay for a fraction of the market price. Just make sure you do your homework beforehand, so you know what to look for and what the current price is. Most of the metal for sale there is grossly overpriced, but there are some real bargains if you're patient and keep digging.

Hi Dan, welcome aboard. Do you do any saltwater stuff? You've got access to some great shore fishing down your way.

Re making masters: if you have any experience working with clay, (or even if you don't) one method you could try is to get yourself a waterdog, put it in a bottle of alcohol to use as a reference, and fashion a copy out of Sculpey polymer clay or real oven bake clay. Once it's hard, you can sand it smooth and/or carve the details, and coat it with an acrylic spray until it's glossy. That's the method I use to make masters for my saltwater tins; there's no reason why it wouldn't work in your case. One of the things about Sculpey is that you could make the body, bake it hard, then make the legs, attach them to the body and rebake it. I haven't had any luck doing that with real clay, but I've had some success doing it with Sculpey. Working with dead critters can be tough - I was once in a physiology class where we were dissecting cats. It was OK until I started having nightmares about cats dissecting me. I quit the course and switched to physics, and I started sleeping a whole lot better.

Again, thanks for the tips guys. I really appreciate the input. Just FYI, I recently picked up a rotary tumbler for a variety of uses, (I'm a visual artist and I also make jewelry occasionally) and I tumbled a few tin spoons using a jewelry mix of steel shot, and it burnished the spoons to a mirror finish. These things should be killer in low light situations. I'm also using most of the methods you all described to get a softer sheen for bluebird days. Your advice has been very helpful.

You can use the search feature to find all kinds of information on mold making - Husky has done some really informative tutorials, as have others. There's a wealth of info already on the site if you do some looking. Husky's thread on using cheapo Walmart silicone to make molds is particularly interesting.

Just to add another voice to the choir: great service. Answered emails immediately and quickly substituted for an out of stock item. Good company in my experience.

A few comments regarding dressed hooks: as has been mentioned, they'll look a lot better if you don't trim the hair ends. All you need is a homemade hair stacker and you can get them nice and even. A short piece of aluminum or copper tubing will work fine. You could also try leaving the ends uneven to give the lure a more streamlined look. Also, make sure you use plenty of cement during construction and for final finishing. "Sally Hansen Hard as Nails With Nylon" nail polish is the best tying cement on the planet, and you can find it anywhere. Dressing hair on trebles is easier if you put the hair on in three small bunches, rather than trying to do it in one big bunch. Be careful with using "backyard" fur and feathers. Critters carry all kinds of bugs, including fleas, lice, and deer ticks. A lot of the advice you hear about freezing, microwaving materials, etc., may not be enough to get rid of everything, including bacteria. Above all, make sure there's a blood bank in your area, because you're going to be puncturing a lot of fingers. Hope this helps. PJ

Thanks Mark - if I can help save one poor soul from the heart-wrenching ordeal of dividing up marital assets, then my own suffering was not in vain.

"So i set up the whole thing and glue the model to my wife's movado watch box...w/o her knowledge (and no the watch was not in the box)" Ric, I don't know the first thing about soft plastics but I do know something about wives. (I've had more than my share of them) The horrifying passage I quoted above tells me that you've already taken the first step toward overpaying some sleazy lawyer in hopes of hanging on to a small fraction of what you thought was yours. Take it from one who has already traveled that cold and lonesome road: if you happen to see ANY of your wife's possessions (however trivial) that could be useful for luremaking, run out IMMEDIATELY and buy a duplicate. Don't think about it, just do it. Even if she tells you it's OK, don't pay any attention - that's just ammunition that's gonna come flying back at you at the first opportunity. It took me a couple of trips to divorce court to figure all this out, but strict adherence to the aforementioned regimen is one of the chief reasons I've managed to remain happily married for the past 22 years. I'm still not 100% sure what it is that makes women happy, but I'm one of the world's foremost authorities on what makes them unhappy. I'm just praying that this message reaches you in time. PJ

Glad I could be of some help, Kelly. One thing I forgot to mention is that I usually use white tying thread when I know I'm gonna be wrapping the head with Krystal Flash. Either that or a thread that closely matches it. Black thread under pearl, etc., will tend to show through. White works best by far for lighter colors.

These flies are pretty beat up from the rocks, but I think you can get the general idea. Couple of notes: The key to wrapping Krystal Flash is that you have to be gentle. It's fairly fragile stuff, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. Also, if you're going to use epoxy for the final finish, you'll want to use a flexible cement like Flexament or Flex-seal under the epoxy. Lacquer and epoxy on fly heads are a bad match. If you're going to be using Sally Hansen for the final finish, then you can use it all the way through the process. Finish your head the way you usually do. Give it a coat of cement. Before the cement dries completely, take a strand of Krystal Flash and gently stretch it to take out the kinks. Wrap it and tie off with a half hitch. Repeat until you've got the head completely wrapped. Tie off GENTLY with a half hitch. (you may not want to snip off the end until you've coated the head once - this will help prevent unraveling) Coat the head with a generous dab of cement. Once it dries, either give it multiple coats of Sally Hansen or one coat of epoxy. I usually keep coating the head with SH until it feels smooth. If you can't find the exact color you want, you can use a marker to color the head once it's done - just make sure the cement is dry. If you don't go too heavy with the marker, you'll still get the shine. The metallic colors will make some spectacular heads; I especially like gold and copper on anchovy flies. I also make saltwater tins and I like to dress up the tail hooks with a Krystal Flash band. I doubt the fish will notice any of this, but most of us like to give our stuff a little something extra - I think it's part of the fun. PJ

Sure, I'll be happy to photograph a few and post the pics in the next day or two, describing the technique. I got the idea from Lefty's original pattern book. He has a deceiver tied with a red Krystal Flash head and it really caught my eye.

The only problem I've had with using black (or any color) head cement is that if you get so much as a drop on the materials behind the head , it ruins the appearance of the fly. Sometimes it'll even creep back on its own if I'm not super careful. Another way of getting a really showy head is to wrap it with Krystal Flash, then follow with epoxy or multiple coats of clear Sally Hansen. I do almost all of my saltwater and freshwater streamer heads this way, and it never fails to draw comments from people I show them to. Adds a really nice touch.

I suppose the stuff could be wrapped to make something like a Gartside soft hackle fly. I bought something similar a while back but I haven't found it to be particularly useful. I made a few crab flies by palmering and trimming it to shape, but that's about it. If you're tying small streamers, etc., you could use it as an underwing or blend it, but there's already plenty of stuff around that'll do the same job. It's basically flashy artificial hackle.

Wow! Talk about attention to detail. Thanks for sharing, Atrophius.

GOOP will hold eyes on just about any smooth surface better than epoxy, and if gets onto the surface of the eye, you can just wipe it off with alcohol or peel it off when it cures. I use it on saltwater flies; the flies really take a beating, but the eyes stay put. Like the other adhesives mentioned, you have to use a tiny amount to keep it from spreading out from under the eyes. The only downside is that it takes longer to cure than the superglues, but once it cures, the eyes aren't going anywhere. You don't need one of the specialized products like Marine GOOP - Household GOOP will do just fine.

Yeah, Fred, I've pretty well memorized the whole thing. Considering the fact that the Sox haven't had their whole team on the field since the first week of the season, I've also had a chance to read War and Peace a couple of times. Thanks for the tip VT. A benchtop buffing machine is definitely on my list of priorities.

FYI: I found both Flitz and Simichrome in the Rio Grande catalog. If you're not familiar with Rio Grande, it's a big supplier of materials and equipment to the jewelry industry, but a lot of what they sell can also be applied to luremaking. Everything from mini-drill presses to polishing tools to colored epoxy resins. I have their 650-page tools and equipment catalog - cost $10. (refundable) Well worth checking out IMHO. I like thumbing through it while I'm waiting for the Red Sox bullpen to get somebody out. http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea/SearchPage.aspx?page=GRID&category|category_root|108=Metal+Clay

Why don't you post a picture or two - I'm not familiar with the products you mentioned, but a lot of tying materials are sold under various names, and somebody here probably uses similar stuff.

Many thanks for the tips, guys.