Apdriver

What I have found ,and tried several different ways , is to use a vise. This will give you the most consistent bends IMO. You need a set of flat jaws and I just use two pieces of smooth angle iron. The serrated jaw of your vise will marr the stainless when you bend the blade. After you position the blade, take a piece of 1by and lay it against your blade and give it a sharp rap with your hammer. That's just one technique. I bet there are others. I never could get consistent bends with a couple sets of pliers.

I use just a few drops to help with the bagging of my plastic baits. The worm oil acts as a lubricant on the outside of the bait so they'll slide easily on the bag and against each other in the bagging process. That said, if you get a DINP based scent, you can do the same thing with it plus it adds scent to the baits. DINP is a plasticizer that will leech the scents into the baits. Most of these scents are made with essential oils and it takes very little of it to do the job. They cut it with worm oil so we can use it in bait making and plastics.

I have had some issues with the hawg sauce from UHS. My issues have been with bagging and storing my baits with it though. Might work out fine cooking it in. Let's just say, there's a shelf life and leave it at that. DINP based is what you want for longer term storage.

I've tried it with pliers, but you can't be consistent with the bends and your baits won't look that great. What I do is put some angled flat steel in my vise so the serrated jaws of the vise won't mar the finish on my stainless blades. Put them in that vise one at a time where you want your bend. Take a piece of board, I have a piece of oak, and lay it against your blade. Then you whack it with a hammer. Try to drive that board through your blade. You won't hurt anything but it puts a good uniform bend right where you need it. Lather, rinse, repeat, til you get all the blades bent you bought. Won't have to do that again. When your finished, you can stack em all together and there won't be a millimeters difference in them.

Here's a pic of some lined up that you can see the blade good on. Click on the pic to expand it. See the top 1/3 of the blade is bent back toward the bait? I bet your blades weren't bent and that's why they weren't vibrating. Gotta bend 'em to get the right action.

Without one in hand and just looking at a TW photo, I'd say a laminate. Both sides basic Watermelon with red glitter one side, black glitter the other. .015 is what it looks like.

T12, I use do it molds almost exclusively. I have one Shawn Collins I just received recently but haven't had the time to use it yet. I'm scratching my head on the roll over part because I never never have that problem with a Bladed Jig. That said, I mostly fish it slow and close to the bottom as I can. That's where I've caught my big fish with it. As I was bumping stuff, rip rap in particular. I never really burn a Bladed jig. I haven't fished any with the blade attached by a split ring though and always open the eye of my hook to attach the blade. Might have something to do with it.

T12, if I can help you, let me know. The first photo in my last pic caught a 7.5 and a 5.5 in back to back casts this past spring. Both released. As you know, they're big fish baits.

Now that's funny T12. The beautiful thing about do it and Zeiners is these molds cost no more than 35 bucks!

Just ran across these I made from a style S Bass Jig. The blade's not bent yet in these photos. It's better if you do this before installing it on your jig. I know, I make mistakes! Dang that's hard to admit

I have been having some trouble with Do it's shad head jig mold and tried a few different things with it. What I found using a infrared temp gun was this: if the inside face of the mold cooled to 180 degrees, that sucker wouldn't pour right. Very few good jigs. Taking a propane torch, if I heated the mold up to > 200 on the inside mold face, I would get good pours. The problem with the mold is I couldn't keep it hot enough just pouring a couple cavities. The ones I use the most.

Thanks Smalljaw for the tip. I've been opening the eye of the hook and installing the blade. I think I'll try a few with the split ring now. Thanks for sharing!

I think we did a thread on this the other day with pics. Open the eye yourself and install the blade.

CCM Swim Shad is nice. It's a fish catcher.

I have some of the Halo glitter and it doesn't take heat well. I assume you will use it in plastic. My suggestion is to heat your plastic to 350 to change states, let cool to 300 and then add the glitter. Reheat carefully and keep it as cool as possible. YMMV. I added my Halo when the plastic was hot, 350+, and all the color came off the glitter and turned the whole mess gray. Had to toss the whole lot.

Nice jig, but really nice photo. I like both!

I have a four inch, Cadman. Here's a pic of the bait. Makes a great trailer. Be glad to help if you can't find a five inch.

How are you applying your powder? Reason I ask is I have some Flour. Colors from Columbia that I tap on and some of it will fall out of my brush in clumps if the brush is loaded with paint. To alleviate this, I tap at least half the paint out before tapping over the bait. Your pic looks like too much in some areas and not enough in others giving it an uneven appearance.

Nice paint job too. Is it powder?

Yep, necessity-the mother of invention. Very nicely done indeed!

I bet if you buy the mold, somebody will pour it for you.

I did 15 a week ago and I only had 1 break on the Mustads. If you are real aggressive with the hammer, you can break every one. Only open the eye enough to slip the blade under. Sometimes I remove a bit of lead with my knife if I haven't opened the eye enough or some extra flash is in the way.

Yes Mark. I'm on the road and doing this from memory which isn't what it used to be sometimes. 32786. Thanks.

Hook is a Mustad 32798. I really like the 5/0 but you may have to use the 4/0 on a 3/8. Can't recall. I'm thinking you can find the tape at Home Depot or that. I found my piece of a roll in my attic some workers left. When I saw it the light bulb went on and also bells and whistles because I have been looking for a product to help with this for a long time. If you've ever fought cured powder paint, you know where I'm coming from.

^^^^^^That will certainly work^^^^^ If you would rather use the regular eye and open the hook to install the blade, this is how I do that. I have a piece of metal stock and drill a hole in it as close to the edge as you can get it. Make the hole just large enough to relieve the tip of a center punch, but small enough to catch the radius of the eye of your hook. Lay your eye on the hole and take a center punch and open the eye up with it. Make take a couple blows to get it just right. Go easy and open that hook eye up just enough to slip your blade under it. Be sure to bend all your blades first and install in the proper orientation. Close your eye with a stout pair of pliers. One other trick that I have learned and wanted to share is how to keep the powder paint off your hook eye. You need to paint the head before you install the blade and the hook eye needs to be clean so the blade will work correctly. I found some foil tape that had a thin adhesive on it covered with paper. Perfect for cutting to size and covering that hook eye to powder and will withstand the heat. Remove the tape before you bake the paint to cure it. Here's a photo or two.