First Jigs Complete

[danthebassman]

I got my first couple of jigs finished. Any feedback (good and bad) would be appreciated.  Not perfect, but useable I think. I need more work on getting the skirts distributed better and figuring out how tight I can twist the wire without cutting the skirts, but as has been said by many on here...practice makes perfect.

[smalljaw]

Nothing wrong with those, good color combinations and the thickness is nice too, so I'd say you did a fine job. As for the wire cutting the material, yes, it will happen but you already answered how to fix it, and that is practice. The way I do it is to make my wraps loose, just tight enough to hold the material and then I grab both ends of the wire with my 1 pair of pliers and I pull, what that does is it takes the slack out, then I push the 2 ends down and get a good grip on them and pull tight and then twist, you'll discover that getting the wire tight before you twist will help you get it real tight without cutting the material.

[mark poulson]

I  wrap my wire around the skirts twice, with 1" tag ends when I'm done wrapping.

I grab the tag ends with small locking pliers, twist the wire tag ends down to the wraps, pull up to tighten the wraps and twist again until the new "slack" is gone.  I don't cut my skirts that way.

I cut off the twisted wire long, maybe 1/2" to 3/4" depending on the jig, and bend it down toward the hook bend, so it acts as an additional attachment when I slide on my soft plastic trailer.  I just make sure the twist goes into the plastic as I slide it up.

Edited March 25, 2014 by mark poulson

[danthebassman]

Thank you guys for the feedback and tips.  I wrapped them two times and then pulled tight with two sets of pliers before twisting.  I think maybe that is where I went wrong.  The first couple I tied simply fell apart when I cut the end of the skirts and took it out of the vice.  I only had about 30 of the 44 strands left.  Thanks again!

[gone2long]

Very nice!