The Easy Way To Strip Materials From Old Flies
I used to do this by mounting the fly in the vice and scraping everything off with a knife but I found it was hard work and I had a tendency to bend the hook by pressing too hard.
Instead I figured out a much easier way that I want to show you.
Make sure you read to the end because there are a couple of cases that don't suit this method.
Tools
First of all, leave your tying scissors on the desk. They are too good to waste and they are not all that useful for this anyway. What you really want is chunky a pair of kitchen scissors. A small sharp knife can also come in useful for particularly stubborn clumps of material.
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| The tools you'll need |
Process
Grab the fly by the bend of the hook and chop off all the hackles and soft stuff until you hit the varnish/glue/resin that’s hard to prune.
I find the best way is to cut down at an angle to the hook using the end of the blades closest to the handle so you get right into the inner thread wraps with one or two cuts.
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| Use the base of the scissors for the best results |
Stop once it gets difficult. Chiselling away at hardened thread is hard work and wastes valuable tying time. Instead, we're going to use acetone to soften everything up so it's easy to cut off.
Put a centimetre or two of acetone in a clean jar with a lid and then chuck your part-stripped flies in for a good soak. Replace the lid so the liquid does not evaporate away or stink the room out. Nail varnish remover works too but it's less strong than acetone so it takes longer.
Leave the flies to soak in the acetone overnight - or longer - so it can dissolve all the hard stuff.
Once they are done use a pair of tweezers to dump them in a small bowl of water to rinse them. Put the lid on the acetone for another day.
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| Rinse the flies in water |
You should now have a much easier time stripping the remaining thread off the hook with your big scissors.
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| Not so hard now eh?! |
Tips
You can put the hook in the vice when stripping the materials but I find I have more control by holding it and I'm unlikely to bend the hook either.
Sometimes, you'll find a hard little collar forms that will slide on the hook but will not come off. Hold the hook by the bend and run a craft knife over the top of the knotted thread while pushing family lightly. This usually breaks the thread up so you can slide it off the point of the hook or chop it up with your big scissors. If it doesn't yield then put it back in the acetone and try again later.
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| Use a knife for any stubborn bits |
Special Cases
Epoxy buzzers - just chuck them straight in the acetone and the resin will do soft and gooey after a while so you can cut it everything with scissors.
Beads - unfortunately acetone will strip the paint off a painted bead so you'll need to do these the old-fashioned way. Anodised beads seem to survive the acetone but I'd recommend testing with one fly before you soak a whole load of them.
Very small flies - these are a pain to chop with big scissors but they have less thread and material on them because they are small so you can just throw them straight in the acetone and then use a craft knife or small scissors to strip them.
Conclusion
Hopefully this is helpful. Have you found any other ways to make stripping flies easy? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
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