* You are viewing the archive for the ‘line making’ Category
A new customer commissioned me to make this special furler for him. He makes furled leaders for sale on his Streamside Leader web store. He wanted a 3 strand furler with a central hook to do a power reverse twist! We worked together for a few weeks to come up with this basic design.
Over the summer, my publisher, Todd, called me to tell me the great news that he had been asked to create a fishing exhibit for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. He immediately assembled his team of craftsmen to create this display of mid 19th century fishing equipment, I am one of them. Todd calls us the Van Buren Boys and there are 5 of us all together. The National Park Service has asked us to document our efforts so I have set up a blog for the group to use. The Van Buren Boys Blog will … Continue Reading
Over the last few years I have produced a number of fly fishing related items out of personal interest. Surprisingly, I get a fair number of inquiries to purchase these items – including tenkara flies, several other fly patterns, ice fishing tip-ups, hand-made brass fishing reels, horsehair fishing lines, Walton’s Engines (aka twisting or furling engines), and custom rods – all by … Continue Reading
Well, I just finished my latest batch of Walton’s Twisting Engine and photographed them together. The one with the slender round handle is more traditional and the other with the big massive flat handle is more practical for actually furling lines and leaders.
It also looks like I’ll be writing an article for The Home Shop Machinist magazine on how to build these.
Several months ago, I blogged about my rediscovery of an old book that presented a different technique for making continuously tapered, knotless horse hair fly lines. I reproduced the technique and improved on it slightly. That was all covered in the original post.
Given the large response (believe it or not!) I had to that post, I decided to write an article for the Webzine Power Fibers covering the same topic with a lot more detail and full color photographs.
Power Fibers is published quarterly by Todd Talsma … Continue Reading
This falls in the “this eclecticguy is crazy” department! Or, maybe not! I’ve been furling fly fishing leaders for a number of years and have known about these twisting engines. Darrel Martin has photos of a reproduction engine and a woodcut of an old engine in his book “The Fly-Fisher’s Craft: The Art and History“. I did a little research and called Darrel to ask about his engine before designing this one. The trickiest part is the gearing. There are 3 smaller gears around a central gear that … Continue Reading
I have been studying the history of fishing for several years to learn more about the rods, flies and techniques used by early anglers. There are many early books that have survived , including “A Treatyse of Fysshyng with an Angle” attributed to Dame Juliana Berners and originally published in 1496! The contemporary ”The Compleat Angler” by Izaac Walton, originally published in 1653 and a second part added by his friend Charles Cotton (gotta love that hair!). These works … Continue Reading
