On Fri, 28 May 2004 16:34:35 +0200, "Mike Connor"
wrote:


"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
...
Mike Connor wrote:

SNIP
.)

When you say you "test from there", do you mean you simply take them
astream, or do you have some other way of testing them?

Anyhow, thanks for the detailed description and the followup. I
love the DIY approach to these sorts of things, so it looks like I may
be entering a new aspect of this hobby.


Chuck Vance


You must of course de-temper ( anneal) before retempering, as some steels
will indeed go very brittle otherwise. One should try at least one or two
of the raw hooks from each batch one makes. If you "case harden" wire using
the charcoal or powdered carbon methods, you must be careful not to overdo
it. I usually try a few samples to see how it turns out. This works very
well with some wires, and not too well with others. This of course is
dependent on the amount of carbon in the steel already. Without an extensive
metallurgy lab, there is no way to test this except by trial and error.

Many hookmakers in the past tempered their hooks to purple. Some older
hooks, which tend to be soft, where tempered blue. There were only a few of
the older hookmakers who knew the secret of making good high carbon steel.
This also caused problems. Nowadays this is not a problem.

After you have tested a few hooks, you will simply "know" if they are OK.
Just fix them in a fly-vice and pluck them, ( I do the same test on
manufactured hooks anyway). It is easy to see and hear whether you got it
right. Once you know the temper colour for that particular material (
Stainless steel is different!), then the rest is easy. Harden, and then
temper.

If you want to play about with this, then just buy some cheap hooks,
detemper them, and then re-harden and temper. Quite a few salmon fly
dressers buy cheaper salmon hooks, and re-shape and temper them, in order to
obtain exactly what they want, although the temper here is not critical, as
these hooks are not used for fishing, merely for dressing show flies.

Really, the whole thing is quite easy. After doing a few, you just know how
it goes. The most difficult operations are barbing, and forming the eye
consistently. The rest is really just routine. With a little practice, even
these operations are quite easy.

TL
MC


http://www.flyanglersonline.com/ligh...arefootboy.gif


g.c.