Wrong NG, I know

Okay, I know I should post this query in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying, but it receives so little traffic.

How do I get over my obsession to keep every little speck of tying material! I find it very hard to dispose of feathers, feather fluff, tensil pieces, stripped stips of quill, chenille (sp?)...

Op --who just finished sorting thru all of the trash on his tying bench and filling numerous black electrical tape plastic containers with the bits and pieces?--

On Feb 4, 4:56*pm, "Mark H. Bowen" wrote:
Okay, I know I should post this query in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying, but it receives so little traffic.

How do I get over my obsession to keep every little speck of tying material! I find it very hard to dispose of feathers, feather fluff, tensil pieces, stripped stips of quill, chenille (sp?)...

Op *--who just finished sorting thru all of the trash on his tying bench and filling numerous black electrical tape plastic containers with the bits and pieces?--

I'm obsessive about that, too. Struggle and fart around to save 1/4
cents worth of peacock or, whatever.

I'm gradually getting better ...

HOW?

1) I'm getting old enough to realize I probably won't live long enough
to use all the stuff, even if I'm wasteful ( not a cheery method )...
and
2)..... you eventually begin to see that quality material is the big
factor in quality flies ( cept for tier ability, of course ) and
become more willing to toss less than ideal stuff .... don't be penny-
wise and pound-foolish, don't save it unless it will tie, easily, into
a fly you can be proud of.

On Feb 4, 6:56*pm, "Mark H. Bowen" wrote:
Okay, I know I should post this query in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying, but it receives so little traffic.

How do I get over my obsession to keep every little speck of tying material! I find it very hard to dispose of feathers, feather fluff, tensil pieces, stripped stips of quill, chenille (sp?)...

Op *--who just finished sorting thru all of the trash on his tying bench and filling numerous black electrical tape plastic containers with the bits and pieces?--

A simple unequivocal truth: the vast majority of the stuff you save
"to use later" is, in fact, simply being saved to be disposed of
later.....usually MUCH later.....but that is neither here nor there.

Excluding the hooks (which comprise the greater mass of the vast
majority of flies), the bulk of the material purchased or otherwise
acquired for fly tying ends up as waste. Saving it for later does not
materially affect this unalterable fact.

Not that any of this is meant to dissuade you from parsimony.....far
from it. Generations of fly tiers have benefitted immensely from
inheriting the collected materials of some renowned master or other;
materials saved for decades.....and probably inherited from some
renowned earlier master.....and almost certainly destined to inspire
further generations of nascent tiers.

giles
who once had a very substantial collection of materials from the Weber
Tackle Company of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.....none of it thrown
away.....or used.

On Feb 4, 7:56*pm, "Mark H. Bowen" wrote:
Okay, I know I should post this query in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying, but it receives so little traffic.

How do I get over my obsession to keep every little speck of tying material! I find it very hard to dispose of feathers, feather fluff, tensil pieces, stripped stips of quill, chenille (sp?)...

Op *--who just finished sorting thru all of the trash on his tying bench and filling numerous black electrical tape plastic containers with the bits and pieces?--

Set up a little shrine on your tying desk and burn the stuff as a
sacrifice to the fishing gods. Sprinkle a few drops of tequila (from
a sacrificial holy hand grenade) in the pile as a remembrance of
fishing brethren lost in the past, light it up, and be renewed.