 
     |
 First published January 1st 2002 - More than 6 years ago
Whip Finishing with your hands
Whip finishing without a tool is not at all difficult. Lots of people use and praise the whip finishing tool which comes in many variations. I have personally never used one, and hence totally fail to see the advantages in using a tool for something that can be done by hand - faster and with better results in my opinion. Describing in the process in words is quite difficult and it is much more time consuming to read than to do. The best way is of course learning from someone else, but I hope these pictures and this text can help.  [A] Pull the thread downwards and expose a fairly long piece out of the bobbin holder[B] Form a V-sign with the index and middle finger of the right hand and turn the hand with the back facing yourself. The index finger is now lowest. [C] Place the tip of the extended index and middle fingers on your own side of the thread and press a bit. (1) [D] While constantly pressing and holding the thread tight, twist your hand 'forwards' or clockwise while keeping the thread on the two fingers. [E] While rotating the hand you need to follow the thread on the index finger upwards with the bobbin holder to a horizontal position. (2)
 [G] Now you need to slowly rotate the hand back again - meaning 'towards' yourself or counterclockwise - letting the thread slip against your fingers. What we want is that the fingers switch position but the thread remains as it is. (4)
 [H] The next step is the first turn of the actual whipfinish knot. Guide the vertical strand of the thread over the horizontal strand and the hook shank. (5) This will lock down the horizontal thread against the shank. (6)[I] When winding the thread a full turn over the hook shank, you need to let the thread slip on your fingers without loosing it. Do this by turning the hand back counterclockwise in one contious motion while you lay the thread over the shank, bringing the hand back to the starting position shown in (5).  [J] The result is seen in (7). The process is far more diffcult to describe than to do.[K] Now repeat the twisting, slipping motion of the two fingers several times, each time adding a turn of thread over the hook shank and the horizontal thread going to the bobbin holder. (8) [L] Each turn of thread must be laid in front of the previous [M] When sufficient turns have been made - that's typically 3-5 - you pull down the thread with the middle finger and pull your index finger out of the loop [N] Now you press your index finger against the back of the hook, holding the thread. [O] When you let go of the thread with the middle a loop will form under the hook shank. (9)  [P] Tighten this loop by pulling the bobbin holder to the rear of the hook. Guide the loop in place with the fingers of the right hand and pull tight the thread. If the loop twists and becomes a knot, you will need to untwist the thread before doing this the next time. [Q] Cut the thread
Controlling the loop
By Hans Weilenmann While most articles/books describing a hand whip finish suggest using your bodkin/scissors/pointed object poked through the loop as their 'solution', I agree with the opinion that this would defeat the purpose of the exercise to a large extent. And it is not necessary! This is how I do it. My whip finish is done using my index finger and my middle finger (though thumb and index finger also works well) After making the required number of turns, the middle finger is slipped out of the loop. The index finger holds the loop tight. With the thumb and index finger you form a full circle, tips of thumb and finger touching. With the other hand you start to pull the loop tight. (Pull parallel to the hook shank to avoid 'opening' the whip-finish turns.) As the loop draws smaller the tread slides forward towards the tip of the index finger and the nails of thumb and index finger move towards the hook at the whip finish spot. In its final stage the nails only hold the 'disappearing' loop, just before it gets drawn under the turns. At no point in the process there is any slack and you are in control all the way.
A Global Fly Fisher Publication Copyright © 1994 - 2008, Joergensen/Petti/Schweitzer/Skehan Portions of this site copyright © the contributors. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Do not distribute without prior written consent from each copyright holder. Comments and suggestions are welcome |
Submitted August 19th 2006
I have read a lot on flytying and have never read it so plainly as well as illustrated as well as you've done. Thank you.