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Fly threader

At my age, threading a fly onto a tippet in low light conditions, without magnification, is an exercise in frustration. A few high end gadgets are on the market to help with that - magnetic fly threaders - but they are prohibitively expensive, and the concept behind them is simple enough that I reckoned I could make one myself. They are nothing more than a solid base with a groove, a tiny dimple in that groove at one end, to position the eye of the hook, and a small rare earth magnet embedded in the base, just below that dimple, to (sort of) keep the fly attached to the tool, and positioned so that the hole in the eye is aligned with the groove.

Once attached, you use the groove to guide the end of your tippet towards, and hopefully right through the eye of the hook - if the eye is free of crowding materials or varnish, this should work relatively painlessly.

Most available fly threaders are made either from aluminium or high density resin (some are even 3D-printed) but since I don’t have the necessary skills nor equipment to do metalworking, nor do I have a 3D-printer, I decided that I could try and make one from wood. For this you need a solid, high density wood species, with no open pores, that can be finished to a smooth surface - several tropical hardwoods would be suitable, and so would be European boxwood. Roughly speaking any high end woodwind tonewood should work for this.

I prepared a 15x15 mm^2 slat of a high density wood, routed a 1 mm deep v-groove in the top surface with a 60 degree bit, created a shallow 2 mm wide dimple at one end in the groove, then drilled an 8 mm hole for a neodymium magnet right opposite that dimple, with a 2 mm separation between dimple bottom and magnet.

And guess what, it works…


Actually this one has two dimples, one standard one, and, to the left of it a larger one, for large flies. 


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