How we tie

The spec sheet

Each of our patterns has a written specification: the hook model and size range, the thread, the bead size and material, the materials for tail, body, rib, wing and hackle, and the proportions each element should be tied to. It is the same document the tyer works from and the same one the checker uses.

This is ordinary practice in any workshop that cares about consistency, and it is almost never shown to customers. We publish the substance of it on every product page.

What gets checked

Before a dozen is boxed, it is checked against the sheet.

• Hook model and size — the number on a hook is a maker's own scale, so we check against the specified model rather than against the number alone.
• Bead size and material — tungsten and brass look similar and behave completely differently.
• Proportions — tail length against shank, hackle length against gape, body taper.
• Consistency across the dozen — twelve flies that match each other, not one good fly and eleven approximations.
• Head finish — a rushed fly gives itself away at the head first, every time.

Tied one at a time

Flies are tied individually by hand at a vice. There is no assembly line where one person does tails and another does hackle, because the consistency we care about is within a dozen, and that comes from one pair of hands finishing each fly.

Tyers are paid to tie well rather than to tie fast. That is the only quality control that works over a season.

Judge it yourself

The honest test is not a paragraph on a website. Buy a dozen, tip them onto a table, and look at whether the ribbing is spaced the same on the twelfth fly as on the first. That is the thing that separates hand-tied from hand-assembled, and it is visible without any expertise at all.