www.wetahook.net
*** If you want to see this product first hand, come to the Somerset Show this weekend. I'm fairly sure Bob Popovics will be demonstrating the material, and I'll have it with me in the Featured Tyer booth at 11:30 on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday.
If you have been using epoxy in your fly tying, you know that epoxy has several shortcomings. Its messy; its a nuisance to mix; it takes time to set up; and it turns yellow with age. Well, here is a new product (currently in development and called Tuffleye) designed to replace epoxy. It is a fast curing clear acrylic that is environmental safe, sets up in seconds and never yellows.
So what's the flashlight for. More specifically it is high intensity, 3 watt LED emitting a bluish light. The acrylic material in the kit is designed to harden under blue light, and yes, sunlight as well. The product will be available in four consistencies: gel, liquid, putty and elastic. The manufactures states there are both floating and sinking capabilities. No mixing is involved and there is no odor as well. Durable and strong too. And it is claimed to be biologically and environmentally safe.
My test kit came with two tubes, two nozzles, and three small brushes. The larger tube is marked "Core" and the smaller is marked "Finish". The "Core" is thicker and as you might expect goes on first. After exposure to blue light, it dries to a slightly tacky surface and you can build it up with additional coats. The "Finish" is thinner and is applied directly over the "Core" to produce a smoother surface.
First Impressions.
Naturally this is a preliminary test, and I must reserve judgment until I have had more time with the product. That said, lets take an initial look. I tried it out on a sand eel fly (size 2#), a pattern I have made for years with epoxy. After building the fly with bucktail, I coated the body using the "Core" tube fitted with a nozzle. The acrylic went on easily, but I had trouble working it out evenly. This was to be expected given my unfamiliarity with the material. It does not self level like epoxy tends to do when you revolve the hook. In fact turning the hook is unnecessary except to see other sides of the fly. I used one of the brush to make coating as uniform as possible. After a dose of blue light, I added additional "Core" where needed. By the way you are told not to shine this light directly into your eyes, hence the red hood you see in the top photo. Next I hit the second coat with the blue light and moved on to the "Finish". This went on much smoother, and again I used a brush to work it out. Then the "Finish" coat got bathed in blue too.
Comments
I very much enjoyed the fact that I did not have revolve the fly on a drying wheel for several minutes. Hit it with light and bingo you're done! Nor was there any of the usual mess or odor one has with epoxy. The resulting fly (above) looks very good. It had a slight slippery feeling to it. Unsure if that was normal, I wiped the fly down with a cotton cloth. This reduced the rubbery feel and dulled the fly a touch. To restore the gloss, I coated the fly with the old standby - Sally Hanson Hard-as-Nails. It worked fairly well.
So far I'm impressed with the potential of this product. Yes, I sense a learning curve here, as with anything new, but if you regularly use epoxy, this stuff deserves a close look. At the moment this product is still in development, and I have no idea when it will become available or what the retail price will be. That said, I think we're getting close to seeing this on store shelves- likely by April or May. Look for it under the name "Tuffleye"
Update
Recently I shared some comments with the folks behind this new material. From those e-mails I feel they are on the ball, ready to listen, and working hard to improve the product before it reaches tiers. Frankly, they did exactly the right thing by sending "Beta Kits" to tiers such as Bob Popovics and others. Far too often in the past, fly fishing products - including even high-end fly reels - have come to the market without adequate field testing, only to fail at sea or on the stream. Don't you hate it when that happens?