Craft Beads? Alternative Craft Store Materials to Add "Naturalistic" Characteristics?

cdnred

Life of the Party
Is anyone using craft beads?
Problem: I found many of the beads had holes that are too small to go around the bend of a J hook up to the eye.
Solutions?
I remember one of the tiers at the WFF Fair mentioned he was drilling them out. Is anyone doing that? What kind of vise and drill do you use?
Is anyone tying in a straight pin to the hook shank for the bead and tying the tippet into the hook eye below the bead (or likely above once in the water)?

Some of the hematite beads have the problem with the small hole size going over a J hook bend. Unfortunately hematite is brittle so I don't think they can be drilled. However picking through them with forceps I find many beads that work.
Just a thought as I had similar issues when drilling thru material like glass on lampshades. I found the torque and speed to be the big factor. What I came up with was to use a hand drill that can be slowly turned to increase the hole size. I had bought one for when I owned a sailboat and it cost a lot less then this Fiskars (just an example) below found on Fiskars' website for $34.99 and I'm sure you can find something similar but cheaper elsewhere..
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Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
Just a thought as I had similar issues when drilling thru material like glass on lampshades. I found the torque and speed to be the big factor. What I came up with was to use a hand drill that can be slowly turned to increase the hole size. I had bought one for when I owned a sailboat and it cost a lot less then this Fiskars (just an example) below found on Fiskars' website for $34.99 and I'm sure you can find something similar but cheaper elsewhere..
View attachment 51016
I have had this hand drill for many years and like it:

Amazon product ASIN B000JRDLVY
 

Brian Miller

Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting Cutthwoat Twout
Forum Supporter
Just a thought as I had similar issues when drilling thru material like glass on lampshades. I found the torque and speed to be the big factor. What I came up with was to use a hand drill that can be slowly turned to increase the hole size. I had bought one for when I owned a sailboat and it cost a lot less then this Fiskars (just an example) below found on Fiskars' website for $34.99 and I'm sure you can find something similar but cheaper elsewhere..
View attachment 51016
An important tool for drilling out beads is a vise to hold them. @Zak shared the tip about 3mm - 8/0 silvered or silver lined beads. I talked to a staff member at Shipwreck Beads who is an angler and said those silvered 3mm 8/0 Czech beads have a hole that's slightly larger. I found they work on the #10 - #14 hooks I use most often and the size is proportional.
Here is a link to what I bought, but this product is now unavailable:
Amazon product ASIN B017TQZUP2
A search for: "3mm Transparent Silver Lined Round Loose Spacer Beads" turns up a bunch of hits. Maybe these would be the same or similar:
Amazon product ASIN B0943XBNKH
They fit on most hooks size 10 and smaller. The beads are not identical one to another and the ones that are "long" (i.e., the hole in them is more of a tube) sometimes don't fit around the bend of the kook, depending on the curve of the bend. You might look for just the red color; so far, I have almost exclusively used the red color beads.

The silvering inside seems to make a big difference in how they look in the air and underwater.
 

G_Smolt

Legend
Pseudo-hair from the craft store. Because it doesn't say "fly fishing" on it, you get 108sq inches for $4.99...as opposed to $6.99 / 40sq in at a flyshop.
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Virtually every synthetic used in fly tying comes from the textile world. Craft stores are a wealth of materials if you know where to look.
 
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