Thread: Jig heads ...

Originally Posted by RobJohnson

I hold the hook and heat the head, then clamp hemostats on the hook eye and dip in powder paint! No paint on the eyes!!


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I didn't like cleaning my stats. Matter of fact I prefer cleaning the eye over cleaning my stats.

Skip

Originally Posted by wicklundrh

I'm doing thousands in a week. I have a piece of Styrofoam board. I preheat all of my jigs in the oven, dip them in paint and then run a sewing needle through the eye and stick it into the Styrofoam board. Pull the jig off the pin and hang it. Depending on the jig, some of them you don't even need to go all the way to the eye of the hook when dipping in the paint.

Since I couldn't tie thousands a week I never needed that many, heck now that I have backed away from tying a lot I don't need to paint much either, but still would have never needed thousands a week. Do you actually cure all these heads?

Skip

Skip,

I am not tying any of them. All the jig heads I sell are cured in the oven. I think I sold close to 16,000 heads in the month of February and March of this year. Mainly 5/8oz, 3/4oz, and 1oz in a ton of different varieties for walleye fishing. The rivers here eat jigs like there is no tomorrow. Been a long time since I sat down at the vice and tied any.

I spend much of the summer months pouring. I paint as many plain colors as I can in the fall and then do the custom patterns as orders come in. Not uncommon to get orders for several hundred per person. At one time last year I had 43 orders sitting in queue totaling more than 2700 jigs. That was a span of orders for 2 days. Word of mouth advertising sells faster than any advertising I could buy. Once a couple guys see the type of work and the quality, everyone wants them. Many guys were just tired of purchasing crappy jigs that were not cured. You bounce them off the bottom twice and the paint comes off. Curing has always been a big selling point for me.

I want to start tying again but, like anything else, I'm afraid others I fish with will see them and want them. Another business would then be born and I'm already as busy as I can be!

Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Skip,

I am not tying any of them. All the jig heads I sell are cured in the oven. I think I sold close to 16,000 heads in the month of February and March of this year. Mainly 5/8oz, 3/4oz, and 1oz in a ton of different varieties for walleye fishing. The rivers here eat jigs like there is no tomorrow. Been a long time since I sat down at the vice and tied any.

I spend much of the summer months pouring. I paint as many plain colors as I can in the fall and then do the custom patterns as orders come in. Not uncommon to get orders for several hundred per person. At one time last year I had 43 orders sitting in queue totaling more than 2700 jigs. That was a span of orders for 2 days. Word of mouth advertising sells faster than any advertising I could buy. Once a couple guys see the type of work and the quality, everyone wants them. Many guys were just tired of purchasing crappy jigs that were not cured. You bounce them off the bottom twice and the paint comes off. Curing has always been a big selling point for me.

I want to start tying again but, like anything else, I'm afraid others I fish with will see them and want them. Another business would then be born and I'm already as busy as I can be!

Well you really got it going on with the painted heads, but they are large heads and we are dealing with 1/8 usually as a big head. I do a lot of 1/16 and 1/32 oz heads and it's not easy to paint them without getting paint on something, lol! Plus the smaller the head the faster the heat will dissipate. I just like tying and for me painting heads is just a matter of making them look better. Still for me if I was not tying them I would not be making anything. Tying became what I spent time on after I quit trading the stock market. I was spending so much time on computers with that when I stopped, there was a massive amount of time I didn't know what I was going to do with it. So took up tying and never looked back. Never got into pouring heads at all and never really wanted to do that part. I am not trying to make a living doing this, it's my hobby and I spent a ton of time at the beginning as there were no schools near me and no youtube videos, it was digging on flitting boards and lessons on them. Then learning the language of what is what really. It's like someone asking what is hackle, lol!

Skip

The paint don't stick to the states, they aren't hot! You're just using them to hold the eye while you power paint!


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wow I just noted that I was a dumba** for not cleaning my eyes .. this as turn into a great discussion
Steve-stabgnid

Originally Posted by skiptomylu

Well you really got it going on with the painted heads, but they are large heads and we are dealing with 1/8 usually as a big head. I do a lot of 1/16 and 1/32 oz heads and it's not easy to paint them without getting paint on something, lol! Plus the smaller the head the faster the heat will dissipate. I just like tying and for me painting heads is just a matter of making them look better. Still for me if I was not tying them I would not be making anything. Tying became what I spent time on after I quit trading the stock market. I was spending so much time on computers with that when I stopped, there was a massive amount of time I didn't know what I was going to do with it. So took up tying and never looked back. Never got into pouring heads at all and never really wanted to do that part. I am not trying to make a living doing this, it's my hobby and I spent a ton of time at the beginning as there were no schools near me and no youtube videos, it was digging on flitting boards and lessons on them. Then learning the language of what is what really. It's like someone asking what is hackle, lol!

Skip

I hear you Skip.

I do sell jigs from 1/32 oz all the way up to 1.5oz. I use the same sewing needle strategy on all of them. Most of my smaller jigs, 1/32 to 1/2, I can actually hold the hook, dip the head, and not get paint into the eye. I hold the hook with my stats instead of the eye (like some guys do). I used to do it that way, but once I got bigger fluid bed cups I was able to hold them with the hook, dip them in at an angle, cover the whole thing, and not worry about the eyes. For my minnow jigs, shad head jigs, and erie jigs, I cannot do it that way!

Stab... this is how we all learn. Sometimes, threads like this give some of us better ideas or things we never thought of doing before. Believe me, I made the "paint in the eyes" mistake when I first started. Sat there with a torch and a paperclip and vowed to never do it again!

wicklundrh I also hold the hook with my stats, tried the other way like some do, but I didn't like that at all. I don't think I can be accurate enough to dip and miss the eye, have to admit I never really tried that, but I also kind of like the eye painted, just not full of paint, LOL! I really think it would need a picture or two for me to really grasp and understand how your doing that. I use the 3" cups, have a few of the smaller cups and don't care for them much even though I do use a few especially on my Glow in the dark heads.

Rob, my stats are getting hot holding the eye as I use flame and the head, stats are both getting hot! Not sure how your holding the eye and not getting it hot too, but I also don't like holding the eye when I dip and really prefer the eye painted too.

There is one more way to do this and I believe Fatman uses it for his Pony head swivels, he dips the swivel in cold water just before the dip and the paint dopant stick, but maybe the eye like that may be a bit of a challenge huh?

Good discussion, but I still do not understand wicklundrh's method to the point I would know how to try that. Still confused, LOL! Gonna go read his post again and maybe again until I get it!

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