If knotting fibers for legs for your insect imitations drive you mad, this tool can help!
A little over ten years ago, engineer Richard Waddingham designed a tool to help his brother tie knots on feather fibers for his fly tying. Steven Waddingham lost an arm in an accident and is captain of the English disabled fly fishing team.
After three years of work and four versions, the Daddy Knot Tool was born. The demand for this new tool quickly grew, and Richard decided to produce it on a commercial basis. After some time, he unfortunately had to stop production for several reasons.
His son Ryan was only 14 years old at the time of the design of the tool - to which he actually contributed through his knowledge of computer drawing. Now an adult, Ryan has taken over his father's invention and the sale of the Daddy Knot Tyer.
In September 2024, Ryan launched the Facebook page "fly tying tools" where he invites fly tiers to share information about their favorite tools. Obviously, it highlights the Daddy Knot Tyer. It is on this page that I discovered it - and I rushed to order it.
Two weeks later, I received my new gadget. My very first impression when unpacking the package was that everything has been done with care by Waddingham: the packaging, the storage box and what can I say about the knot tyer…?
A real little gem. Wow!
The quality of the manufacturing and finish of this tool is remarkable and worthy of what is offered by renowned companies like Marc PetitJean, C&F Design or Renomed.
A small booklet illustrated with photos shows how to use the Daddy Knot Tyer and a very useful video is available on YouTube.
After a few minutes of testing and 6 failed knots, here I am (finally!) able to be consistent in preparing legs for Caddis, Hoppers and Daddy-long-legs with pheasant tail feather fibres.
Carefully machined, the Daddy attaches to the shaft of your vice. Its mechanism is ingenious and allows you to carry out all the steps of the work in one go. Here, the YouTube video is the best way to describe how it works. It is so original and special. It allows you to make one or two knots on the single fibre.
Ryan sells the Daddy Knot Tyer on eBay and a simple search in your favorite search engine will allow you to find it easily. To my knowledge, it is not distributed in stores.
For those who have difficulty making knots on pheasant tail feather fibres, or simply for those who like good quality tying tools, this new gadget is for you.
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