I recently gave some thought to making my own "antique" hooks. As members are undoubtedly aware, most hooks on the market today just don't make the grade aesthetically. The barbs are too big, the points too long, and most offensive are those atrocious eyes, which destroy whatever intrinsic grace the fly might have possessed.

As I sat glumly looking at a bunch of Mustad 4/0 (36890, 3366) salmon hooks, it occurred to me that I might do some handiwork with a file, wire cutters, and a $13.00 blowtorch (no, this isn't "The Great Escape"). To my surprise, I discovered that by glowing and stretching out the eye and filing the shank down to a taper, I had a hook that while not award winning was one with which I could work. Glowing and turning the bend, filing the point and barb, and there I had it.

Recoloring the hook also seemed a good idea, so I went to the paint department of a local store and purchased a can of black Krylon appliance spray paint. If the hook is clean and smooth, it will take the paint like a dream. Let the hook set for a day over a source of heat and you will wind up with a very reasonable "antique" blind-eye hook, ready for dressing. (By the way, Taverner is a good guide for hook shapes. There is no limit to the size hook you can create, so no longer are you a slave to hook manufacturers. You can even make Dee irons.

Think of the hideous irons of today as ugly ducklings; there's beauty lurking beneath that woeful exterior--there's gold in them hills--waiting to be found.