This small DIY article shows you how to make a leather folder or jumbo-wallet for convenient flash storage.
Many tyers would like to have their fly tying materials out and ready, so that they can sit down any time and tie flies. I want to store things so that they are ready when I want to tie flies, but I don't want to have them laying around gathering dust, and I'd also like to be able to use the space for other purposes periods where I don't tie.
My fly tying materials live in a flight case contained in new and old tin cans. But I didn't know how to store flash materials. The racks you can buy are meant to stand on a table and take up too much space in a flight case. I have had the flash in photo pockets, but it curls and also falls out all the time.
I want to store things so that they are ready when I want to tie flies
But the other day I came across a piece of skin I had cut out of a discarded chair long ago. The skin was about 80 x 58 centimeters, so it could be folded around the materials.
I have made a series of holes with a hole punch in the skin and put rivets in 15 centimeters from the top. The holes are made with 2 centimeter spaces - 3 centimeters may be more appropriate. The rivets have a hole of about 5.5 millimeters and can be purchased in most hobby shops. When the skin is cut and the rivets inserted and the skin has been treated with a little leather conditioner on the outside, it is ready for use.
Opposite to the side where the flash will sit, I stick a 2.5 millimeter cable tie through the rivet hole. I lead it around the flash where flash is already tied in a bunch from the vendor. The strip is then passed through the hole again, connected and drawn tight. I then cut off the excess of the strip.
Along with the flash, I usually stick on the label from the bag. I make a hole with a regular hole puncher for paper.
Rivets and strips do not have to have exactly the size that I have specified. The essential thing is that the head of the cable tie cannot pass through the hole in the rivet.
When the materials are to be packed away, I fold the skin over the flash both from above and below. I then fold the skin together in thirds in the other direction and it can now be packed into the flight case ready for the next time it is needed.
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