Extra Large Whip Finisher
History of Patents for Whip Finishing Tools – (and there are many). Below my Blog entry here is what I found that shows a design paten for the inventors; in which I have listed a few of them below.
As you will see, various tools have been rewarded patents for the exact same finishing results. They mention in some of the patent text that generally the use of these tools are fairly difficult to master and require considerable skill and training to produce quality tied heads on a fly. I do not agree with that, because with the right instruction (and there are many good YouTube videos to show you how) anyone can pick up on this very effective way to finish off a fly that they had just tied and pick up on it quickly.
There have actually been designs for either right hand or left hand users and I believe the only reason for the submitted innovation that was considered an invention, was to get around the patent original patent so a new one could be submitted and approved.
Out of all the whip finishers I could find through the US Patents Office, none of them had the modern loop that is incorporated into the wire on the outside of the post to hold the thread. The one that was invented by Frank W Matarelli in 1974 is the closest to what we see today; and by looking at his design… I can see why people considered it a tool that was fairly difficult to master, because you would have to snake the tool out of the single loop with no indent to hold the thread on the outside so the tyer could simply slip it off.
At the typical times of all the inventions listed below, they intended the use of these tools for flies that only had the front head of the fly to finish. Apparently not a whole lot of thought went into finishing of large deer hair bass bugs or long streamer used for musky and salt water fishing.
The Giant Fly Tying Finishing Tool, I call it that to avoid patent violations; it is designed to get a deep reach on flies that were not typically thought about during the times of these inventions. Below are the inventors and their submitted photos; I have the printable PDF for you to download and use to make your own Giant Fly Tying Finishing Tool.
Whip Finishing Tool Inventors.