I'm a SIXTH FINGER man.

Saturday's mail arrived with the usual junk ads for various non-profit organizations, some coupons, and a odd little package from CALY. My usual impatience led me to tearing it open on the street side at once. Within the walls of a stout little envelope tattooed with chicken scratch was the highly anticipated "SIXTH FINGER SCISSORS", unable to with-hold my excitement I ran all the way back to the house with my new toy gripped firmly in my sweaty paws, despite a decades old warning admonished by my kindergarten teacher.

All other duties vanished for the day as I set about a proper field test at the fly tying vice - after I made several Michael scissor-hands jokes with the dogs. The first task was to see if the nifty little ring (that sets these apart from other inferior tinsel snipping tools) would actually fit over my my burly sasquatch-esque digits. So far so good.

With visions of catalogue perfect flies burned in my brain I began tying. The hardest part to get used to these new fangled scissors was that I didn't have to leave them on the desk between snips, and there in lies the beauty and genius behind the sixth finger: normally I set my scissors down and the clippings pile on my desk consumes them like an old studebaker in a blackberry patch. Since cleaning the desk is out of the question (because of all the useful clippings that will never get used) other essential things get lost in the scissor finding process. Another plus is that they are spring loaded, thus saving you unrealized effort during the snipping process, which is stupendous when tying hair frogs and other tools of bass deception.

Lets face it, the fly fishing industry can be as ruthless as "Big Tobacco". They make products that are better at catching fisherman than fish, I myself have even waxed financial about a creating a product that "looks like it should work" or one that completes a purpose that really doesn't need completing in the first place - like a shin guard for floattube mounted trolling motors. That is why I think most of us really appreciate a gadget that not only solves a common problem, but does it well.

The Sixth Finger Scissor is a creation that serves a valuable and so far unfilled purpose. Can you tie flies without one? Sure you can. Will it make your flies look neater and more professional? Thats up to you. Will it save you time and allow you to focus more on the fly, instead of looking for those goddamn scissors all the time? YOU BET YOUR ASS THEY WILL!
Leave it to Ex professional fly tier Keith Barton (of SINGLEBARBED & FISH CAN'T READ fame) to solve a dilemma, make your day just a little bit easier, and save you some time. You can get your kick ass scissors HERE , a swell as read a much more in depth and less whimsical tutorial. Try a set out and you too can be a Six fingered person (Just watch out for that pesky Inigio Montoya fellow).

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