Small Sickles 4/15/10

[Hawnjigs]

Got some #8, #6, & #4 BLC Sickles from Shorty's yesterday. The #4s have been looking kinda outbent lately and this batch also had too many angled sideways points as well so I'm returning them. #6s had the usual inconvenient quality control issues but were useable. #8s were useable but only 600 were standard configured - 400 had too short legs that would require for example a Do-it 1/32 ball head mold be modified to fit the off size hooks - see pic.
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[JUNGLEJIM1]

It's a common problem with Matzuo. I notice differences in wire diameter in some of them at times as well. Whenever I see these I put them aside for my personal use. I've been using the sickles for over 5 years and they are still the sharpest hook for the money out on the market. I also wish they would do something about their QC,but until something better comes along in their price range I'll keep buying them.

 

[Ron Don]

It's a common problem with Matzuo. I notice differences in wire diameter in some of them at times as well. Whenever I see these I put them aside for my personal use. I've been using the sickles for over 5 years and they are still the sharpest hook for the money out on the market. I also wish they would do something about their QC,but until something better comes along in their price range I'll keep buying them.

Ditto!
Some batches are worse than others. The worst ones I got ahold of had alot of hooks without the eyes.

 

[Jubs]

That's not good what do you do when this stuff happens? Do you have to send them back or just suck it up and deal with it?

 

[Hawnjigs]

Bad eyes are probably better than no eyes! Actually, long/short eye legs can be used to advantage to fit upsize/downsize head molds. For example, a long leg #4 might be a good fit in a 1/8 oz. mold, and a short leg #4 might fit a 1/32. The short leg #8s in the pic made some 1/32 balls with the eyes nicely close to the head with a slightly modified mold.

 

[LedHed]

The QC problems are also in the 10s and 12s. At least they are cheap and sharp...

 

[crappiecripplerjigs]

Jubs I have been sucking it up and dealing with it myself. Also use them for my own use as Jim does. I guess overall I average 25 duds per 1000. I work for a wire manufacturing company and if we had a "non prime" rate of 2.5 % we would have a party! On the other hand, our customers are quick to return wire as well for credit... maybe we should band together and start saving them for return. But that could be a hassle as well... I don't know.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Good Sickles are great hooks, maybe the best for certain light tackle applications. Due to the QC I don't make too many, because practically all boxes require an evenings worth of sorting & pliers fixes. What is frustratingly puzzling is batches have different problems - for example one batch of the same hook might have lots of twisted eyes and another could have perfect straight eyes but off to a side points. I rarely send em back to the dealer unless they have excessive un-repairable defects.

Are you guys that make Sickle hook heads commercially doing any pre-pour sorting? Or just pouring em out of the box & pulling the really bad hooks sitting on the mold?

 

[crappiecripplerjigs]

I don't sort. Shake and grab for me. The duds get tossed aside for use when my pouring is finished and I can tinker with them to use myself.

 

[LedHed]

Ditto ccj - cull out duds - while pouring

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

I pitch the duds while pouring into a coffee can.I won't mess with the duds,for the cost it's not worth the risk of possibly losing a big fish due to a faulty hook. Usually pitch 15-20 on a 1000 ct,not to bad.

 

[CK3]

It's just a downright shame as popular as sickles are right now that
their QC is horrible! I used and still do use Mustad hooks for over
30 years and in that time I've found less than 50 hooks that were not
perfect. Now that's out of probably in excess of 20,000 hooks.
I feel there's no excuse in this day and age to have a failure rate as
high as Matzuo's. I would rather pay a little more and have hooks I can depend on! I've also noticed especially on the 6, 8 and 10 sickles, they are really "spongy" and are easily bent even while tieing a jig. I don't know what the solution is, but I wish Matzuo would pay attention to
the jig tieing forums and realize their problem!!

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Sickles are very popular and in high demand,the demand actually is greater than what they produce so it's possible they don't have the time to address the QC issue. They just keep cranking them out and hope for the best. I know it took over six months to get the #12 sickles here once the order was placed. I've never had a problem with hooks bending or breaking by the time they reach the vise. They are thrown away before they are poured.