For certain types of fishing, hooks with the sharpest of points and a hard corrosion resistant finish are important. The search for this lead us to the discovery of Niflor combined with the flashpointing technique. Our roots may go back to the 1830s, but we like to think we can stay at the forefront of hook design!

THE SPECIAL "NIFLOR" GREY SHADOW FINISH

Our Grey Shadow hooks have a "Niflor" finish and are all "Flashpointed".

What is "Niflor"?
"Niflor" is a special hard, protective finish which combines particles of PTFE with nickel/phosphorous. The result is a very even, dry-lubricated, low- friction surface which is extremely hard and resistant to wear.

The PTFE particles are evenly distributed in the nickel/phosphorous so that even if the surface wears slightly, the new PTFE particles are exposed keeping the exposed surface still slippery.

"Niflor" has been extensively used in valves, cylinders, rotors and, in particular, north sea oil components. It is a patented process and its development is a British invention.

The main advantages of the Grey Shadow finish are:

VERY SHARP POINTS
The sharpness of the point is not affected by the "Niflor" finish, which is a very even coating with no build-up on the point. (Build-up can occur with other finishes that are not applied carefully).

LOW FRICTION PENETRATING POINTS
This comes from the PTFE content of the "Niflor", which produces a slippery finish.

DURABLE SHARP POINTS
Because of the very hard protective "Niflor" coating coupled with the slippery finish, the points on the Grey Shadow hooks hold their sharpness for a long time. (Some fly fishermen have caught 30 or 40 fish without any sign that the point has dulled).

WEAR RESISTANT SURFACE
"Nilfor" is a hard finish so it is not easily worn or scratched exposing the metal to rusting.

CORROSION RESISTANCE
"Niflor" is strongly resistant to corrosion which means that Grey Shadow hooks last longer. This can be important in salt and brackish water. Some fly fishermen have turned completely to Grey Shadow hooks after they have found that standard bronzed hooks have rusted on flies in their box exposed to rain when they have been fishing.

UNOBTRUSIVE
The dull grey finish means that the hooks are less visible to the fish.

VERY STRONG HOOKS
Gray Shadow hooks are made out of very high carbon steel. Therefore they have the inherent strength of that material with corrosion resistance approaching that of stainless steel, but without stainless's drawback of being less strong but expensive.

ABOUT FLASHPOINTING

WHAT IS FLASHPOINTING?
We form the points of each hook with our normal needle grinding method. The wire then goes throughout all the other stages to make it into a finished hook and it is then heat-treated.

After that the hooks go through a process in which a chemical attacks the surface. The thinner parts of the wire are affected and, in particular, the point.

The chemical smoothes or "eats away" the metal and, in effect, refines the point. This is quite a critical operation because if the chemical sharpening goes on too long it will eventually dull the point and may weaken the barb. Furthermore, if the chemical attacks one side of the point more than the other then the point will be weakened. Finally, it is important to remember that chemical sharpening will not make a weaker point into a strong one. It is more likely to make a suspect point even weaker!

The method which we use is similar to that which has been used for surgical needles for many years. It has been known in Redditch for a long time.

We have decided to call our method "Flaspointing" and our hooks which have gone through this process are "Flashpointed".

We know that we have always made very sharp hooks and have only decided to "Flashpoint" certain ranges of our hooks because:

1. In some applications, absolutely the sharpest point is necessary (e.g. hair-rig fishing for carp) and if "Flashpointing" guarantees that sharpness then we feel it is a sensible step.
2. Some anglers have become convinced that so-called "chemically sharpened" hooks are necessary for them to be successful. We have to meet the resultant demand, but would stress that strength of a point is just as important as absolute sharpness.
3. Coupled with the "Niflor" finish we can now assure anglers of a really sharp ("Flashpointed") point which will also last a very long time.

   So we will continue to "Flashpoint" only some selected ranges of our hooks, not all ranges.

   (It is an interesting fact that we sell large quantities of fly hooks each year to Japan, and none of these are "Flashpionted". Yet, Japanese hookmakers started the fashion for chemical sharpening)