Since several members have mentioned me, this is how I got into supplying UV resins.
First of all, I am not in the fly tying supply business. However, I will treat you like I want to be treated.
I am actually a retired physician who majored in Chemistry at Stanford. I was also disappointed in Clear Cure Goo, so I decided to do my own resin research. I understand the frustration with the tackiness, since fly tying resins should cure tack free. Coating the tacky surface with Sally Hansens is a needless step if the resin performed correctly. Unfortunately those who market these resins did not understand the chemistry of these UV cured resins. They repackaged industrial UV resins that were formulated for curing in under high energy UV lamps and not with low power UV flashlights.
The reason that other fly tying resins do not cure completely with UV flashlights is oxygen inhibition. These acrylic UV resins polymerize by free radicals that form bonds with each other.
The lack of cure or tackiness on the surface is due to oxygen that has acted as a monomer and formed a bond with the free radical. These peroxy radicals can no longer bind with each other, or with the polymer free radical. The oxygen monomer blocks the free radical bonding site. So they either delay the curing time, or the resin can no longer cure with the flashlights.
The tack is the uncured peroxy radical and you feel it at the surface that is exposed to air. If you know anything about chemistry, you know that every liquid is at at steady state with the atmosphere around it. Therefore, there is some dissolved oxygen in the liquid resin mixture. So there is also oxygen inhibition occurring under the surface and uncured resin remaining inside the resin after “curing”. This weakens the resin.
My resin contains a chemical that neutralizes the oxygen and allow a complete tack free cure through the entire resin. When I did my research into these polymers I found the problem was NOT finding an acrylic polymer formula that would resist oxygen inhibition. That was really the easy part. The problem is finding an acrylic polymer formula that is cheap enough to be used in fly tying, that has enough oxygen inhibition resistance to cure tack free with the thicknesses used in fly tying, that can be made in small amounts, and that can be completely cured with the hand held low power UV flashlights. I have two formulas that cure tack free in seconds with a flashlight.
Silvercreek Crystal Hard UV Coat is a hard UV clear coat. Silvercreek Crystal Flex UV Coat is a hard surface yet flexible UV clear coat that can be bent in half without cracking. It can be used to coat flies, and it will seal wader leaks, seams on tents, etc.
Although I initially developed these resins just for myself and friends as a hobby, a fly shop convinced me to sell it to them and then other fly tiers wanted to buy it.
