Needing to restock eyes, scale mesh, blanks, hooks, split rings etc. Would you think its best to buy all this stuff from one vendor (if possible) or shop around? My experiences have lead me to think fewer vendors is better. For example: vendor A's 6mm eyes don't fit vendor B's lure blank with 6mm eye sockets. Or vendor A's #5 split ring is smaller than vendor B's #5. I've found that one vendors LC 1.5 KO is not the same size, shape or material as a different vendors LC 1.5 KO. This is true of many lure blanks of the same model from different vendors. Anyone who paints their own probably wants a good selection of styles and models so a single vendor for everything is pretty tough to find. Your thoughts on this are appreciated. Please, no lectures about poor quality Chinese made.....yadda, yadda, yadda....or mine is better than yours bullshine.

This is where I found my HD split rings that I'm pretty happy with.
http://stores.ebay.com/riverguidesupply/Terminal-Tackle-/_i.html?_fsub=453659201

This is where I get most of my 3D eyes. You can find them on Ebay a little bit cheaper if you order them in bulk from China, but you have to wait several weeks for them to arrive.
http://stores.ebay.com/fishjunkie77/

I get my hooks from CaptainHooksWarehouse unless I can find them on sale somewhere else.

I have yet to find one site to get all of the blanks that I want, so I have to order them from multiple sites.

I just finally got some scale mesh to try. I have been using the mesh from a loofah or body pouf from walmart.

So I guess what I'm saying is that to get the best bang for my buck I am ordering everything from a different source. If it was all available from one site for a reasonable price I would buy it, but I have not found that site yet. Barlow's tackle has a lot of the items that I use, but I can easily beat their prices on Ebay or even Amazon. I hope this somewhat resembles the response you were looking for. I'm looking forward to seeing where everyone else gets their goodies.

barlow's for convenience for eyes, hooks, split rings, material to dress treble hooks. lure blanks are poor quality and limited selection. better prices at capn hook
blanks from "get bit custom baits", dinger, unpainted lures, predator. just ordered some from wlure at http://stores.ebay.com/fishingaccessoryshop to try their quality. prices are great hope the quality is too. if you're looking for big quantities, wlure has ridiculously low prices at their web site for quantities of 250 per style.
amazon and ebay for special deals. never know what you'll find
eyes from fishing skirts. the carry boss true vision eyes or bog baits.
paint from coast airbrush for createx. hobby lobby or walmart for folkart
scale mesh from walmart. they have three sizes. a yard of the stuff goes a long way.
everybody's who's reselling blanks is getting them from china. i would bet the majors are having their stuff made there too.

BC, did you ever pick up your blanks from Bo, because those are from wLure and you can see the quality on those.

haven't yet. between his ailments and mine it's been tough to find a time. i really want to get them to see what the wlure blanks are like. i think friday might work for me so i need to give him a pm and see if he is available.

The wLure blanks are good quality products . Just finished putting a coat of paint on a few of them this afternoon. Trying to get back into the game by putting patterns on a few small lures....figuring out how to paint CW's tiny rattle baits is a good challenge.

Top lure is one of the tiny 1/8 oz. traps from "Get Bit", middle is a 1/4 oz. CB-6 from Dakota, bottom is from wLure. Not sure what its called but its T-I-N-Y. I plan on clear coating it with D2T for some extra weight. The lures in the picture aren't done yet...no details. Can't wait to put that little diver on an ultra light spinning reel and go at some bass with it.

This is the blank I got from wlure. It's the smallest bait I've painted so far.

This thing is T-I-N-Y.....CWorthy gave me two of them....thinkin' its from wLure. Looks just like a fat little baitfish...hope bass think so too.

Yep, you would be right. Those are from wLure. It sure didn't look like that though when you got it.

That is indeed tiny.

My observations of shad in the wild lean toward smallish threadfin and larger gizzard shad. I'm thinking something like this pattern might be good on that tiny Sebile rattlebait you sent me. And for the larger one a gizzard shad pattern.....any thoughts??
Those rattle baits present a good challenge mostly due to size and shape....hoping I can do them justice.

In line with the original post: I just ordered some blanks from wLure so I guess the problems with consistent model selection of lure blanks and vendors will continue. Stencils are pretty easy to make and milk jugs are plentiful around my house so I guess I'll just have to make lots of stencils according to vendor not model. The problems are with patterns that are mostly freehand painting....takes a few attempts to get one down...burn a lot of time that way....just a little change can make a big difference. It would be nice to get a wide selection of blanks from one vendor and have them be the same size and shape every time. Guessing that issue is just part of doing business abroad...seems like we could make lure blanks in the USA at a decent price....I'd pay more for good quality made in the USA. May have to start working with wood blanks

You are so funny. Like I would reject anything that you did. It's not like I wonder if I will like it, it's more like I can't wait to see what I'm getting. I think your choices sound great to me.

I would be very interested in making a large order of blanks in one style and splitting them between several of us so that we could have blanks from the same batch and hopefully they would be a consistent size. Especially on deep divers. Cederrunoutdoors.com has square bills for cheap and seem to be good quality and those two types is primarily what I use. I haven't made any stencils yet because I would like a large batch of the same style before I make any. I also really want to find out where suppliers get their holographic foil. They are all using the same type and I can't find it available for purchase no matter how hard I try.

bump