Hi Don,
It is indeed a very interesting and challenging project, but I cannot
talk in public about it. However, as I'm just a regular employee, it
neither increases nor decreases my pay-check. It just ensures that it is
paid.
Thanks for putting it all together, was a nice and recreational hour to
read carefully through it.
Your trick with the hot water is something I'd like to try, however this
will be later. If you treat the finished fly with the hot water: What is
your experience regarding the durability of the paint? Is there a risk
that some of the dye will add color to additional feathers?
Rene
On 03/05/2017 06:20 PM, DonO wrote:
Rene,
I hope it’s a *good job* that keeps you on the go. Lots of $$$$.
I don’t use the Wing Things to attach the wings to the hook, although
I actually could if needed.
Easiest thing is to list the things I do with them, which will all be
in the Wing Things 2.0 extension of the article. And I’ll probably do
a You-tube video. I’ll try to list them in order. (I’ll be using this
as the outline for /Ver 2.0 Wing Things/ on my website with lots more
photos.)
1. *Group bulk feathers left and right**, (off of one cape) trimmed
and set to length, size, color, webbieness, etc. So if I want big
presentation streamers I group all the big feathers at the back of the
cape, trim the downy butt ends and insert as many will fit in the wing
thing. I have bigger straws to accommodate large groups of thick
feathers. For smaller fishing flies, I start in the middle of the cape.
Depending on whether I’m tying a bunch or similar patterns for a swap
or designing individual flies, this grouping of large quantities of
L/R hackles is useful. Sometimes I use the tubes, and sometimes I have
extras stored in small plastic pockets, especially when I’m
designing. (Photos in WT 2.0)
**2.* I have many necks that dried ‘weird’ and *don’t have equal
rights and lefts* (especially old Chinese capes). Also, the modern
drying techniques for bagging actually set a reverse curve (or even a
twist) in the feathers from the natural, so what you think is a left
is actually a right. The vendor hot dying & drying process re-sets
the curves, so another hot water bath will reset the curves the way
you want them- regardless of L/R bends, in a Wing Thing. So set an
*equal number* of L/R feathers in the Wing Thing (ignore curves &
twists) and run it through hot water and lay the whole group on a
blotter with the shape you want to let it dry. This will also expose
non-color-fast dyes used, and you can see from my blotter in the
photos. When they dry you will have equal #s of properly curved
rights and lefts OR all straight if that’s what you need. For
presentation flies, I always use a slight graceful curve. The wing
will dry dense, still looking wet, but *combing it out with a small
brush* will restore the dry bulk of the wing.
Note that this /so far is for a single bulk color/. Once the finished
multi-wing wing is built, or the fly is finished, another dredge
through the hot water helps to control unruly feathers, along with
some other techniques I’ll mention. Sometimes I’ll be able to wait
until the fly is finished before I dredge it. /Depends on how the
feathers are cooperating./
*3. For grouping/holding/controlling feathers while designing*. The
article explains this pretty well, for both wings and cheeks. But if
the feathers aren’t cooperating, there’s more you can do.
*4.* Once I have my wing ‘dead to rights’, *I tie the tips together*
with about 6-10 tight wraps, /no knot or glue/, before inserting into
the WTs. This keeps the wing feathers from sliding back and forth as
I insert cheek groups or individual feathers. I do this
cheek-matching many times and the thread knot controls my wing
layering. If I want to change the layering, the thread slides right
off and I can re-design the wing.
*5.* Once I have the wing-set I want, or if I have a lot of wing
feathers that may try to rotate around as I tie the group down, *I’ll
drop in some head cement into the back end of the Wing Thing tube* and
watch it penetrate into the wing feather tips just a little, catching
some barbs, before setting it on a pin. Don’t worry if you over-do it
a little, the cheeks cover the glue area. *Once it dries, pull it out
and trim the front tips to a short wedge* so there’s no hump in the
head when you tie it down. Re-insert or tie down onto the hook.** If
you are having a hard time keeping the wing feathers stable while
gluing, use a reverse tweezers to grab the fly at the cheek area to
flatten it out while drying. (will have photos)
**I like to tie the belly fibers before tying the wing- helps position
the wing better with a larger base.
To Answer Rene’s question about using the wing things to attach the
wing to the hook, If you didn’t use glue, you could tie the loaded
wing-ting down real tight, pull off the wing thing, trim the butt
ends, and finish tying the head. Pre-gluing would alleviate this.
(This is also a good technique for tying ‘fishing streamers’ as it
keeps inside feathers from being jerked out of the head.)
*6. Staging assembly-line groups for commercial tying.* Use Wing
Things to create an *assembly line of processes, *rather than one fly
start to finish. Build all your wings- then pick up the capes &
unclutter. Build all your cheeks- unclutter. Set-up the final tie
assembly and drying racks without all the capes and cheek feathers in
the way.
*I always have a large group of hooks pre-tied* and on a card, but I
inevitably tie more as I’m designing. Commercial tiers would want to
do this also.
I would estimate that /commercial /tying time could be cut in half
using the Wing Things and an assembly line process. For show-fly
designing, time is not a factor, just efficiency and tying space. I
always keep everything handy, though. A commercial tier could do it
both ways and compare the time for like a 100 flies. Don’t count the
time to build the pin-holders, since you will re-use them over and
over. Commercial tying may be one instance where the Wing Things
could be used to tie the wings as a group to the hooks.
*7.* Often I have a completed fly with wing in the vise except for the
cheeks. Nothing I have pre-tied works for me. So I spread out all of
the different cheek feather choicess and go to work with a *wing thing
pushed over the head of the hook.* This is where the split on the
Wing Thing is also helpful. The WT slides on enough to cover the
start of the wing (or cut deeper), so I have a little opening on each
side to slide in a mix and match cheek with JC eyes or spears to ‘take
a look’- without tying them down. If I like, but want to experiment,
I’ll take a photo to save the design. Than I can try something a
little different or totally different, depending on how the wing
looks. Once I Ihave what I want, I remove the WT and tie the cheeks
down carefully.
Once I’m done tying, I take my sharp-tip reverse tweezers and drage
the whole fly though hot water. This trains the wing, cheek, and
belly hairs into a minnow shape and relaxes any ‘wild hairs’. Once
dry, I carefully comb out to shape and photo for records.
I leave all of my finished flies on a styrofoam block next to my
bench, so I can design new flys based on the features I like best on
previous flies. My designs evolve over time, but a new set of
feathers, cheeks, etc. re-starts the process. A new theme, like birds
or Matlache Island colors, etc. re-starts the process.
There’s a lot here verbally, but a video would show it short and
sweet. To start, I will continue the article and add more photos of
each of these steps.
I’ve had both hobby-tiers and commercial tiers thank me for this
simple and CHEAP tying technique. You can get straws from any gas
station coffee stand, or buy round coffee stirrers by the carton.
My next thing is to learn framing and fly mounting in order to create
themed streamer-fly plates.
Hope this helps. If anything is unclear, fire away and I will answer
and upgrade Wing Things 2.0.
DonO
*From:* rene.zillm...@t-online.de
*Sent:* Sunday, March 05, 2017 6:15 AM
*To:* vfb-mail@googlegroups.com
*Subject:* AW: [VFB] RE-POST: New FOTD Matlacha Island Theme
Streamers- Finals
Hi Don,
thanks. Sorry, I'm late answering, but my current project asks for a
lot of travel and I seldom sit at my PC.
For the Wing-Thing: I do not see how you use them to attach the wings.
Or are you using them for the design phase only?
Streamer are really a thing with 2 faces, large fish and a great
option, just to make nice and decorative items.
Warm regards
Rene
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