Good write up Don, I'm in the middle of a order for 2500 streamers, crazy but I decided to try one shop order. I use parchment paper and build all the wings first, the paper releases the glue and the wing stays together. Four dozen fit on a bakers half sheet with paper, I may have to get some straws and try the wing things. I do use a foam block with slits cut when selecting feathers, 4 matching to the slit and it holds over a dozen.
Peggy On Sun, Mar 5, 2017 at 12:20 PM, DonO <f...@tribcsp.com> 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 > > > > > > > > > > > > -----Original-Nachricht----- > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" > group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscribe@ > googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/ > group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VFB Mail" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to vfb-mail+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Peggy Brenner www: SixSistersFlybox.com -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. 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