I feel the same way Jimi. I am afraid to delete a post withhout first reading it. The insite, ideas, knowledge, are worth the time and effort to look at them all.
JoeL > > From: "Desert Eagle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2002/11/11 Mon PM 10:13:06 EST > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [VFB] frustrated with feathers > > This List never ceases to "Amaze" me. > I am endeavoring to learn how to tie dry flies somewhere in the caliber > of many of the more experienced list members. I was actually looking at a > couple of my attempts from the "Eye" end and noticed this "Turbine" > appearance of the hackles. I was wondering if this was the way it was > supposed to be or had I done something wrong. > Now one of our "Masters" comes along and explanes exactly what I was > looking at, what caused it and how to correct it. this is almost scarry. > With the experiance that comes from just reading the comments on the > list I belive that I can be years ahead of where I might be without it. > Don and all, "Thank You" for the never ending "School" here on the list. > Jimi > > Mel, > I agree with all of what you said, but would like to add a little to this > portion. > > I have always reverse-splayed my hackles before tying dry flies. Just grab > the hackle by the tip and run the hackle backwards through your pinched > index finger and thumb, standing the barbs out to the stem 90 degrees. It > may take more than one swipe. Don't know who I learned it from, been doing > it for over 30 years. On older neck hackles (before dry fly saddles), this > was necessary to find the 'sweet spot' on the hackle- the portion without > webbing and the right length (size) before the final tapering. One would > 'grade' a neck based on the length and quality of the'sweet spot'. On most > necks this 'spot' was less than 2" long, and many only an inch. ( I > remember well having to use 2 hackles to tie one fly!) A side benefit was > that tying with the barbs sticking straight out from the stem eliminated the > 'turbine-twist' of the fly and thus twisted leaders. > > AK is correct in that today's stiffer hackles can cause twist. But it is > easy to eliminate the twist and still use the stiffer high quality hackles > if you splay the barbs. It is easy to demonstrate. Tie a fly without > splaying the hackles, and then tie an identical one with splaying. Look at > the fly from the eye end. The un-splayed fly will have the barbs in the > 'turbine twist' (not coming out directly from the center of the hook, but > tangentially) and the other will not (with the hackles sticking out directly > from the hook center). Some old-timers just used to grab the whole hackle > end and give it a good counterwise pinch-twist to straighten the hackles. > The a penetrating dab of head cement held it in place. I can't tell you > what a joy it is to tie with today's genetic saddle hackles as opposed to > the necks from 25-30 years ago. > > Another thing to consider is barb curl and cupping. Even reverse splaying > can't straighten out a curved barb, which results from a cupped hackle. > These will make a 'propeller' look on the front view. Today's genetic > hackles have this little unwanted characteristic pretty much bred out. > > When you look at a neck or saddle next time, especially a 100 pak, look for > the part of the feathers that have been splayed by the graders in order to > size them. Do this to the whole hackle. > > Hope this helps, > DonO > > > > >
