Mark" I was taught to hold the stem between your thunb and first finger with the feather laying in your palm. You then position the tip of the feather toward your palm and hold it down with your pinky. With your other hand you stroke the barbs toward each other, squeezing them between your thumb and first finger. This may have to be done several times in order to get them to be creased enough to stay in that position.
I find it tooooo much trouble and too much like work to do it that way, so I just pull off the barbules from one side of the feather. Same result, maybe better ( I believe sparcer is better ) without the frustration of trying to manuver this little feather in one hane and and bending it towards itself with the other. Alan Di Somma Phoenix,Az. http://www.azod.com http://www.azflycasters.org/ http://www.wmonline.com/attract/lakes.htm http://www.wmonline.com/attract/streams.htm "Deep Thoughts" As seen on Cleveland Oh. billboards. You think it's HOT here?.-God ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Klemick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 12:58 PM Subject: [VFB] Hackle Folding : Hello All, : : The brief description on the Whiting web-site describing how the : grizzly pattern generates was really quite interesting, thanks for : mentioning it, DonO. : : Also on the site in the 'Tips and Tricks' section by Al Beatty, he : mentions a nifty hackle folding technique that I tried out. I'm : assuming that the goal is to bend all barbs 90 degrees toward each : other so they're all pointing in the same direction, so that no barbs : get trapped underneath when rotating the hackle around hook or post. : : : You cut a slot in a foam block and then press the stem down into the : slot. It didn't work so well for me, so maybe someone could offer : suggestions. Basically, the barbs just sprang right back to their : original shape after being pulled out of the block. : : Are you supposed to leave them in there for a while? Does it only : work with larger feathers? (I was trying to do some size 16 grizzly : saddle.) : : Thanks in advance for any ideas, : : Mark : : : ps - heh heh heh - the spell checker just suggested that 'DonO' : should be changed to 'Dodo', but I vetoed THAT recommendation :-) : : __________________________________________________ : Do you Yahoo!? : Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. : http://mailplus.yahoo.com
