Any advice on wings when using magpie or mallard tips as I keep fucking it up badly and it's making my vain on the top of my head explode.
When it comes to black gnats blea and black etc I can do the wings perfectly fine maybe the issue is the actual cutting off the feather? I can't seem to cut two equal bits?
Don't. Cut one bit wide enough for the two wings and fold it in half. It's the way I have always done it and it doesn't make any difference to the fish. You wont need two slips unless it is for a competition and needs to be perfect.
Take a left and right slip. Cut off a small section off each slip separately and marry together. Use a dubbing needle to remove some feather fibres top and bottom to even out.
Now you can tie the wing to the fly.
Instead of cutting off with scissors use nail clippers.
Quote from: Fishtales on April 17, 2014, 09:46:51 PM
Don't. Cut one bit wide enough for the two wings and fold it in half. It's the way I have always done it and it doesn't make any difference to the fish. You wont need two slips unless it is for a competition and needs to be perfect.
sorry to be a pain have you got any photos of the flies you have done this with I like the sound of it.
These have folded slips for wings.
Grannom
[attachimg=1]
Iron Blue Dun
[attachimg=2]
Ah so you do it similar to doing a teal wing.
Don't cut with anything to get the slope at the rear. Trap the ends between your finger and thumbnail and, holding the fly and the rest of the wing in the other hand, pull and rip the ends off. It makes a more natural finish than a straight cut edge.
A winged Bloody Butcher of mine using slips from L&R primaries.
(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f233/Algie123/bloody20butcher.gif) (http://s48.photobucket.com/user/Algie123/media/bloody20butcher.gif.html)
Follow Paul's advice, I havn't used nail clippers,only sharp fine pointed scissors but try both to see what suits you.
Tight Lines
Quote from: Roobarb on May 02, 2014, 11:37:57 PM
I too do as Paul (bibio1) does but just use scissors. With practice you will only need to split off one or two (or even none) fibres with the dubbing needle.
Sandy your method looks shite :shock: I have never cut the back edge of any wing to get a slope, just rely on the natural shape of the feather. But you are quite right it makes not a jot of difference to the fish and as you say is probably better with the ragged profile.
I don't particularlly like Alan's fly above either - wing too thick and stuck up too high. But again I'm sure it catches fish. Fly style is a very personal thing isn't it? Some of the horrors I've seen used when ghilling make you weep but they all catch fish!
Andy
wee bit harsh? :roll:
QuoteI don't particularlly like Alan's fly above either
Shows me how little you know Andy. The fly is meant to show paired wing slips as opposed to a rolled wing. It was not meant as a exibition entrant. Not that I need to justify myself but the actual fly j peg was produced on a flatbed scanner many years ago & compressing hard against glass will tend to make hackles wings & tails thicker than they might well be not that I think this one is overly thick.
(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f233/Algie123/Teal_Blue__Silver.gif) (http://s48.photobucket.com/user/Algie123/media/Teal_Blue__Silver.gif.html)
This more to your taste? A folded Teal wing rather than the paired the original questioner asked about.
As they say in Glasgow
Stick that in your pipe & smoke it.
:makefun
Quote from: Roobarb on May 02, 2014, 11:37:57 PM
I too do as Paul (bibio1) does but just use scissors. With practice you will only need to split off one or two (or even none) fibres with the dubbing needle.
Sandy your method looks shite :shock: I have never cut the back edge of any wing to get a slope, just rely on the natural shape of the feather. But you are quite right it makes not a jot of difference to the fish and as you say is probably better with the ragged profile.
I don't particularlly like Alan's fly above either - wing too thick and stuck up too high. But again I'm sure it catches fish. Fly style is a very personal thing isn't it? Some of the horrors I've seen used when ghilling make you weep but they all catch fish!
Andy
I like the fly to be sleek and streamlined.
Looks like you tyed the wing in upside down and that is why you are getting the split and separation, folding helps eliminate that :crap
Doing it the way you have means you are compressing the feather against the grain which can cause it to turn over rather than crush down. It also does that if you cut the slips too close to the centre stem as the herls are thicker there and don't compress as well. You will see it better on larger feathers where the feathers next to it overlap. The part outside the overlap, you will see the line up the feather, is finer that the part below the overlap. You would cut the slips from the feather on the outside of that line.
I don't have any feathers here at the moment Andy but if you look at an individual herl, one side, I think, is concave, very slightly, and the other is convex, the upper side. When the herls come together these fit over each other and the hooks marry them together.
I think this shows it.
http://ncsce.org/pages/feathers.html (http://ncsce.org/pages/feathers.html)
Tying it in with the feather the 'right' way up has the convex side facing up so it compresses better than with the feather the 'wrong' way up which is compressing against the convex side.
Probably shouldn't make that much difference and I'm probably talking out my arse, but it sounds good :)
I found this electron microscope of the barbules.
(http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554images/Feathers_SEM.jpg)
You can see the convex in the part next to the stem.
This one shows a cross section of the barbule with the hooks on one side and the loops on the other.
http://ncsce.org/pages/feathers.html (http://ncsce.org/pages/feathers.html)
I think all you need to know is if you can wing a butcher you can wing anything.