Our belowed feathers

[Niklas Dahlin]

I have a question.. I try to sort out my materials for shows etc so that I dont need to bring the whole car with stuff. I´m thinking of cutting down on material to bring in my tying bag, one of the things that come to my mind is ripping of feathers from my capes and sort them out in sizes that I need for shows, and ripp of henfeathers for Adamsflies etc. My concern is, will this affect the quality of the material when being ripped of it´s cape, will it dry out and get ruined? I have read in books that the old school tyers ripped material of and sorted them by size in envelopes?

Does anyone know?

Later
Niklas

[dazwah]

whiting 100 packs are not on the skin....im sure they would be fine. just maybe keep them in a sealed zip lock bag to make sure.

[gt05254]

I do it all the time, especially with waterfowl feathers. They go into either ziplock bags or sealable plastic tubs of different manufacturers. I first strip them of unusable fluff. so they are ready to tie on right out of the box.
Gary

[Joe Fox]

Nik,
For a time I was doing this for all tying events / travel tying. Works very well but does take a bit of prep time and that is the sole reason I have not done it a quite a while.

[Niklas Dahlin]

I can understand the time consuming bit, but I might have a go anyway if it doesnt hurt my feathers.. Thanks.

[catskilljohn]

My concern is, will this affect the quality of the material when being ripped of it´s cape, will it dry out and get ruined? I have read in books that the old school tyers ripped material of and sorted them by size in envelopes?

They did that to speed up the actual tying. This doesn't really come into play for you though, because they would burn through a cape alot faster than we could, simply because the whole purpose was to make alot of flies fast.

That said, plucking does not have any adverse effect on hackle. Its not like a cape has any nutrients that feed the feathers, its just a dried up piece of chicken that holds them in place according to size

I went through this whole travel thing myself, and what I do is at home I work out of my travel kit. When I need something new, I sort it and put it in a little zip lock bag, and after about 6 months I have it to where I can tye almost any Catskill pattern with whats in the kit. The stuff I hardly use I carry less of. The beauty of this is you just carry the best materials you have in small quantities.

You could do the same thing with hooks, just put a dozen or so in small bags and label them, you can fit 50 or 75 different sizes and styles in a small space instead of carrying boxes of 100 hooks which take up alot of space everywhere.

CJ

[wiFlyFisher]

It should have no effect on the feathers at all. Whiting has done that for years and selling 100 packs, hair fashion packs, etc. and some end up not used for several years with no issues for the fly tier or in the lady's hair.

Matter of fact Whiting saddle feathers are sooooo long I have pulled a feather tied 1-2 flies and thrown the rest of the feather in a "will-use-sometime" plastic container. It might be months before I use the rest of the feather and it is still perfect.

Just make sure the baggie is big enough so the feathers are not bent or crimped some way.

[ted patlen]

where, what type of event, length of time at the vise, and how far will you be traveling?

if the show is local then little packs of stuff is fine, there are no weight restrictions except for yourself. flying to a show is different. little bags with enough materials in it for 1/2 a dozen of each pattern is more than enough. type of fly? streamers do not take too long to make as well as wets and dries. salmon flies and salt water flies are a little more labor intensive.

how long is the show and how fast can you tye a certain fly?
tying at a show is quite different than anything else.

setting up these packs is well worth the time, the material is already chosen for best quality and sized for the hooks (don't bring too many different sized hooks). bulk items like bucktails etc. can be broken or cut into small pieces. a 2x3 " ziplock bag can carry an array of dubbing for a couple of dozen flies. a few already married wings for wets and salmon greatly increase the time alotted especially if you screw up one wing and don't have to waste another 20 minutes sizing and marrying another. i guarantee that you will get 2 shows from the packets you set up the first time you do this.

[catskilljohn]

What do you carry your stuff around in?

I recommend an oversized animal cracker box. It has both ample room for anything you may bring, and adds a degree of class not seen these days at the shows... right Ted"?

[Joe Fox]

What do you carry your stuff around in?

I recommend an oversized animal cracker box. It has both ample room for anything you may bring, and adds a degree of class not seen these days at the shows... right Ted"?

Holy shit I can't stop laughing.