Question for the fly tyers on the forum

premiercad

Question for the fly tyers on the forum;

Do any forum members use feathers and capes from wild birds in their fly tying as opposed to buying them in shop? and if so how do you properly prepare and store a Cape or Pelt? I am worried about mites etc. in wild birds getting into my other stock. How do you treat the wings etc for storage. Also what are the best Dye's out there for dying your own Pelts/Feathers etc. I want to experiment with getting a wide variety of colours and more importantly the exact colour of certain feathers that shop bought capes don't have. Thanks in advance!

SeaFields

I use a lot of wild stuff. My father goes shooting so there is always a supply of something there. I don't dye them tho.

Freezing the feathers before storing them works for me. I throw them in the back of the freezer for a week or so. That'll kill all the nasties if there are any there.

premiercad

Thanks Sea fields freezer will do the Job for those bugs so. and for pelts etc I presume they need to be washed and dried but just wondering about curing etc

fontanalis

A bit of info here.
http://www.flyforums.co.uk/fly-tying-forum/113999-treating-wings-skins-things.html

Gerry.L

I dabbled with this stuff ages ago. For me it really isnt worth the effort in the long run.

It was hard getting decent dyes... (ie ones that dont make the feather look crap, ones that dont have a chemically smell and ones that dont run after a few hours in the river).

Even then when you get your decent dyes (which can be got for a price), you cant just go and dye any feathers. Like just for an example you cant dye black feathers white.

And then other feathers have natural hints and tones that you wont always see... but when you die it will show up like crazy.

The over-all moral of the story. If your prepared to get good dyes, and get good feathers then yes its very possible and very do-able.

But your going to have a lot of messing on your hands, a ***lot*** of experimenting, and in the long run it will cost more.

aidanf

This book might be of interest:

Dying and Bleaching Natural Fly Tying Materials

premiercad

Thanks for the links guys, Gerry I hear your pain, could be a very messy process, i suppose my main feeling is that capes etc i buy and tie sometimes just dont match the colour Im seeing in the naturals and maybe I dont need to be so exact but Im a bit of a perfectionist when i try to match the hatch!

coolwings

Remember when a trout sees one, it's often disappearing fast, possibly point of view from behind the tail, seen against a background that could be bright, or confusingly dark, with little time to delay before it escapes!

Does this give the idea that I make a general impression rather than an exact imitation, and rely on size and style of movement to be the trigger much of the time?