wings and feathers

[allthegearnoidea]

hi i have a mate who goes shooting and says he can get me as many phesant crow magpie or wood pigeon feathers wings and deer hides i want
so i am thinking of tying my own flies well trying at least my question is
do i need to do anything to the feathers wings and hides before i can use them?as i have seen a lot for sale and cant imagine it is as easy as plucking
or cutting the wings off or skinning the deer otherwise they wouldent be so expensive

[Greenheart]

Originally Posted by allthegearnoidea

hi i have a mate who goes shooting and says he can get me as many phesant crow magpie or wood pigeon feathers wings and deer hides i want
so i am thinking of tying my own flies well trying at least my question is
do i need to do anything to the feathers wings and hides before i can use them?as i have seen a lot for sale and cant imagine it is as easy as plucking
or cutting the wings off or skinning the deer otherwise they wouldent be so expensive

I was given some Jay wings a few years back. I just dried them off in an airing cupboard & stored them in sealable polybags with a couple of mothballs. Worked fine for me. Not sure about hides though.

[geejayy]

hi m8, for dry flys.
imho, the most usefull materials to get ahold of are capes, for the hackle feathers,
find someone who has too many cock bantams running around the yard,
cull a few and skin out the neck , then dry them out as greenheart suggests.

older birds are best for drys because they will have a nice stiff hackle feather which runs to a fine point.
with the whole cape you'll have a variety of sized hackles to suit the size of fly you are tieing + some larger ones to tie in as wings for 'hackle wing spent mayfly' patterns.
they also can be used to twist with a gold rib & tie in along the body over the usual material to add bouyancy instead of 'palmering' with hair.

colours to look for are;- honey , black, grizzle(rough grey/white bars).

for animal skins i'd peg them to a board, fur down and coat the bare skin(remove any flesh &fat)then treat with alum to help dry it quicker.
i've not tried, so dunno if it works.

tails , fox, squirrel,stoat etc, the sml animals dont matter too much coz there 's little soft tissue on the tails , but for things like fox, u need the whole carcass to start, -cut arround the skin at the base of the tail, cut a length of hazel sapling and split it lengthways,like a thatching spar but only 1/2 way down , pinch this like an old clothes peg around the cut on the tail , squeeze it together and pull peeling the skin off the tail.
then slide a wire up the skinned tail and hang somewhere to dry ( not the airing cupboard, or all your clothes will stink of fox.

gj.

[allthegearnoidea]

thanks geejayy great advice wil try it