This month, our good friend Keith Passant picks up his hairdryer and shares a tip to get the most from your fly tying materials.
So there I was. Tying a few flies for a customer and really struggling to get them looking “just so”. Why I asked myself were the materials I had purchased from a good source playing me up?
Then like the proverbial penny there was a loud clanking noise as it, the penny, dropped. The materials were dyed mallard. Now the process of dying the feathers means the materials take on the colour and are then dried quickly and left before packing. What you the customer get is a pack containing dyed feathers that are matted and clinging together. More importantly not looking as nice as they did when they came off the bird for sure.
So what can be done to put it right and how many of you are prepared to do something about it? I don’t mean complain to the supplier. I mean sort it out yourself. This is what I did.
There are a few bits that you need to get together before you start. They are:
Sieve.
Bowl.
Hair Shampoo.
Hair Conditioner.
Paper Kitchen Towels.
Hairdryer.
Old Bag.
Feathers. These in the article are Grey Mallard Flank because I did the job and didn’t take photos until it was too late of the dyed olive feathers.
This is what I started with. Put about an inch or 2.5cm of tepid water into a bowl and add a small amount of hair shampoo.Just enough to produce a small amount of bubbles.
Empty the feathers out into the bowl. Wet them thoroughly with the shampoo water and let them soak for a minute or so. This will loosen any clotted dye or in the case of natural feathers damage from blood or mud. This process works perfectly on feathers you may be given by shooters or collect from road kill. Drain the feathers through a sieve. Do not take them out of the sieve.
Now for the hair conditioner. Get a small amount on a finger and pick up the bundle of feathers and massage the conditioner into all the feathers. Put to one side for a minute or so and rinse well.
Next put them onto the kitchen towel and pat as much water out of them as possible. Don’t be to gentle. They are resilient little things and will take some pressure.
Then place in bag.
The bag I used is a cotton bag that a posh pair of slippers came in about 10 years ago. I knew it was kept for a good reason !!
Attach bag to hairdryer and turn on machine.
Agitate the bag to make sure the feathers are dried evenly. As the bag is fairly coarsely woven the air can pass through and won’t wreck the dryer. This process will take about 3 or 4 minutes.
And this is what you should get as a result. From a matted mess of feather to this.
And this is what I got from my pack of dyed feathers. After washing and preening I got two lots of feather and a pile of down. You could use the down for dubbing but I already have a few different sorts so it went in the bin.
The result of a bit of this preening and cleaning. Preened below.
Untouched below.
To be honest this method can be applied to just about any fur or feather. The drying time for fur will be longer as the skin will take longer to dry out. It will also go hard but the fur will be fantastic to tie with.
Give it a try and tell us how it helps or hinders.
Tight threads folks.
Keith Passant is fly fishing manager of the Orvis Burford store and is also a qualified fly fishing and fly tying instructor. Visit his website for more details.