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[Spawn Sack]

Can someone please explain to me why sometimes you tie a feather or hackle in butt first, and other times tip first? Also, sometimes one side is stripped off, and other times both sides are left on the feather.

My first experience palmering was using schlappen hackle for collars on jigs. I was shown to tie it in butt first near the fuffy bottom part,wrap a few times, and snip it off.

However I have tied some other flies where the tip of was tied in first. To further complicate things, sometimes the left side was stripped off, and other times the right side was stripped off.

It would be a great help to me if I knew when to tie in butt or tip first, and when to strip one side off or not, and what side to strip off in the case of stripping one side of the feather.

[colin6101]

Not sure if there are any rules set in stone, but personally I tie in tip first if I want longer hackle near the head of the fly and butt first if I want the longer hackle near the rear. Secondly I strip off one side of the hackle if I am tying a sparser pattern (which is what I do most of the time). I honestly am not sure if it matters which side is stripped off, I just make sure to lay the bare side of the hackle on the hook while wrapping.

[SteelheadAdict]

ok here i go lol if u want a sparser hackle on the head of your fly strip one side of it and it dosnt matter what sides u strip off. I strip off the worst looking side. Second thing is that whan trying to figuer weather to tie tips or butts i go with if u want thiner more titghly packed hackles tie in tip first if u want thick kind of spread out hackle fibers go with the butt. Tying jigs with schlappen i would tie in tips first personally it depends on how u want the fly to look when i tie drys and stuff like that i normally tie tie tips in first when tying  wooly buggers with hackle i go but first then tieing hackle in on spey flys i tie tips first and somtime strip sides depeding on how dence u want the hackles to be

[RalphH]

there's no hard and fast rules. Stripping one side of the hackle provides a sparser hackle along the body. You want to wrap a stripped hackle so it flows or orients to the back - that is the fibres cup orients to the back of the fly.For wooly buggers etc I want the heavier and longer fibres at the base of the hackle at the head of the fly. I generally tie mine at the front by the base then wrap back and bind the hackle using the rib material - usually wire then work the rib through the hackle to the front and tie it off. Tying the hackle at the back by the tips is also common. It's whatever works for you.

For a front hackle on a wet or dry I always tie it in by the butt then wrap.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks a lot guys. Those tips make sense. Now I just need to find someone off loading a bunch of fly tying supplies, preferably with an assortment of saddle hackle! I have a couple small packs from the fly shop, but would be nice to get some decent sized saddles. I'm not paying $50 plus from the fly shop when I'm only going to tie a few flies here and there with a paticular color. I've heard they're so outrageously priced as there is a high demand for them in the fashion industry. How lame!

[adecadelost]

As others have mentioned stripping off one side will produce a sparser fly.

Tip vs butt depends on the type of profile and where you are tying in at.

When using it as a body you generally want the overall silhouette to taper down to the back, that means the shorter tip feathers are at the tail of the fly and the longer butt feathers closer to the head.
So if the feather is being tied in at the tail and worked forward tie in by the tip, if it is being tied in at the head and worked back tie in at the base.

If using it as a collar on wet flies I usually tie in tip first, this puts the smaller hackle on the bottom and the longer hackle on top when you are palmering forward.  This creates a fuller silhouette as the smaller hackles tend to hold the bigger ones up from underneath. 

When tying a collar on drys I go the other way, this creates a tapered profile towards the head that is more natural of an insect head graduating into the wing.

As well with wet vs dry it's important to remember which side you tie up.  With wets you want the top side (shiny) side facing forward so the cup of the feather allows the hackles to fold back.  With dries, tie the under (dull) side so it faces forward this allows the feather to stand up and float better.

Hope that makes sense.

With buying hackles why not just buy a cape of natural grizzly and dye your own colours using kool-aid and other dyes?

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks everyone, great tips!

Adecadelost, that's a good idea just to buy a natural cape and dye it. Is there much of an art to it? I would hate to destroy a nice (and expensive) cape of grizzly saddle hackle!

If you don't mind let me know how you would dye such feathers. In the mean time I'll see what I can find on youtube, etc.

[colin6101]

Lot's of people just use kool aid to dye their feathers. I'd suggest trying a few feathers at a time until you figure it out. Pretty sure I saw a tutorial on here or flybc sometime. I will see if I can dig it up.

[HOOK]

I had a .pdf file that had instructions on how to use Kool-aid in the microwave.


Boom!! found it



http://www.ronnlucassr.com/docs/Dying%20Feathers%20101.pdf

[colin6101]

I couldn't find the one I was thinking of, but that one has nicer illustrations anyways.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks a lot HOOK. Down the road I'll buy a cape of natural grizzly saddle hackle and dye it up in the various colors I need.

I am a bit nervous to dye such expensive feathers out of fear of ruining them, but it appears to be a pretty tried and tested method. And I guess I could just tie a few feathers at first and if they turn out then dye a bunch in various colors.

[HOOK]

if your using Kool-Aid just remember that some colours will not come out the same as it will if you use Rit dye. for example you cant get purple from Kool-Aid, instead it comes out more like Claret. You also cant do hot pink with Kool-Aid

I have got some really nice colours from Kool-Aid especially Orange and Blue 

Dying feathers is work but its easier than it looks. Little harder if you want to do multi coloured feathers


If you want to do tests then buy a cape of some cheap rooster hackle in WHITE and do up some feathers for practice. just remember that the grizzle will be a touch darker because of the barring and the fact it isn't bleached white but instead is a natural white.

Happy dying