Stripped Peacock Quill Bodies

[wsbailey]

Bob, I use artist's turpentine. If you have a Michael's nearby they have 50% coupons you can use. The hardware stuff is too sludgy. You probably mean benzoin.

[Theroe]

Dana, your the first person that mentioned stripping the rachis. I have some that I stripped back in the '70's that I have had stored in a jar of glycerin.

W.S. different subject, what do you use to thin Kelson's head cement and what is the liquid wax made of I know that odor but I just can't place it.

Bob -Ted Niemeyer gets the credit for the duck rachis body - somewhere there is a description in one of the older books, I just can’t remember which one. Also, the bread crust is tied with a grouse rachis - very durable I might add...... i’ve never had one break.
Dana

[narcodog]

Bob, I use artist's turpentine. If you have a Michael's nearby they have 50% coupons you can use. The hardware stuff is too sludgy. You probably mean benzoin.

Thanks Bill, I do have some artist's turpentine. A woman at an artist supply wanted to sell me some odorless turpentine, have you used that?

[narcodog]

Dana, your the first person that mentioned stripping the rachis. I have some that I stripped back in the '70's that I have had stored in a jar of glycerin.

W.S. different subject, what do you use to thin Kelson's head cement and what is the liquid wax made of I know that odor but I just can't place it.

Bob -Ted Niemeyer gets the credit for the duck rachis body - somewhere there is a description in one of the older books, I just can’t remember which one. Also, the bread crust is tied with a grouse rachis - very durable I might add...... i’ve never had one break.
Dana

I wonder where I got the info, it must have been in Fly Fisherman mag.

[wsbailey]

Bob, That's a substitute. The stuff I use smells like a pine forest.

[Bazzer69]

I have been tying with some hand stripped quills from Polish Quill in several dyed colors that I ordered from Competitive Angler during their sale. I really like the look of the stripped peacock quills dyed, especially the golden olive, olive and ginger colors. After I wrap the quills onto the hook shank I coat the quills with Loon UV finish then finish the fly. I also tried Sally Hansen Hard as Nails which works too, but you have to wait for it to dry versus the Loon UV coating that I just hit with my UV light.

I have been tying both soft hackle and nymph patterns with them. They help give the bodies a really nice segmented look. I decided to put this topic under the Nymph section since I am showing a couple of beadhead nymphs on jig hooks. (They also make great quill bodies for classic Catskill dry flies.)

Has anyone else tried them?

OMG, a jig hook ? That’s blasphemy

[ronr]

After getting feedback on my hotspot quill body from Roadkill, I've attempted a few others...the photography is poor...but I'm open to critique of the design, etc... i've fished the redhead hot spot and done well with it... if the weather will break, i'll give the other versions a try..

rootbeer hot spot..jpeg (67.37 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

quill body hot spot.JPG (254.71 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

fullsizeoutput_68b.jpeg (195.09 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

fullsizeoutput_68a.jpeg (187.68 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

[Theroe]

Dana ~ Please describe (and maybe illustrate with a photo or two?) how you go about processing a mallard quill. Specifically, where does it come from on the bird and how do you "strip" it?

John ~ Your flies look really good to me. Nice tying.

Bill - there’s no easy way to strip quills...... usually, I do the soak-clip-trim routine, but it is very time-consuming.
Truth be known, I bought two packs of Ted Niemeyer quills on line-someone was selling some of his collection after he passed away.......
Dana

[Bazzer69]

Dana ~ Please describe (and maybe illustrate with a photo or two?) how you go about processing a mallard quill. Specifically, where does it come from on the bird and how do you "strip" it?

John ~ Your flies look really good to me. Nice tying.

Bill - there’s no easy way to strip quills...... usually, I do the soak-clip-trim routine, but it is very time-consuming.
Truth be known, I bought two packs of Ted Niemeyer quills on line-someone was selling some of his collection after he passed away.......
Dana

Dana, can you describe how I might do this? Which feather does the quill come from?
Barry

[Smuggler]

There's nothing wrong with the Polish Quills. I sometimes strip and dye my own but, it's quite time consuming...! Nothing wrong with that, just sometimes I prefer to crank out flies at a quicker pace.

On the point of durability... we all know peacock is not the most durable material. I'm not sure how familiar everyone here is with UV resin. I know some here don't like to use it because it's not traditional, fair enough. The Solarez product called Bone Dry is a phenomenal product for coating quill bodies. When this stuff is applied, it's viscus is so thin that it literally soaks into the material. Hit this with a uv light and you've got a solid quill body. Add a thin second coat and you really have a rock solid fly. Plus it magnifies the segmentation of the quill, enhancing it's overall appearance. Love the stuff.

Dana, your quill bodies are very nice indeed. I enjoy looking at them. I remember your fly wallet with the American style quill bodied flies... that was nice to see.