porquepine quills and what are they like to tie bodies with? Are they tubular? Average Length? Are they sold in large quantities or can you purchase small amounts?
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porquepine quills and what are they like to tie bodies with? Are they tubular? Average Length? Are they sold in large quantities or can you purchase small amounts?
Noc Bay trading.com has them. They are hollow with one end (the dark end) quite small,solid and barbed. They are about two inches long as I recall. I never tied with them but plucked a lot of them t get access to the guard hairs for tailing material.
PP quills are quite stiff. If it's wrapped bodies you want, maybe you'll like peccary:
Attachment 13812
They are hollow- until you wrap them on a hook shank. Then they flatten out, squashing the inner air space. They make decent segmented-looking bodies, but don't use them for floatation.
Chuck
Rob McLean used to be a big proponent of porcupine guard hairs for dry fly bodies; similar to stripped quills in makeup. Don't know who sells them nowdays.
Regards,
Scott
Gerri
Send me a PM, I have some I can send your way if you want.
Alberto
I have no experience tying with these, but Moscow Hide and Fur appears to have them. http://www.hideandfur.com/inventory/7915.html
I believe it was Ed Marinaro, and perhaps Charlie Fox and others, in the Cumberland Valley of PA that used porcupine quills to tie an extended body Green Drake Spinner pattern back in the (perhaps) 1950's.
I tied some of these flies in the 1970's. They were horrible to cast and fish.
gerri,
Bob Marriott's has quills in colors. bobmarriotts.com
Crunchy
Gerri,
I'll get the quills in the mail before the end of the week. Here are a couple flies I tied with them. I have not fished them, they were just for fun.
Attachment 13828Attachment 13829
In both cases, the porcupine quill is the body of the fly. For the damselfly I flattened the quill a little before tying it in. The quills are round and I was looking for an oval profile. The ribbing effect is done by wrapping the quill with wire and then unwrapping it. The quill is pliable enough that the wire leaves indentations. For the drake, I cut off the tip of the quill and epoxied a couple stripped hackles to mimic the tail.
Regards,
Alberto