STRIPPING QUILLS
Most fly tiers have stripped quills at one time or another.*Each of us has our own favorite technique.*Special situations sometimes require us to be flexible or creative with our methods, in order to achieve a certain desired result. I?d like to share with you some different methods of stripping quills that I?ve used over the years.*
Tom: Thank you for the nice article on various methods on how to strip to create quills for dressing the fly pattern.
On the erasers strip, I like to use a large white eraser "SANFORD MAGIC RUB", it is white in coloration, and much softer in texture for rubbing!
As for bleaching, after bleaching and rinsing the quills in clear water, I let them dry on a piece of paper toweling. Then I can color the quills using various permanent markers that I have to get the desired color and shading.
I like the oil method to get the quills more flexible (but some oils have a habit of going rancid when exposed to air), I prefer using Canola Oil.
Again thank you for the article. ~Parnelli
Steven,
I also use Canola oil --- but it makes no difference. You are only going to soak your quills for a day or so --- most oils will not go ransid in that short period of time.
Tom