Went back and looked. That is weird. It also looks as if bobbin holder might be bent.Originally Posted by Allan
Also, he winds the rib the same was as he winds on the dubbing. I usually go opposite.
Went back and looked. That is weird. It also looks as if bobbin holder might be bent.
Also, he winds the rib the same was as he winds on the dubbing. I usually go opposite.
That was the thing that really stood out to me.
Bob
Steven,
Not sure why that happens. Is there a way to edit a post title??
As to how nice Arrick is, I was in his shop a year ago and he was opening a big box from Whiting. His order of necks and saddles. He let me pick through the whole box for what I wanted even before pricing or checking the inventory.
Very nice fellow.
Steven,
If you look at other videos of his, you will see that he cross wraps the ribbing on particularly fragile material.
Was it Hans Weilenmann who argued it doesn't matter? I recall a discussion on that subject here in the past.
Couldn't find the thread I was thinking of, but found another in which Hans said he does counter wrapping sometimes. Said it depends on the pitch of the body material.
Last edited by Byron haugh; 07-29-2014 at 06:51 PM.
I often wonder about that. It seems to have become very popular to do that. There are three things that occur to me.
If the pitch (angle) at which the materials are wound at is different then the wire will add just as much strength to the fly.
It started with wound feather fibre bodies, but the reason stated was (at the time) to make the rib more prominent, now it seems people do it for security. (Doesn't add much if the pitch is different).
When you tie in the counter wound ribbing wire the direction of the thread is loosening the wire rather than tightening it. My preference when I do this is to counter wind the body, and then wind the rib in the normal direction. This gives the same net result, but is tighter. The wire is the top layer, so will need to be most secure. The photo I published the other day of half a dozen nymphs has pheasant tail bodies done this way.
Nymphs in the round PT.jpg
Cheers,
A.
Getting the right amount of dubbing for a body is just practice. There is a cheat though. Dub your thread, wind the body adding or taking off as needed. Once you are happy with the body undo it. Take a small piece of card. Put one corner be the top of the dubbing noodle. Mark the bottom of the noodle on the card. Each time you come to dub the body dub the marked length of thread. Soon you will not be using the card, don't throw it away. Write the fly name on it, the hook model and size, and also mark things like wing and tail size, thorax length, hackle size etc. on the card. Keep it, because in 6 months, when you come to tie the fly again, you will have forgotten the sizes.
Here's a mock up of one of mine that I use for Wally Winged May Flies I tie every year for a shop.
Attachment 13128
The dubbing technique he used I have come across in a couple of books. It works with some dubbings better than others. It isn't the easiest thing to teach as it comes with practice. Far easier to teach people one direction first.
To make up for the time spent reaching for the whip finisher?
Cheers
A.
Interesting tip AlanB. Pretty much have to always dub similar/same diameter dubbing "noodle".
Have you noticed the method Davie McPhail has switched to?
He keeps a thick dubbing close to the shank and allows only a smaller diameter to be applied as he wraps. Hard to describe. You pretty much have to watch him do that.
Steven,
In this video of a Featherduster, he counter wraps the ribbing as the material is ostrich herl.
http://youtu.be/ERl2SStsKuw
Last edited by Byron haugh; 07-29-2014 at 08:14 PM.
I do it for both reasons - security when it comes to herl. It also makes the rib stand out more. I'll have to think about what you do.
Yeah, he dubs with his left. I tried to mimic his technique after watching a bunch of his videos.
Epic Fail.
Steven,
In addition to the Featherduster, when he uses pheasant feather for the body in his "shopvac", he counter wraps.
Different?
This looks to me, with the exception of the cutting off of the tip of the feather, which I don't understand, to be the method that has been used for hundreds of years to make a partridge collar on a fly. If there's another method, I'd rather not know about it. I'm too old at this point to change.
Actually, Hans Weilenmann has a cool way of doing it tying in the butt with the feather extending out over the eye concave side up, before you do anything else. You strip off one side of the hackle before tying the feather on, and it's easy to get the wrong side stripped if you're not thinking. It makes a really sparse collar, but I'm too set in my ways to do his version either. I do use it on soft hackles though when I think about it.
That is why I said "a bit different" method.
We have covered at least 3 different methods above.
Tip first
Stem first
Spin a collar with your thread by laying the feather on top, facing back, and spinning with thread.
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