Furling post

[hikepat]

Just wondering if I am the only one who using furling on the parachute post to make it easier to wrap their hackle around the parachute post then trims the top off of the furled antron post afterwards to tighten up the hackle and to get the wing post to spread back out and get fluffy again.
This is something I started doing on my own back when I first taught myself to tie flies{no books,classes or vidios} but over the past few years I never have heard of or saw anyone else using.
I have found that at least for me furling the Anton post then tying in the post to the hook is much easier and quicker then wrapping the Anton post in thread to make a tight post to wrap the hackle on. Plus since after the top is cut off and the post spreads back out from its very tight weave it makes the hackle very tight around the post itself.
I came up with the idea to furl the post one evening after tying some extended body flies with a furled body then afterwords I started to tie up some parachute ants and I got the idea to furl the post.It made the ants very easy to tie.
I am not sure if anyone has ever done parachute post this way before. Every one I have shown this idea to has liked it and told me they never had seen it before.

[halomidge]

Hikepat,
How do you furl antron? I assume you are taking straight antron, furling it and then tying it in, or are you buying furled antron?

[hikepat]

Taking a peice of straight antron. Seprate out a section half the thickness that you want the post and at least 2 and a half times the length. You can sub in marcoma yarn {cheaper}for the antron, both float equally well.
Hang the atron from the vise with a set of hackle pliers on the other end of the peice of antron and a dubbing spinner hanging from the hackle pliers. Spin the antron around using the dubbing spinner until the antron wants to fold upon itself. Fold the spun antron in half back onto itself so that it spins itself together like a peice of shag rug.
Remove the atron from the vice and its ready to be tied onto the hook. It will not unfurl itself and will hold this shape well until you cut off the loop on the one end. Then it will unfurl itself and fluff up to a nice looking wing. This should be done as the last step in tying the fly.
When doing extended bodies using furling you do not remove the loop.

The main place I myself have seen Furling used in fly tying is to do extended bodies on adult Hex, crane fly and dragon fly paterns. Though recently at a fly fishing show I saw a guy use it to do a body for a sac fry. Other then myself I have never seen anyone use it for parachute post.

For a cheap dubbing spinner glue a cup hook into any old brass cabinet knob.

[halomidge]

Excellent explanation.... makes sense and I can see it would work really well as a production tying method.

[chewydog]

Way too much time involved. I'm sure this makes a nice post, but, why bother?
Just wrapping up 1/8" and back down is quick, and is as good as it gets.
You can't twist yarn spun for each post.
For a quick and easy post, especially the "up" tie down see this link. [url=http://troutflies.com/tutorials/parachute/:0461e]http://troutflies.com/tutorials/parachute/[/url:0461e]

If this link doesn't work copty the url and paste.

[chewydog]

Click on the pic for detailed how to.