Tidying up the tips of goose or swan ?

[DerekBurwood]

Is there a method to tidy up the tips of goose and swan feathers used in married wings?
I am tying a "Parson" and the tips of the goose I am using for the wing,although not broken,are downy at the tip rather than a natural point.
I recall someone suggesting using fingernail clippers but I have not tried this yet.

Any suggestions welcome !

Thanks

[RonMT]

I have found in the past that anytime you have to cut a material you will take away from the looks of the fly. I have done it in the past but would much rather get new quills with clean even tip's. If you have to do it make sure what ever you use to cut the tips with is very sharp. I normally use a good pair of scissors, sharp with fine blades. Ron

[MOturkE]

Welcome Derek

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[Leighs522]

Don Bastian, the guru of married wing wet flies teaches his students to use flat nosed tweezers, e.g. those made by Tweezerman, to "tweek" those hairy tips off. By breaking them off, rather than cutting them, you get a more natural look. It doesn't look as good as the best real feathers, but once thin strips are married, it's hard to even see.

[WarrenP]

This may not be a good suggestion, but, I have a cauterizer at my fly tying table and I use it to burn any unwanted material trapped in the whipfinish and for removal of material on a fly that is "chewed" up and no longer useable. Once the material is removed, I can re-use the hook. You might be able to use the cauterizer to even the material out.

This may not work and may be a bad suggestion. Only you will be able to know.

[fwalsh]

I'll second the suggestion to use tweezers to pluck uneven or fuzzy ends from wing segments. This gives a more natural look than that of scissors. I learned this some years back from Ron Alcott,one of the masters in classic salmon fly tying.

[halomidge]

Welcome aboard ... Here's a secret, please don't let this get out .. Get a pair of Dr. Slick Razor Scissors (SR4G or SR5G), keep them separate from your normal tying scissors and only use them for trimming feathers. These things are so sharp it's a little dangerous to have them around. Make one cut to trim a feather and trim as little as possible. If you check out Ronn Lucas full feather lessons you'll see where and how he recommends trimming feathers. Bottom line many advanced tyers trim feathers here and there and ... shhhh they even use a bit of sticky stuff (glue) once and a while!

[DerekBurwood]

Thanks Everyone for your replies !
I have a cauteriser so I will try that option first,then the scissors!

Thanks again for your help

Derek

[halomidge]

Careful with the cauterizer, that really works better to clean up the tie in, not the finished end of the feather. Try it on a loose feather first.

Also, you're not trying to use the whispy feather barbs near the bottom of the shaft right? they won't marry very well anyway. Every feather has a sweet spot (some bigger then others) for marrying and the rest is worthless for marrying.

[OLB]

I wonder if anyone in the tying world has tried using a wing burner to cut feathers.

When I was real big into bowhunting I used to fletch all of my own arrows. Well it was a little cheaper to buy the full length feathers and use a wing burner to cut them to the desired shape, whether it be a shield cut, parabolic, etc., instead of buying them pre-cut. You could even make your own design. A friend of mine did some that looked like flames that really looked cool even though they were pretty loud going through the air. Anyways, it would be pretty easy to modify one to cut feathers for wings on flies.

Heres a tip too- those full length turkey feathers are cheap, I get em for about 11 cents a piece in just about any color you can imagine from my local archery shop. They make a great inexpensive wing material for quill wing flies, as well as some cool colored wingcases for steelhead nymphs