Couple Little Tying Tips?

[Byron haugh]

Hi,
I have watched expert tiers, including folks like Davie McPhail, remove stacked deer hair with the wrong hand. It requires then changing hands and, in the process, often causing the tips to become uneven.
If your hair is to be forward pointing (and you are right handed), remove the hair with your right hand.



If you are tying the deer hair rear facing (as in a caddis), remove the hair with your left hand.





If you want to make sure your fly's proportions are just right, you might try a little tool which I believe is called a "proportional spacer". It is like a compass. Both ends, however, are metal points. The tool maintains tension, so that when you set it, it maintains that distance so that you can then compare the body with the wing, etc......





The tool itself:

[Jayatwork]

It only took me 10 years or so to figure out the stacker direction thing on my own.

I call that tool a divider.

[Jax]

Your proportional spacer is also known as a Divider and they are very handy for sizing wing slips for dry fly wings. Set to size you would like,then selecting the slip from paired wing feathers becomes real easy.