Byron,

I will be interested to hear about how you find it once your new pliers have had some use.

Different people use hackle pliers in different ways. When I use teardrop hackle pliers, such as these:



I slip my index finger into the loop and wrap the hackle in one rotary movement - in other words the edge of my finger applies pressure to the inside part of the loop. During the rotation different sides of my finger make contact - or said another way, the smooth metal strip rotates around my finger.

Looking at Jay's hackle pliers that would mean for me that my finger would be pressing into the spring.

Cheers,
Hans W