Thanks. If you can hold the feather in a clip of some sort (an old Bulldog or something similar) and insert it in the loop (wax the thread first) it’s a lot easier to work with.
Again Scott, I appreciate your SBS and the way to do aftershaft feathers! In this SBS, you are using two feathers in the loop - yes?
I also want to do some Gartside Sparrows.
Thanks,
Mike
Another option for handling aftershaft feathers is to tie them in a and wrap them around the tying thread like you would the noodle of dubbing in a rope dubbing. This can be wrapped forward without pulling on the aftershaft and leaves it reinforced with the thread. This works well for me on sparrows but I don’t know about multiple feathers like Scott has used here.
I surely hope there’s a Publisher out there somewhere that has sense enough to have you on contract to write a tying book, or at the very least on retainer to do the photographic illustration … !
Yes, I did put 2 in the loop - trying to speed things up since I had a bit of shank to cover; to tell the truth it didn?t make it go any faster and I still had to use multiple loops. I have found it helpful to stack 2 aftershafts and insert in the loop if I want a denser look; again, using a clip of some kind (I have one of those Petitjean ones) makes it a lot easier.
The Assam Dragon is one of my very favorite lake flies and it is deadly up here. Only comment I would add to the excellent write up is to find bigger aftershafts and use the split thread method rather than loops. To me it is much faster and especially with the Nor-Vise I can make the noodle plenty long. I have made many aftershaft brushes and go that route when I am not under the gun to tie a few flies and get fishing!
Pheasant aftershafts are the biggest I have; any recommendations where I could find larger ones? For me, the split thread method takes a bit longer (not enough to really matter) than the loop method since I can spin up quickly using my modified baby formula mixer; I will give the split thread a try again and see how it works with a longer brush.
I guess the easiest way to make the loops ahead of time would be to use wire instead of thread; size small or x-small would probably work best.
Yes, dubbing brushes with aftershafts work reasonably well, but very small diameter copper wire works better than the thin, somewhat harder commercial wires for the purpose. But you have to stop earlier than usual because you will break the wire.
Some turkey has much nicer aftershafts, while others (especially white domestics) have none. Blue eared pheasants have very nice aftershafts, as well as a number of other birds. Cold weather grouse have very nice ones for their size, but not as long as pheasant though the barbs are much denser.
For me, I like to run my scissor under the hanging thread, lifting the bobbin a bit by the thread. That flattens the thread and gives me a good target for the bodkin point to split. I can probably be wrapping with split thread before most would have the loop tied.
