Hello all,

I am an extreme novice fly tyer and am a bit stuck.

I just bought some fly tying materials which include a partridge wing to tie up a sakasa kebari. I can wrap thread, whip finish put on peacock bits and bobs and make it look nice. What I can't do is get the hackle to wrap nicely. It all clumps together (to hold air I guess as the bird is flying). Is there a way to get the fibers to separate so it will wrap nicely? If not, what flies one do with a wing feather?

Thanks for any help.

Do you have a picture of the "wing" and the feather you are trying to use? When tying flies with game birds, I use breast or back feathers. Feathers from the wing typically have thicker stems that are difficult to tie with and the barbs might be too long for a regular fly also.

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It's this one from the T-bum website http://www.tenkarabum.com/fly-tying-materials.html, third bundle of feathers down. The description says

" I have decided to carry partridge wings instead of the hen pheasant wings because they have a lot more feathers in the sizes you would want for Killer Kebari and sakasa kebari."

Just curious how and if you have to prepare the feathers, or are there specific areas of the wings for Sakasas?

Thanks again

Wing feathers closest to the shoulder should be usable. I use them all the time for soft hackles and sekasa kebaris. I treat those wing feathers exactly as I would the feathers from the back of the bird. For soft hackle flies I tend to prepare the feather for tying from the tip while for reversed hackled sekasa kebaris I will tie them in from the shaft after removing the lower webby barbs.

The closer you get to the wing tips, the longer the feather and the stiffer the main stem.

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Can you post a picture? It might help to see what you are having problems with. The feathers should spring out pretty easily.

You may also want to take a look at this video:
http://vimeo.com/18489592

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I just bought the same partridge wings from Chris and made my first attempts. Here's a picture.

https://twitter.com/john_on_i10/statuses/197513776667439105

Does that link work? I used mid-wing feathers and tried to stroke them apart. I did notice that wrapping takes them apart a bit as well.

That is the key. First, you only need a relatively small amount of the feather right at the tip. Strip it so that the barbs are only just longer than from your tie in point to the back of the hook bend, and cut the stem so that there is no more than 1/4 inch of bare stem. Tie it in by the stem on the side of the hook facing you, not the top of the hook, with the concave side of the feather towards the hook and your tie in point right at the base of the last remaining barbs. As you lift your hackle plier to make the first (and only) wrap, GENTLY stroke the barbs on the side of the stem facing you downward away from the stem. Make one wrap. With the hackle pliers holding the feather straight up, make a wrap of thread, then a second wrap to trap the part of the feather that you will cut away. Snip it closely, hold the feather barbs back out of the way with your thumb and forefinger and make one or two tight wraps right at the forward base of the hackle. While again holding the barbs back out of the way, make a 4 or 5 turn whip finish to form the head, each wrap in front of (towards the eye) the previous one, ending right at the base of the hook eye. Tighten the thread and snip it close.

The feathers on fully half a partridge wing (from the shoulder) have soft stems and are easy to wrap especially because you will use only the tip part of the feather (but you cut the feather so that you still tie in by the stem). You are only going to make one wrap so it doesn't take much feather.

The mottling is very interesting, the feathers are the appropriate size and wrap well, and if I included a full partridge skin in the kit it would almost triple the price. The only alternative is bagged partridge feathers and they not what you would want to use.


EDITED to say OOPS, I was thinking of the Killer Kebari when writing the above, as I have just recently decided to include a partridge wing as part of the kit. For a Sakasa Kebari, the tying sequence would be substantially different, I would make two wraps, but I would still stroke the feather barbs down away from the stem on each wrap.

Oops...sorry for overlooking that Daniel. That's a very clear and visually concise video on how it's done.

JD

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