Stripping peacock herl - the easy way!!

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Steve
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Stripping peacock herl - the easy way!!

Post by Steve » Sat Jun 03, 2017 12:38 pm




Andy W
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Re: Stripping peacock herl - the easy way!!

Post by Andy W » Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:19 am

Very informative. Now at least I know that I am using the wrong bit of the hurl for my quill bodies too - didn't realise that you should only use the eye hurl. Anyone know why (maybe a Johnno question)?



Johnno
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Re: Stripping peacock herl - the easy way!!

Post by Johnno » Mon Jun 12, 2017 10:20 pm

The eye herl is a bit lighter on the non fibre side, as it were, giving a better a better contrast when stripped then wrapped. A regular herl from down the quill Tends to be darker and the ribbed effect when stripped and wrapped is not as noticeable. May or not make a difference, depends on the trout I guess...

( plus in macro pics the lighter stripped eye quill looks a lot sexier - and these days, that's what counts.... :twisted: )

One easy way of accentuating the light - dark contrast in the quill is the use a medium or dark brown thread that's lighter than the quill, and create an even underbody with the thread, then open wrap the stripped quill up the underbody to give a nice segmented light - darker effect. Coat with SH nail polish or UV and you're good to go

To lighten up the lower quill you can bleach in the sun for a few weeks but I find that tends to make the quill more brittle (and who wants to wait weeks to tie flies...... ? )

Another easy way is to buy some synthetic quill... but that stuff, while nice, doesn't have the same ..... romance ..... about it :D



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