I got the Mallard Blues 'Blues'

[iamasmith]

Decided to try my hand at tying up some Butchers.

I have a couple of decent Mallard wings with some very beautiful iridescent quills which I am led to believe is the traditional material for a Butcher wing.

I have to say that beyond a shadow of doubt that this feather is the worst thing I have EVER had to try to make a nice smooth wing with.

To put it in context I can now recomb the duck primaries to get some really nice shaped wings and they seem to knit back together beautifully. Not this horrible feather I try to do that and it won't rejoin at all.

Tying it in is horrible too since it's so easy to crush, compared with a primary, that I threw away about 3 wing pairs before I actually managed to get a pinch loop going without causing a split by crushing it.

Then I botched it up when I was shaping my false hackle on the darn thing.

The question is then, what can I do, if anything, to improve this feather's robustness. I think that I may eventually be able to tie the thing in without a split but as soon as it comes into contact with a Trout it's going to split anyway.

I would have posted a picture but I need to play around with my lighting to get these feathers to show up properly.

[flyinghigh]

What about maybe a touch of floo glue on them?

[iamasmith]

Originally Posted by flyinghigh

What about maybe a touch of floo glue on them?

Ah fantastic, never knew such a product existed, thanks mate.

Do you know if the bottle has a brush in it? (assuming that Floo Glue is a Veniard only Brand Name?)

[weight_forward]

You can use artist fixative as well, it is cheating though

[iamasmith]

Well, I checked and my local store has Floo Gloo in stock so I'll pick some up tomorrow to try.

I have to say that I'm generally against non traditional stuff but if I DID manage to get one of these things tied such that I'm particularly happy to fish it I know that the first Trout would mush up the wing anyway - so in the interest of producing a fishable fly I'll try the Floo Gloo.

I'm assuming that the weight/bouyancy is negligible and doesn't have as much of a downside as say, using a stroke of Cellire clear (which I haven't tried and I'm not sure would be very successful anyway).

[benlikestofish]

Personally i wouldn't bother with the floo glue,
with a bit more swearing, practice and perserverance I'm sure you'll get there and they will fish much nicer than a glued wing, so what if a fish splits it the flies done it's job by then!

[iamasmith]

Originally Posted by benlikestofish

...with a bit more swearing, practice and perserverance I'm sure you'll get there ...

Ben, did you bug my room??

Hell's Bells, I think the problem would be sooner sorted by me turning the Primaries (that I can work with) blue with the language I was coming out with

Seriously though, I think the fly could be equally knackered by my fly box before I even fished it so the Floo Gloo sounds eminently sensible to try.

[Chris Reeves]

You want a good laugh..try the same fly with a Teal green feather,
It's even softer!

Good luck

[iamasmith]

Originally Posted by Chris Reeves

You want a good laugh..try the same fly with a Teal green feather,
It's even softer!

Good luck

I'm not sure if it's any different but I have tied quite a few 'Teal, Blue and Silver' using natural Teal flank and never had any problems at all... this just seems to be my bugbear material

[Chris Reeves]

Teal flank is easy enough to use, try the small reen wing feather from the speculum, same as the Mallard Blue. then you will see what I mean

Cheers