Hackles

[Billy2]

Still restocking my materials and still looking for help

Does anybody know where I can get a black, soft cock cape or a stiff hen cape, if that makes any sense.
Don't want to break the bank and it is for head hackles on wet flies sizes
8-14.

Thanks in advance
Billy

[arkle]

For the cock cape, look for a Chinese one but specify the size of flies you'll be tying. The hen capes are all soft, but you can wind a turn or 2 of cock hackle through them to stiffen them up.

[Billy2]

Originally Posted by arkle

For the cock cape, look for a Chinese one but specify the size of flies you'll be tying. The hen capes are all soft, but you can wind a turn or 2 of cock hackle through them to stiffen them up.

Thanks for that Arkle.
Never thought of combining hackles before, sounds obvious now you say it, but if nobody says it. Great tip

Billy

BTW I ended up ordering bleached, dyed red, grey squirel from Saville's.

[Former member]

Originally Posted by Billy2

Still restocking my materials and still looking for help

Does anybody know where I can get a black, soft cock cape or a stiff hen cape, if that makes any sense.
Don't want to break the bank and it is for head hackles on wet flies sizes
8-14.

Thanks in advance
Billy

Billy, Chinese necks are a waste of money if just wanting to tie trout flies as you would only use the bottom 1/3 if that giving you about 25 feathers if you are lucky, you would be better going for metz #2 saddle, bit softer than most cock saddle hackles, more a henny cock. You will get about 3-4 palmered flies from one fetaher and you can use the softer base of the feather for head hackles. If still after a hen then go for a hen saddle over a hen cape as they have thicker denser barbs with the points not being as sharp as the hen cape.

[Billy2]

Originally Posted by Ruthvenflyfisher

Billy, Chinese necks are a waste of money if just wanting to tie trout flies as you would only use the bottom 1/3 if that giving you about 25 feathers if you are lucky, you would be better going for metz #2 saddle, bit softer than most cock saddle hackles, more a henny cock. You will get about 3-4 palmered flies from one fetaher and you can use the softer base of the feather for head hackles. If still after a hen then go for a hen saddle over a hen cape as they have thicker denser barbs with the points not being as sharp as the hen cape.

Thanks for that Gerry. I always thought that barbs from saddles would be too long for trout flys, but will check it out.

Thanks again
Billy

[Former member]

I have used metz grade 2 cock saddles for all my palmering for about the last 15 years. Will get a saddle hackle off to you so you can see it at first hand.
Cheers
Gerry

[Ron Clay]

What you want is what are called: "Henny Cock" hackles.

[iamasmith]

This is a really interesting thread for me. I have 3 full 'capes' and another chinese partial hen section (by the looks of it) that came in a pack when I started tying again.

Two of the capes, my Grizzle and my Red/Brown - from different sources - are great as far as they go but they are very similar in feather size and are really hard to get an exact match on some size flies. The grizzle being on the short size and good for smallish hackles/cranefly wings and the brown being a little long in most cases for the smallish flies I tie.

The other cape is awesome it's a Black Keough Genetic 'Tyer's Grade' cape (whatever that means) and it has really strong hackles in a great variety of sizes. I actually bent a hook when I tried to rip the hackle off rather than trim it the other day

I'm guessing that the first two are saddles and the latter one is a neck cape but my, what a difference it's a wonderful asset and I wish that I had many more colours with this versatility but man, it was £40

[Former member]

Originally Posted by Ron Clay

What you want is what are called: "Henny Cock" hackles.

When have you ever seen a cape labled "Henny Cock"
Metz #2 saddle hackles are as close as you will get to "henny cock" as stated in my earlier post.

[Billy2]

Originally Posted by Ruthvenflyfisher

I have used metz grade 2 cock saddles for all my palmering for about the last 15 years. Will get a saddle hackle off to you so you can see it at first hand.
Cheers
Gerry

Don't start this again Gerry

Only joking, thanks for your kind offer, will look forward to seeing the hackle.

Billy