Davie, Hello from St. Louis,Missouri. Actually from Illinois, a small town called O’fallon. You’re videos are very pleasant and informative. Took me awhile to get accustomed to your accent. Keep up the good work.
Every day is a school day with your videos. To think is spent hours with a rubber and wore my thumb nails until they ached. Great technique, thanks Davie. Stay safe, Big Davie.
Davie, Thanks again for the great instructions. Will give it a try. Was afraid to ruin peacock eyes before watching you. Glad to see your daughter made another contribution to the process .
Ha ha ha straight from the "spicket," haven't heard that word for years Davie. That brings back memories of when I stayed in Ayrshire. Great video, I'll be using that method from now on. Would love you to show us all how to dye natural roe deer hair WOIGO. Its the latest craze just now and impossible to find. Thanks for the tips. 👍👏🎣
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful knowledge. I love using your videos to learn and get different ideas for how to create new materials and tying new flies!
I've just got a pile of eyes and wasn't looking forward to stripping them as I'm relatively new to tying I'm looking forward to stripping those eyes now superb tips again davie thanks so much I've learnt so much from your tutorials
Davie man this is a gem! i was wondering how to do this properly. using an erase was not cutting it.. Wish i saw thes a few years ago.. but i got it NOW! Thank you for all you do.. thanks for all your videos .. i learned a lot about tying thank you again < j
Great video mate. Thanks for sharing lots of helpful videos done by the Master. Would like to see some more videos on dyeing feathers and some dubbing. When you have time my friend. Best Regards from West Virginia, Ken
I've used this method very successfully, for many years. I use a nail brush on the soaked herl, down onto a hard surface, and that gently removes stubborn adhering bits without having to over-soak in bleach. Perfect quills are the result.
Thank you Davie. Good video. If you use laundry bleach would you add water to it. Think it would slow the stripping process to much. Baking soda in water kill the stripping also. Great tip on using hair conditioner. Thank you.
Getting that balance just right without over processing the herl then using the conditioner to soften and revitalise the herl. Is by far less hassle than the old pencil rubber techniques.
Thanks Davie. Ive destroyed a few in my time but thankfully I started with the loose herls rather than the eyes, so I didn't waste too much. I used to put them in a glass jar and shake but I found working it in your fingers makes it easier to keep an eye on it. Dont know if your daughter will be happy with you using all her fancy conditioner though! 🤣
Hi Davie Does it really save enough time to justify using chemicals and loosing some quality? Great vid anyway. Love your channel, has greatly improved my tying abilities. Ta greetings
Hi Mike, The feathers in the video came from Veniards, I bought 100 feathers in a bulk pack from them and around 40% are really good light quills and are ideal for dyeing if you want to though I do mostly use the natural.. All the very best Davie..
Hi Get M, Either way would work though I mostly wind the quill onto a layer of super glue and at times finish off with a coat of varnish over the top. I will use UV resin on buzzers but I finish them off with a coat of varnish to seal them..I'm glad you enjoyed the video.. All the very best Davie..
Hi B P, I buy 50/ 100 large eyes at once when I need some so that I can select the best ones for dyeing, I buy mine from Veniards though you can buy them from ebay from china..I have attached a link for you to see.I'm glad you enjoyed the video.. All the very best Davie.. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114291614234?hash=item1a9c4fa21a:g:OwkAAOSwMO9b1xhN
Discovered this method by accident. Decided to bleach some Herl to see if I could then dye them. Put them in the bleach, went off and did something else, came back and herls stripped so a failure in one respect.
Hi Davie. I have always stripped quills by wetting them and gently pulling the quill between thumbnail and finger. Very slow so for the first time I tried using bleach. It went well but I thought the finished quill was lighter and lost some of the rich colour of the quill. Was 2 mins too long?
Hi David, I used to wet and strip the quills like this myself for many years though if you can strip the quills like in the video it definitely speeds up the tying process..I'm not sure what went wrong as I've not had this happen except when I strip the dyed eyes as it can bleach the colour back a little but I am still happy with them as they always look find on the fly..2 minutes is not long as I normally take a little longer but it depends on how much bleach you put in.. All the very best Davie..
Hello Davie. Amazing how things work out sometimes. Just after my message to you, whilst tidying my shed, I came across a soft plastic sleeve that fits over a finger. I think they are used to count bank notes. Immediately I thought it would be good to strip herl which it does very quickly. Thought I would let you know.
Hi Harry, I done it both ways but I prefer to dye them first and then dye them as doing it the other way can make them really brittle even after using the conditioner on them....Great question.. All the very best Davie
@@DavieMcPhail thank you Davie. It is going to be 25 to 30 deg. F below zero next couple days here in eastern me. Brrrrrr! Helps kill the ticks which have been a real problem as climate has warmed up. Tight threads!!
Hi Rhys Percey, I buy a bulk batch of extra large peacock eyes from Veniards which I look through picking out the best ones for quills..I'm glad you found the video helpful.. All the very best Davie..
Hi thenine, The peacock gives the body of the fly a very real like body just as you would see on the real flies like adult midge and pupa as well as small upwinged mayflies and nymphs..A great question... All the very best Davie
Davie , I tried this using Clorox in the US. I thought I followed your instructions carefully but must be doing something wrong because the quills don’t come clean. I would like to be able to make this approach work if possible. Any suggestions?? Thank you. Curtis Jones
Hi Curtis, I had a look at Clorox and it's much the same as the bleach I used so it should have worked so I am not sure what went wrong, I do know when I first tried this I didn't put enough in and then I put too much in so it's something you may have to have a couple of goes at to get right...Please get back to me and let me know how you get on... All the very best Davie..
I have often heard it said that the best herls are up neat the eye by I have found that these are brittle & break easily. Poor quality herl ? How can I remedy this ?
Hi David, When they are natural I find them to be ok to use but they can go brittle after being dyed so I soak mine in hair conditioner which helps to soften them..Let me know how you get on if you give the conditioner a try... All the very best Davie
I so wanted to do this to make up some quill flies...given up now. Cant get the peacock feathers at all....and the ones I ordered are rubbish..especially the Veniard ones and so expensive... money down the drain and more Veniards feathers in the rubbish bin. Really cutting back on trying new patterns now...materials so often poor quality or not available.
Hi Mark, The best way to get feathers that are worth doing is to buy them in bulk as this is what I do..I buy the 100 large eyes and I will get around 40% that are good enough to strip for quills..I am sorry to hear that you didn't get good eyes.. All the very best Davie
@@DavieMcPhail Thanks for your advice Davie...tell you what I could really use is a list or chart of some kind that lists flies that can be tied based on material..eg most common flies that use golden badger or natural dun...etc...want to see the range of flies my limited number of saddles will tie. Does such a list..app...or chart even exist ?...Would luv to know. Cheers Davie. Tightlines Mark.
Hi Abbe App, The stripped peacock quill will give you an amazing body on many nymphs or dry fly so it is really worth doing but I do understand what you mean as the peacock herl makes a wonderful fly too.. All the very best Davie
