AKMac

Hey Guys, So I spent all last night tying bivisibles in size 18 with each color cape I have to see what's going on. I figured if nothing else it would be good practice. I do strip all the barbs for about 1/4 of the feather and I tie it in so that the shiny side faces me at a 45 degree angle. If you are familiar with the tightline videos on youtube, my procedure is identical to his for a bivisible. What brought this about is I just recently purchased the light dunn, medium dunn, and light ginger. I can not, for the life of me, get the new capes to lay perfectly. I tried for over 30 minutes last night and the "U" shape that forms, pushes hackle barbs forward as you turn. It's hard to describe and photograph. I'm not above saying it's probably my technique, as I know that I'm not that great of tyer. I just can't get these to look good. I appreciate all the advise. I will call Whiting when I'm off work to see what they say. I apologize for my photographic ability.

I have attached photos of a plucked feather. I did try steaming a feather, but all that did was straighten the feather and did nothing for the cupping. So is this normal, or am I being picky on trying to create perfect hackle collars?

A picture of my hackle. It's profile is circular.

Hey all, I'm encountering an issue that I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for. I own whiting bronze dry fly capes. On almost all of them when I get into the size 16 and smaller the hackle barbs cup inwards very sharply. Almost to the of forming a flat circle. When I try to tie these in, the hackle will want to lay flat and form two sets of barbs on each wrap (like a U shape). I have always stripped the barbs, face the shiny side forward. But no matter how I orient it (shiny side back or forward), I seem to get a big mess once the hackle lays flat. I tried to take some pictures to show what I'm talking about.