[bbct91]

When setting married wings on a fly is turkey easier to work with than goose? Does one compress more naturally.

I spent part of the weekend messing around with setting a married wing, made of goose, and it never did turn out as well as I would have liked. That got me wondering if turkey would be easier to work with.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[CSFT]

I happen to be a fan of turkey...over both swan; a close second and goose; a distant third.

Goose is nice and easy to work with but in my opinion lacks the body to stand up to making a proper wing.

Swan has the body and is also easy to work with, but a bit more expensive.

Turkey tends to have plenty of body, compresses well enough and I like the fact that it is relatively straight and lays absolutely flat. Some folks don't care for the occasional stress marks, but they are usually spaced far enough apart to be a non issue for me...and good quality feathers help minimize that as well.

Hope this helps..........

 

[BM.Flies]

Turkey compresses very well.
Goose can be a royal pain in the ass but it will work if you have the patience.
If you can find swan as winging material its 1000× better than goose.

 

[fish0n4evr]

Yes - generally speaking both turkey AND pheasant feathers (primary quill, tail feathers and coverts) are stronger than goose "shoulders" making it easier to work with. Same with slip-wings compared to married wings.

Feathers compress equally well. I think the toughest part about setting a wing that will compress without splitting is drawing the thread tight without catching and rolling the materials with the thread as you since down on it causing it to split. The soft-loop method works a treat. One complete wrap over both slips and gently pull upward with your thread to since down. One slip at a time works too: If you want you can always back-off the thread wraps and go over both slips at the same time - once the wing set to your satisfaction. Try and try again IOW. Adjust the wing by the butt-ends, try and keep the wraps going forward and careful not to wind backward over a previous wrap of thread.

Cheers,
Vic.

 

[bbct91]

Thanks

Thank you for all of the helpful information.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[The Duck]

I have success with "some" goose, on smaller married wings, and on some flies with solid colour low profile wing sets (like on a Night hawk Spey). But not all goose is equal!...The biggest advantage goose shoulder has is that it is generally cheap, and easy to obtain in a variety of colours. This makes it useful for practice when building and attempting to set married wings :| . ( and i sure need more practice!)

I agree with the others, in that when marrying wings, turkey tail and swan give a much better result in the end as the fibres hold up better. Finding good turkey tail (and certainly swan) in useful colours can be a real challenge though at times.

 

[CSFT]

One place to find all three items (goose, swan & turkey) is from John McLain at FeathersMc.com. Quality is always second to none. I've dealt with John for years and never...never...had any issues with anything. As a matter of fact I have some turkey on the way I ordered on Tuesday.

Good Luck!!!

 

[bbct91]

Where to buy

I was just going to ask where to get good dyed turkey feathers. Thanks for the suggestion of https://feathersmc.com/ .

Cheers,
Chris

 

[CSFT]

No Problem

I was just going to ask where to get good dyed turkey feathers. Thanks for the suggestion of https://feathersmc.com/ .

Cheers,
Chris

Always a pleasure to help out a fellow tyer.....