Making capes

PERFORMANCE OF CAPES

                   The perennial problem of the fly fisherman who makes his own lures is getting good feathers. The easiest way is to go to the store and spend a fortune on caps from reputable foreign companies. However, it is possible to make them yourself. Below I give a handful of my own experiences in making capes, as well as some information from the literature.
-18- I have made a few dozen capes so far. It may not be a lot, but I think that the experience I have gained may be useful to other colleagues. It is definitely better to store feathers on a kapka than to pluck them from the bird or cut them off with, for example, a nail snap. Sometimes, however, this may be the only way to obtain feathers, especially if the owner of the bird is not interested in shortening its life. With the feathers on the drip, it is easy to assess their quality, find the right size and specimens to pair, not to mention the fact that they do not fly around the room.

Rooster and domestic hen

In fact, only two parts of these birds interest us: the neck and the saddle. As an aside, I would add that feathers in the rump area are also not bad for small fluffers, but they need to be plucked individually. However, turkey feathers are better than rooster feathers. Lilliputian hens definitely have more interesting feathers for wet flies than regular hens. The first activity is to kill the bird, although this sounds a bit mundane. Already here, however, there is a problem, because the way of killing affects the quality of the kapka. In the countryside, the farmer places the neck of the bird on a stump and with one deft blow of the axe cuts off the head. The whole neck is by the body, not the head, because it is supposed to go into the pot for broth. So if we ask someone to kill the bird, the best part of the cape will be cut in half, and it will be stained with blood. So we have to take the initiative ourselves. With one hand we hold the legs, and with the other we grab the neck (under the feathers), where the best feathers end. Then, lightly squeezing the neck, we pull it up towards the head, and only at the indicated place does the accompanying person cut the neck with an axe. After striking with the axe, the head (with neck skin) should be quickly pulled away from the rest, so that the gushing blood does not douse it. Cut the skin with a knife from the bottom side of the throat. When we get to the head, we stagger the arc on it to remove the scalp as well (small feathers about 1 cm long will also be useful). The next step is to dry the scalp. First we put it on cardboard (it is better than a board, because it is convenient to stick pins into it), with the feathers down (you need to check that they are evenly arranged!). With pins we attach the scalp to the cardboard, starting from the top (narrow part). We drive the pins successively on the right and left side, in order to better stretch the skin. When driving in, remember that all the feathers on the other side should be evenly aligned. This is because when stretching or moving the scalp downward, it may happen that some of the feathers may be crooked or even turned upward, which is aesthetically undesirable. Leave the scalp unfolded in this way in a dry place. In the sun it can dry out after just a few hours. There is no need to cover it with salt (as some do). In my opinion, salting does nothing, but only makes the scalp less attractive in terms of appearance. Any bits of grease on the skin should be scraped off lightly when fresh; this is because after drying, they will let go of greasiness all the time. In this case, you can put the drip on a newspaper, which will absorb the grease, or every now and then wash the dried skin with a dampened and lightly soaped sponge. It is a good idea to trim the edges of the drip for aesthetic reasons (for example, there is often some clotted blood on the bottom edge). It is best to cut with a razor blade (not a knife or scissors) from the inside of the scalp, because then we do not damage the feathers. We remove the skin with saddle feathers without much trouble and dry it similarly to the scalp.

        Hens often have many neck feathers ruffled by a rooster, especially a lilliputian. The more roosters in a flock, the worse the hens" feathers are. The worst hen feathers are just before the change of the plumage (changes are in autumn and spring). As for the selection of roosters, older individuals - 2-4 years old - have been strongly recommended for more than 100 years. The argument in favor of older individuals is said to be the hardness of the feathers, the small amount of down (which absorbs water) and the better "standing" of the blackbird on the water. However, for a long time, many fly fishers have taken a different view (e.g., see the discussion of this issue in Trout and Salmon magazine, 1973 June issue, 1974 January issue, and other issues given here). Richard Walker ("The choice is softer hackle"), for example, recommended hackles that are curved rather than straight because they float better on the water. Roosters with such feathers are rare. Hence his preference for young roosters 7-9 months old; admittedly, their feathers are not curved, but they are relatively soft and float nicely on the water (a hackle from an older rooster sticks into the water like a pin). Flies made of these feathers absorb water faster, but today we have several chemicals to increase the buoyancy of flies. Lawrence ("The choice of hackle") found, based on his 10 years of raising roosters exclusively for capes, that after the first plumage change (at 7-9 months of age) the feathers become the same as those of an adult. Feather softness is an individual characteristic of each bird. Elder ("Age and quality in hackles"), as well as M. Veal ("Does age count with hackles?", February 1976), also concluded from their breeding experience that it is not age that affects feather quality, but the food and health of the bird. Veniard, who was president of the Artificial Fly Manufacturers Guild, was of the opinion ("The choice of the hackle," December 1971) that the best feathers are in wild cockatiels, and that the more domesticated the birds are, the worse their feathers are. By far the worst are from chicken farms (broilers). He stood firmly on the position ("The qualities of hackles," October 1973) that the best roosters are 2-3 years old (that is, only after the second plumage change, and in some individuals even further), well-fed and living outdoors. In addition, for coloring he recommended ("The best capes for dying," May 1971) only capes with brown feathers - never white! The darker the cape, the faster the desired color, especially black, will be achieved. A different opinion was held by D. Gander ("Dye your own feathers", September, 1969), who advocated the use of white feathers for dyeing. As you can see, there are different schools. When it comes to storing capes, the use of insecticides (e.g., borax or pyrethrum from the marun flower; but a wide range of agents is now available) is recommended. The powder is rubbed into the skin of the kapka with your fingers. You can also pull the peel with a brush dipped in formalin. I keep my kapki in their natural state tightly sealed in nylon pouches. For more than a dozen years, no mole has gotten into them for me. Just let it try to come into conflict with an entomologist - a poor chance of survival. Wojtek Węglarski ("Angler's Guide - Artificial Flies", p. 14) recommended cockle feathers in the pre-spring period, because then they are the strongest. In addition, I recommend the information in his book - about capes and feathers on pp. 15-16, about their coloring - pp. 20-22, and about storage - pp. 22-23.

Partridge and pheasant

                     Usually game birds are received already dead (shot from hunters or hit on the roadway). Hence, the beginning of the procedure is slightly different. In the case of partridge, practically all the feathers can be useful to us, so it is worth pulling off all the skin. First, we cut off the wings at the base (they will also come in handy). We start cutting the skin from the rump and cut along the belly up to the head. Then we cut off the legs, leaving the thighs, of course. With a few deft movements of the hand and knife, we remove the skin, and after evisceration, we pack the delicious meat into a pot (fingers lick!). We dry the skin in the same way as in the hen and rooster. We put the wings on the radiator or put them out in the sun. However, it takes many days to dry them, and in summer you need to pay attention so that the larvae of the spit fly do not develop in them. From the pheasant we have far fewer feathers, so it is not worth drying the whole skin. It is better to select only the areas of interest and dry as above. A hen is definitely better than a rooster. However, hens are under protection, so the only way to get them is to get an individual hit by a car or inadvertently shot by a hunter (this sometimes happens, as I have witnessed myself).