Burned Wings - The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference - page 252
Method #6:
Burned Wings
Many tyers find cutting wings to be a somewhat tedious process and prefer instead to shape them by using one of the commercially available wing burners. Burning wings is a bit faster than cutting and, when tying a quantity of flies, produces more uniform results. The primary drawback is that you are restricted to the wing shape produced by the burner itself. Most commercial burners are designed to produce asymmetrical wings, which means that each wing must be burned separately—as shown in the main sequence—or that the pair of feathers must be glued and prepared in advance, as shown in the alternate sequence.
Dick Talleur, however, suggests reshaping commercial wing burners to produce symmetrical wings, and in The Versatile Fly Tyer he provides instructions for making your own wing burners to yield symmetrical wings of any shape desired.
Renzetti wing burners, one of the most widely available types, are used for both of the following demonstrations.
Step 1. Begin by selecting a pair of matched feathers. Strip away the fuzz and barbs at the base of the stem until the feather is about twice as long as the finished wing.
Step 2. Hold one feather with the convex side facing you, and clamp it in the wing burner. Note that the feather barbs visible at the edges of the burner project evenly from all sides, indicating that the feather stem is centered inside the burner. Hold the wing burner firmly to keep the feather from shifting.
Note as well the shape of the wing burner. One side, here on the right, is almost straight. This side is the leading edge of the wing. The other side slopes away from the wing tip. It is important that once the orientation of the wing burner is established that the tool remain in this position and not be accidentally turned backwards. Maintaining a consistent orientation of the burner will ensure that “left” and “right” wings will be formed.
Step 3. If the feather is very wide and a substantial amount of material projects beyond the edge of the wing burner, trim this excess material with scissors to within 1⁄8” of the burner edge. Trimming like this allows you to burn as little feather material as possible, keeping the wing burner cleaner, minimizing the singed material on the feather, and producing a wing with a sharper profile.
Hold the wing burner horizontally above, and to the side of, a “clean” flame from an alcohol burner or butane lighter; candles produce excessive soot. Move the wing burner around the flame to burn away the exposed edges of the feather.
Step 4. Brush away the singed edges of the feather.
Remove the feather from the wing burner. If necessary, brush away any singed edges that remain.
Step 5. Hold the second feather with the concave side facing you. Make certain that the wing burner is in the same orientation as it was in Step 2, that is, with the straight edge of the burner facing right.
Clamp the feather in the burner as you did in Step 2, making certain that the barbs project evenly from all sides and that the feather stem is centered.
Burn the feather as described in Steps 3 and 4 to produce the second wing.
Step 6. The finished wings look like this.
To mount cut wings, see Method #7: Feather-tip Wings, below, or Method #8: Reverse-mount Feather-tip Wings, p. 253.
Step 1a. To burn two feathers simultaneously, prepare them as described in Method #5: Cut Wings, Steps 1a-2a, p. 250. There are two differences, however. First, cementing the quills at the base may not be necessary since pinching the feathers in the wing burner will help hold them in alignment. And second, do not strip the feather barbs from the base of the stems. It is easier to burn the wings to shape and size them afterward as described in Method #7: Feather-tip Wings, Steps 1, or 1a-3a, p. 252.
Note that the feathers used here must be wide enough so that the cemented edge projects beyond the edge of the wing burner. If any portion of cemented feather lies inside the burner, the wing halves will be difficult or impossible to separate without damage.
Step 2a. Clamp the pair of feathers inside the burner so that the stem is placed in the desired position. The stem may be centered or, as shown above, placed near the leading edge of the wing.
Unfortunately, the design of most commercially available wing burners makes the precise placement of the quill difficult to determine since it is concealed between the burner halves. The feather edges projecting beyond the burner are the only real reference point for positioning the quill.
Step 3a. Burn the wings as explained in Step 3.
Separate the wing halves. When the wings are paired and sized, they will look like this.
To mount cut wings, see Method #7: Feather-tip Wings, below, or Method #8: Reverse-mount Feather-tip Wings, p. 253.
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