Wing Burners???

[ladystrange]

in my pile of stuff that i have, i found a set of 'wing burners' actually 2 sets, but i had no idea what they were and i was going to take a picture but while searching through an online fly tying material store i tripped across them.

 

 

 

what exactly do you do with them, or how do you use them?

 

i'm envisioning feathers, a lighter and clothes peg for your nose

[Flytyer]

You pretty much got the idea minus the clothes pin. You can also use them with swiss straw, web wing and other similar wing materials.

[Flytyer]

The ones in the pic are mayfly in case you didn't know

[ladystrange]

the may fly tag was on the ad for purchase. prior to that, no i had no idea. i'm assuming they are wing templates for mayfly patterns?

 

i threw in the clothes peg, only assuming that the burning of feathers would smell just about as great as hair... eww

 

 

do you use these at all?

[Flytyer]

I don't use the mayfly ones; don't like the end result I get from them but I do use stone and caddis ones from time to time.

[flyangler]

My wing burners don't get a lot of use, but when I do burn feathers, instead of using a lighter or candle I use an incense stick. It helps with the stink and it's also a small, controllable heat source. It helps me to only burn what I intend to burn, not the whole feather and stem. The downside is ash control, but I can handle that with an ashtray and a wet paper towel close at hand. When I've finished with the feathers, I just let the incense burn down.

 

I got the idea from my acupuncture training for which we burn a medicinal herb called moxa on or near acupuncture points. You don't want to use a big ol' lighter torch right next to someone's skin, so lighting moxa with an incense stick works really well.