"With the concave facing you..."

Rookie tying question for you: I noticed that many tutes refer to the "concave side" of the feather. As I look at a feather, I notice two concavities. The first is the obvious one: a feather has a natural "arc" to it if you hold it by its stem.

The second concavity that I notice is in the vertical of the feather; in other words, if that feather was perfectly straight (no "arc" in it), the fibers are concave to their opposites along the stem (typically, I notice this in the duller side of the feather). It is this concavity to which I've been paying attention.

So which concave are they referring to?

hey syd, the concave side is the side that is more dull (the back of the feather)... in most cases, you want this side facing the rear of the fly with the bright side as the front of the fly...

ORIGINAL: Cold
Either way would give you the same feather position, yes?

What goes around comes around?

ORIGINAL: Cold
dull side toward the eye on dries, dull side toward the bend on wets.

Starting to see it..."Cold is the man."

Thanks.

syd, to answer the actual question asked, the concave side is the DULL side. i recommend you experiment yourself with different patterns. there is no one way to wrap a hook when wrapping soft hackles and hen neck fathers on heads of wet flies, the feather actually has to be secured to the hook flat with the tip being tied down... concave down preferably for me in this instance. then all fibers are to be pulled back together, and then wrapped to make a beautiful collar that adds a nice touch to a hair wing wet...a little bit of spit rubbed in while pulling back the fibers between wraps adds a nice touch... for dries, try it both ways; ive found myself even spinning the feather before wrapping it around the hook as it shoots fibers forward and back. it looks real nice... my most EFFECTIVE dries have been just a simple post wing made from z-lon or hi-vis, then simple hackle wraps in front and back of the post. the final touch being snipping all fibers from the bottom to allow the fly to lie on the water rather than stand off the water the z-lon post increases your visibility of the fly... you should try it...

good luck man, and remeber; the books can tell you how to do it, but you'll find more effective ways through experiment resulting in personal satisfaction...

tight lines