Partridge feathers in a packet
Light Olive, Fiery Brown, Sunburst Yellow, Blue Dun, Fl Pink – some of the dyed range of feathers.
Aka grey partridge and Hungarian partridge. These are dyed and natural grey partridge neck feathers, all the samples here are 1g packets. (Veniard also offer larger 3g packets of natural grey partridge.) I’ve a couple of dyed partridge skins (blue and yellow), but this is the first time I’ve see a range of dyed partridge this extensive and as accessible.
Grey partridge neck is a classic game hackle, think Spiders and soft hackles. Then dye it blue, or a fluorescent colour and hackle the head of a wet fly for a sprinkle of fine, bright fibres. Oh, and then tie an Oliver Edwards Nymph and you’ll want dyed yellow, non-fluorescent partridge – I have a sample packet here in my hand!
Lovely stuff, the feathers seem to be in good condition, and nicely dyed – as one would expect from Veniard. The selection of colours uses Veniard dyes, so expect familiar colours. Running a UV torch over the packets, the dyed fluorescent colours jump out – pink, chartreuse, fluorescent yellow, sunburst. (As a bonus it seems natural grey feathers fluoresce too – that could be the wash used to prepare the feathers, the optical brighteners in many detergents fluoresce.)
These are mixed packets in the sense that the sizes and underlying patterns of the feathers all vary, whereas on a skin I can go straight to the feather type and size, in these packets I have to sort through and find the feather size I need. Very interesting tying material.
Price: about £4.25 per packet.
From: Veniard stockists.
Head hackle is Veniard dyed pink partridge. (Body dubbed claret; Glo-Brite tail; fine oval silver rib; black Chinese cock body hackle.