Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:48 pm
Yup.
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Hen cape - what color would call this?
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Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 7:23 pm
Light furnace and Greenwell are the names I've seen to describe capes like that. Light furnace is the cape that was used by James Wright to tie Greenwells Glory for Canon Greenwell, or so I have been told. After the success of that fly, the fly was named Greenwells Glory and the name greenwell came into use.
dd
Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 6:45 am
I checked 'The Book of the Hackle' by Frank Elder, 1979. He is of the opinion that the name 'greenwell' isn't needed, although "it has come into use in the last thirty years". He states that the hackle used by James Wright, although it was called coch-y-bondhu by Canon Greenwell, must have been 'pale furnace'. This since it most likely was a hen hackle for a wet fly and no known hen hackle has black tips.
He also writes that "Up to 1885 either name was used for a black/red or a black/red/black hackle, but from then a gradual change took place until eventually Kelson's nomenclature was used as it is today". This quote is regarding furnace and coch-y-bondhu.
dd
He also writes that "Up to 1885 either name was used for a black/red or a black/red/black hackle, but from then a gradual change took place until eventually Kelson's nomenclature was used as it is today". This quote is regarding furnace and coch-y-bondhu.
dd
Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 7:00 pm
Wow, that is a beaut! Well worth the price...
Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 8:43 pm
John,
Looks like the color Greenwell's to me also, but "The Bible" of hackle colors for me and some other hackle nerds is Frank Elder's The Book of the Hackle (1979). After waxing poetic for several pages about the color furnace, and after stating rather categorically that the color coch y bonddu does not exist in hens, Elder states...
"Now we come to another name which seems to have come into use in the last thirty years: 'Greenwell'. The 'Greenwell's Glory' tied by the famous Tweed fly-dresser James Wright for Canon Greenwell was, we believe, a wet-fly, but it has become so famous that the fly tied with a stiff cock hackle and fished dry is called by the same name. As I have indicated, although the original tie was written as a coch y bonddu hackle, what was certainly used was what we now call furnace. If, as we presume, the hackle was a hen hackle, then not only must it have been without black tips, but it was almost certainly a pale furnace, for while a furnace with a bright red outer is common in cock hackle, it is very rare in a hen. The normal hen furnace hackle is brown with a black list. It is therefore almost certain that the original fly as tied by James Wright had a brown hackle with a black list, but I cannot see that there is any real reason for producing a special name for a hackle of this colour, when 'pale furnace' is equally adequate."
Oh my, what a beautiful pale furnace hen cape you have there! Or maybe pale furnace variant?
Another pale (or maybe medium) furnace hen cape from the same Ebay seller in my stash:
Looks like the color Greenwell's to me also, but "The Bible" of hackle colors for me and some other hackle nerds is Frank Elder's The Book of the Hackle (1979). After waxing poetic for several pages about the color furnace, and after stating rather categorically that the color coch y bonddu does not exist in hens, Elder states...
"Now we come to another name which seems to have come into use in the last thirty years: 'Greenwell'. The 'Greenwell's Glory' tied by the famous Tweed fly-dresser James Wright for Canon Greenwell was, we believe, a wet-fly, but it has become so famous that the fly tied with a stiff cock hackle and fished dry is called by the same name. As I have indicated, although the original tie was written as a coch y bonddu hackle, what was certainly used was what we now call furnace. If, as we presume, the hackle was a hen hackle, then not only must it have been without black tips, but it was almost certainly a pale furnace, for while a furnace with a bright red outer is common in cock hackle, it is very rare in a hen. The normal hen furnace hackle is brown with a black list. It is therefore almost certain that the original fly as tied by James Wright had a brown hackle with a black list, but I cannot see that there is any real reason for producing a special name for a hackle of this colour, when 'pale furnace' is equally adequate."
Oh my, what a beautiful pale furnace hen cape you have there! Or maybe pale furnace variant?
Another pale (or maybe medium) furnace hen cape from the same Ebay seller in my stash:
Re: Hen cape - what color would call this?
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:18 pm
Yeah--Phil has it--"Pale Furnace". I also checked Jennings in addition to Elder--same result. I like "Ginger Furnace" though--nice name for a porn star maybe?--but this is a family website, so we aren't going in that direction. But we will wait and see what Dana has to say about the topic. He works in midtown Manhattan after all.
It seems though that when it comes to naming hackle, it's the roosters that get all the attention, not the hens. I suspect there's some serious discrimination going on, and in the age of administrative diversity that hens deserve more room at the feed trough; and likewise, dry flies need to step back and give a little more space to flymphs and wets. But that's just me.
Nice capes, guys!
bb
It seems though that when it comes to naming hackle, it's the roosters that get all the attention, not the hens. I suspect there's some serious discrimination going on, and in the age of administrative diversity that hens deserve more room at the feed trough; and likewise, dry flies need to step back and give a little more space to flymphs and wets. But that's just me.
Nice capes, guys!
bb