CDC is a very versatile material and can be used in many different and innovative ways. The following website provides excellent background to CDC as well as providing some ideas on its use.
http://globalflyfisher.com/tiebetter/tying-with-cdc/The foremost expert on the use of CDC in fly tying has to be Marc Petitjean. He has designed a set of tools that make using CDC very easy. There are two tools that he manufactures; the Magic tool and the Magic Tool Stacker. In the following two videos, Marc Petitjean shows how these tools work – there is an amazing range of things that you can do with them.
The Magic Tool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud3lUnmSn2gThe Magic Tool Stacker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d9vlTFEi4EThe downside is that these tools are pretty expensive. I did a search on E-bay and found that the Magic tool in the normal size (you get a Magnum size as well) costs about R460 size; and the Magic Stacker costs about R320.Looking for alternatives, I came across a couple of websites that showed how you can make your own Magic Tool at little or no costs. Extrapolating from what I found, I made my own Magic Tools as follows:
I found an old piece of closed cell dense foam and cut it into the shape in the picture below. After cutting the foam to shape, I cut a few slots with a serrated knife. My prototype was cut with a sharp blade; this made it difficult to push the feathers into the slot. The serrated cut allowed a tiny bit more width to the slot. To allow for different lengths of feather, I cut a number of slots (5mm deep) the narrowest being about 15mm and the widest being 45mm. I thought that these sizes would be adequate for the flies that I tie
It was suggested that you can use a rubber sponge – I tried that and found it too soft. It was also suggested that you can use a piece of dense timber and cut it to shape. Not having the woodworking tools to be able to accurately cut the timber, I dropped that idea. I think wood would be too unforgiving – the foam allows for some widening when inserting multiple feathers (or combinations of materials as demonstrated by Marc Petitjean in his videos
Instead of Marc Petitjean’s plastic clips, you can use plain old bulldog clips.
The next few pictures describe my test run on the homemade tool. Firstly, I laid two feathers over the slot with stems aligned
I then pulled the feather down into the slot (you can lay a peice of fine wire over the feather centres to assist in pulling the feathers into the slot)
Then I captured the fibres in a bulldog clip
I then removed the feathers from the slot
And trimmed off the stems
I could also move the trimmed feathers to another bull dog clip
And, to stack like the Magic Stacker, all I did was insert lay the bulldog clip flat and inserted a fine needle the clip and pushed the material down into a bunch – in the picture I used comparadun hair – but it works just as well with CDC.
Ok, these homemade versions are not as fancy, fast and user friendly as Marc Petitjean’s tools – but they do just about everything that Marc can do…..and I saved myself at about R700!
