The Oriole's Wing...Finally

 Ask anyone that ever worked for me, and they will tell you straight out that among the many things I'm not, topping the list of "nots" would be "detail oriented."  That is in terms of things like record keeping and assorted other paperwork sorts of things.  I'm wicked into the details of whatever woodworking thingy I'm into at the moment, just don't ask me if I wrote down the plans for it.   I do try to keep some semblance of a record of what mat colors I used in a give framing, maybe even the dimensions of said mats.  But that's pretty hit or miss, I'm afraid.

Speaking of hit or miss, truer words never spoken about dyeing fly tying materials, especially if you're gunning for the color of record for a given (especially) vintage fly.  Case in point:  my until-today search for the right color dye or mix of dyes to tie the mallard wings of Ira Gruber's Oriole.

I nailed the color a few years ago.  Did I write down the the dye mix I used?  Of course not.  Nor, at soon to be 75 years young, can I remember what dyes were in the mix.   But as you can see in this photo I took for an earlier blog post, I nailed it back then, at least compared to Orioles tied by none other than the fly's designer, Ira Gruber and father and son fly tying experts, the late Wallace Doak, and his son, Jerry, who now runs the W.W. Doak fly shop in Doaktown, NB (wwdoak.com ).  Ira Gruber did his Atlantic salmon fishing based out of his cottage in Doaktown, too.   I need to ask Jerry if he ever remembers Gruber coming in to the shop.   Gruber also had guests like Preston Jennings and Charles DeFeo...wonder if they ever shopped there?  But, as usual, I digress.

A flock of Orioles (see what I did there?)

I've looked for a dye formula for the wing on Facebook, Speypages, The Classic Fly Rod Forum, and likely other places I've forgotten.  Gotten some good and likely suggestions, but none that had been tested and proven up to the task.  Reasonable suggestions, but none with a track record.   Gruber's grandson, also Ira Gruber, in his fine book, Ira Gruber's Atlantic Salmon Flies, lists the wing color as "Green Drake", as sold by the venerable British fly tying materials firm, Veniard Ltd.    LOL, I wouldn't be writing this blog post if Veniard still produced their Green Drake dye, color represented here in a vintage color chart that I robbed off a post on the Classic Fly Rod Forum.

Sort of a key point here is that, although noted by the authorities as the color, I've never seen an Oriole that had a Green Drake wing.   I've handled more  than a few Gruber-tied Orioles, as well as several by either of the Doaks and some other "name" tyers...not Green Drake wings.

I like to dye my own materials, and was fortunate to have awesome mentors like the late Bryant Freeman.  Some guys seem driven to take their dyeing secrets to the grave with them (fertile ground for some snide dying and dyeing comment, but I'll let it go); not so Bryant.  Another fellow, also no longer with us, was a fellow who went by Flytyer on Speypages forum.  Both knew so much, and gave so freely of that knowledge.  I hate to say it, but it fits:  that sort of attitude of giving freely of one's expertise and time, seems to be, well, dying.

But I digress (again).  Either alone or in concert with another dye (or two), here's what I used in my explorations and experiments to find the wing color:

I spent quite a bit of time (and $$$) to come up with, finally, the wing color I was looking for.  It is a combination of a lot of Veniard Golden Olive dye, and a little of Dharma's Sour Apple dye.  This is a mallard flank feather dyed with my new formula next to an Oriole tied by Wallace Doak.  Mission accomplished.

Cheers,

Gary