These are Bronze graded Saddles from Whiting Farms. Saddles produce long, uniform feathers that are fantastic for dry flies! Typical saddles will have feathers ranging from size #12-16, with some saddles having feathers down to a size #18. Looking for smaller feathers? Take a look at our Midge saddles, which have feathers in sizes #18-#22. With the stiffest, most dense barb count on the supplest of quills, the Whiting's line of saddles are the preferred choice of dry fly tiers around the world. The quality feathers from Whiting produce the best floating dry flies in the world! Features Super long feathers that will tie many flies each. This long length almost eliminates the need for hackle pliers. Extremely flexible quills. These feathers wrap wonderfully. Very high barb density means that you can fully hackle a fly with less turns of hackle. Consistent barb length over the entire feather Each saddle contains primarily 2 or 3 sizes with some larger and some smaller sizes as well. Grading System Whiting's Olympic Grading System How is a pelt determined to be a bronze, silver, gold or platinum? In summary, a few key elements determine the value of a pelt between bronze, to silver to gold. Factors such as useable feather length, uniformity of feather length, barb stiffness, size range in the entire pelt, stem condition, feather quantity, consistent coloration, and more are all looked at to determine grade. In all, there are more than 25 elements that are taken into consideration when grading a pelt. If a pelt is densely feathered, offers a wide size range and the feathers have long, usable dry fly portions, the pelt will grade out rather high, maybe even a gold or better.
