FLYMPH FORUM

I used the underfur which on mine was about an inch long and just mixed it with the seal uncut. The longer fibers will tighten when twisted in the thread. The more you twist the tighter the dubbed body will get. If you cut the fibers many will fall out or stick out all over the place, which is fine if that is the effect your after.

Old hat, Howdy;

Hummmmm, thanks, the 2 chunks I received don't seem to have that
type of under fur ....
Feel I should investigate further...

hank

Howdy All;

Did some searching for information about "Black Bear Pelage"
Found a Lesson Plan from the U of Mn.

from which I 'borrowed' the following;
"The outer fur consists of long stiff guard hairs, the underfur is kinky, fine, and dense."
It didn't mention the length of either Guard or under furs. By comparison the longer
under fur on my patches is 'finer' 'dense', and defiantly 'kinky'(er), than the Black Guard hairs
which are stiff, Longer, straight(er) and glossy.
Might have to do some more practicing aligning and twisting ... , , .

hank

Hank - The process is sometimes called "carding" (yarn making process of roughly aligning the hair fibers before twisting them together to form a strand of yarn). The process is normally performed with a pair of brushes with metal teeth. As the brushes are pulled apart, the teeth align the hair fibers so the lay together in rougly parallel strands. The brushes are unnecessary for fly tying. You simply need to pinch a ball of dubbing, with the thumb and index finger of both hands. As you pull your hands apart, the hair fibers will naturally be aligned. Recombined the separate batches of dubbing and repeat the proces (pinch-pull apart-recombined-pinch-pull apart-recombined-pinch-pull apart-recombined-etc.). After a few times, the fibers should be roughly aligned and make it easier to work with. This process works very nicely with long strand fibers, like lambs wool, or alpaca fur. I have not tried it with a bear/seal mixture, so I can not speak to the techniques effectiveness here.

I am really enjoying the discussion in this thread. It is great to hear everyone's little tricks for taming unruly materials. Good stuff!

Ray, et All, Howdy;

I'm beginning to learn the true meaning of 'Sparse' in regards to dubbing
as well as a sound introduction to what some refer to as problematic materials.
Makes for an interesting puzzle to solve. Others have why not me???

hank

Hank - I have complete faith in you.

(It's William that I worry about... )