Just for good measure here are the other materials in that mix, although both "hare's face" and "Muskrat are much too general descriptions, there are many and various colours and types of hair on a Hare's face and on a Muskrat;
Bisam or Bisam Rat also known as Muskrat( (Ondatra zibethicus)originally only native to North America, is a very underrated fur. It can be used for a lot of things, especially mixing natural dubbing mixtures, and has a large range of colours and shades. The guard hair may also be used for dry flies etc. Not specified as Bisam in any patterns I know of, but may be used as a substiute for quite a few other animal furs. Untanned, the guard hair floats like a cork.There are a number of well known American patterns which use Muskrat fur.This animal is often confused with the Nutria (Myocastor coypus), which was originally native to South America, and is smaller, Also useful fur if you can get it. Both of these animals were introduced to Europe and are now widespread.
The first picture is of a Bisam skin from an animal I found dead on the road. Sometimes one can buy skins, and they are usually well worth obtaining. In North America they are often hunted, once because they were used extensively in the fur trade, but now, and in Europe, mainly because of their destructive tunnelling habits, which can cause havoc with ditch systems and similar.
Muskrat is very useful indeed for various dubbings. Often as a substitute for other furs. Once again, if you obtain pieces of fur, it can be very difficult indeed to identify it. The fur pieces shown below are all natural ( undyed) pieces from muskrat. You are often obliged to rely on the dealer sending you the right thing! This is easier to control if you get full skins, or recognisable parts of them. One may identify some fur by looking at the colouration and structure, but with many furs this is difficult, requires experience, and is still chancy! The last picture is a muskrat skin from a dealer.
Hare's mask;
Your mask should look something like this;
As you can see there is a large range of colours here. The textures of these hairs also vary depending on where you take them from.
OK. The mask has a number of more or less defined areas with specific types and colours of hair.
On either side of the nose, there are areas of reddish brown hair with very little underfur. Moving up the side of the mask, this changes to a light buff colour. As one moves further up, the hair tips become darker with a well defined dark brown to black band, and blue grey underfur.
Between the eyes and on the forehead is hair with light yellowish tips and a dark base.
At the base and between the ears is the "poll" this is a light reddish brown with pale tips, with underfur of the same colour. This is the same colour and texture as buff opossum fur.
At the base of the ears you have soft fur with light, often almost white fur with a varying length of dark base. Moving up the ear itself you have short dark hair with light tips. This is the hare recommended for the hare´s ear nymph. You can remove this by pinching it off with your thumb and finger nail. The whole side of the ear is covered with this hair.
So, that very roughly covers it. You can blend any of these furs together in pinches, or you can use each type of hair alone, or you can separate the guard hair and the underfur and use it separately. There are many possible blend combinations. I have covered about twenty of these "standard" blends so far, but of course they are practically infinite.
Many people simply shave the mask and chuck the result in a blender, But this is a terrible waste of possibilities and the resulting blend, though quite excellent for some nymphs and wet flies, contains a very large percentage of underfur, and is thus less suitable for quite a few things, including dry flies. You can dress dozens of completely different flies using a mask and ears. And you can also control the properties of those flies.
For guard hair wings and the like, body fur is better simply because it is a lot longer and easier to handle. even short body guard hair is at least an inch long, which is quite ample for even the largest flies.
The guard hair from various locations also differs in colour according to location, and much of it also differs in colour along its own length. There may be three or more clearly defined colours or shades of colour on a single guard hair, If you want a specific colour, then just cut the colours off that you require, and put the others aside for something else.
TL
MC
A question: any thoughts on what "mole mohair" is? Angora colored gray, like mole's fur?
