by Marc Martyn, July 07, 2008

There are times when creating a fly pattern, the pre-packaged blended furs with sparkle or flash materials mixed in isn’t really what you want. Often the flash is very short in length and the color isn’t right. When tying my Wooly Leech pattern, I want the Angel Hair longer so that after the body is dubbed, I can pull out the material with a piece of velcro. The effect that I want is to have the Angel Hair the same length as the hackle that is palmered on the body. I searched through all the fly shops and could not find the color or the right proportions in the mix, so I blended it myself.

Blending fur is quite easy to do. First you have to have a small coffee bean grinder. Using your wife’s kitchen blender to mix up dead animal hair just might put you on her “list” for a very long time. The small coffee grinders which are available in most of the discount department stores are quite inexpensive, usually under $25.00 and take up very little room on your tying desk.

The grinders usually have a plastic see-thru lid. Anytime you create friction on plastic, static electricity is produced. Therefore, you want to coat the interior and lid of the grinder with a fabric softner like Downey. I put a small amount on a tissue and wipe down both the lid and bowl. Let it sit for a minute or two and then wipe off the excess.

Fur can be removed from the hide with a good pair of scissors. For rabbit, I buy the Rabbit Strips. They come is many different dyed colors, more than you will find in a rabbit hide.

When cutting the fur off the strips, hold the fur so that the guard hairs are pointing towards your scissors. Partially wrap the strip across your finger and cut very close to the hide. This will give you uniform lengths of guard hairs and also clip off the under fur. Normally two rabbit strips about 11”-12” long will be enough for one batch of fur.

At this time you can add the flash material. For this mixture, I am using peacock colored Angel Hair. Since I want the flash longer than normal, I am cutting it off the bundle at about 3/4” - 1”.

Once the fur and flash are in the bowl of the grinder, mix it up some with our fingers. Put the lid on the grinder and turn it on for about two seconds. Remove the lid, take the fur out and turn the mixture upside down and put it back in the bowl. Do this a couple of times. The materials will come to the top when the blades are turning. Turning over the materials insures full mixture.

When finished, you will have a fluffy ball of fur blended nicely. I put the material in a small zip lock bag and label it.

I buy very few dubbing furs that are pre-packaged. Instead I buy the fur patch and cut it off the hide. It is sometimes hard to find packages of beaver fur that has been blended. For the best mixture of guard hairs and under fur, I take it off the hide and blend it.

Deer and elk body hair do not blend. Synthetic body materials do not blend well. The majority of the materials that I use for the bodies of flies is fur, usually rabbit, muskrat, otter and opposum. These spin on the tying thread much easier than sythetics.

I highly suggest putting all of your feathers and furs in sealable ziplock bags to keep any crawling or winged critters from getting into the materials. I have a friend that had a full peacock skin laying on a shelf in his basement tying room. When he went to tie up some flies for the spring fishing, he discovered that a fly had laid eggs in the feathers. Well, you can imagine the disgusting costly mess he found. Properly sealed furs and feathers will last for many years to come.