Building Dubbing Blends and Color Assortments, and Quickly

Making a dubbing assortment has always been a favorite task of mine, given the amount of creativity involved and the lack of boundaries. I’m fiddling with dry fly dubbing colors, and whether I can port those into nymph colors to minimize additional work. Dry fly dubbing contrasts markedly with nymph dubbing in that both colors and textures are different; dry fly dubbing is typically pastel colors, fine texture and minimal guard hair, and Nymph dubbing tends to be coarser, with pronounced guard hairs and a darker color palette.

I’m rebuilding my prepackaged dubbing drawer with a better suite of dry fly colors; more olives, greys, tans, and a few wild colors to use with the occasional euro-nymph, and will be revamping my nymph colors as well. I might be able to refresh both at the same time, as Dry fly dubbing is almost entirely a “binder” layer of fine fur which is part of the components needed for nymph blends.

I build dubbing like a cigar, with a filler, a binder, and wrapper layer. Each layer contains different color effects AND textures, to give the finished nymph dubbing spike, loft, and a pronounced color mottle. The “binder” layer is typically the finest fibers which hold the mix together as both filler and wrapper tend to be coarser materials, including guard hair.

Most of my blends start as a yarn purchase, wherein I decompose an existing yarn into fur and add other elements to complete the mix. Yarns don’t have guard hairs which are typically unwanted in dry fly dubbing, and I can pick the colors of the yarn to match the shade I’m trying to build. Getting a range of colors is much easier with yarn as I don’t have to dye, dry, and blend furs, which can be extremely time consuming. Mixing disparate colors of yarn is quite easy and will result in “fur” that I can blend with other yarn colors to make the finished range of shades and mottle.

Mottle is important, as this is the mixture of all the colors in the completed blend which yields flies that resemble naturals, as real bugs are never a uniform color. This attribute is why I don’t use “store bought” dubbing blends, as they are almost always a uniform dye color without the subtle hints and shades that a mix of colors can provide – and the natural insect possesses.

Yarn candidates can be chosen based on what you’re attempting to create, a soft dry fly dubbing or a coarse blend suitable for heavy nymphs. A dry fly yarn might start as a soft fur yarn like an Angora rabbit, a synthetic rayon derived from plants, or a fine wool or cotton blend, whose fibers rival the gossamer nature of our aquatic mammals. I often add Mink, Otter, Muskrat, or Beaver to the decomposed yarn “fur” to enhance the mottle and loft of the material, and mute colors to make them more buglike.

Too tight a weave, cannot decompose into fur

Some yarns cannot be decomposed into fur, so you need to test the weave of your candidate to ensure it’s not too tight to be deconstructed. Typically the fine yarns are the worst possible candidates, as their fineness coupled with the weave of the fibers may not allow a traditional grinder to fluff them back into fiber form. Fine yarns resemble woven strands, with each strand resistant to unravelling, yielding a mixture that remains stranded, despite being cut to smaller lengths.

Test everything before spending a lot of money on colors, as some flavors of yarn may be unsuitable for your use. Cut the candidate yarn into one inch pieces and attempt to deconstruct them in a traditional coffee grinder. If they reduce to “fur” they’re suitable for a dubbing blend, if not, toss and try the next candidate.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Yarn

Yarns are like cars, not every color is made each model year. Spring and summer yarns tend to be bright colors, fall fashion tends to be darker, so you may have to select two different yarns brands to get all the colors you desire.

Yarns have a life span, and that brand may not make it more than a couple of years. If you find something truly spectacular, you’ll need to lay in a supply to ensure it will be available to you year after year. Large makers of yarn may keep the product for several years, small cottage makers or artisans may only stock the yarn for a single season.

There are hundreds of fiber types and artisan blends debuting every season, you’ll need to get eyes on a lot of product to understand what’s available to you online. Focus on fiber types and their respective size (coarseness) and loft (spike and curlyiness), as those are the attributes best suited for making fur.

You will need a physical yarn or fabric store to acquaint yourself with the kind and type of fibers and weaves available. Using only online sources is fine, but you will throw away numerous skeins unsuitable for your use as a single website photo cannot compete with a yarn you can visually inspect. Is Bamboo yarn and a Rayon yarn derived from Bamboo the same thing? This can only be determined by a physical examination of the skeins, you cannot differentiate these properties from an online photograph.

Similar issues exist with the different types of wool from specialty sheep. These are all the rage among artisan yarn makers … Some wools are quite fine, other are coarse, a physical examination of the skein will likely answer most questions, where an online photograph will not.

Many artisanal yarns can have incomplete dye results, and many fiber types resist dye and can offer special uses based on this incomplete coloration. Multi-hued yarns also provide a greater range of color for the price, and can make your purchasing easier on the pocket.

Yarn makers aren’t necessarily good at dyeing, especially small vendors intent on raising specialty sheep. You can have a wide range of results from a vendor unskilled at dyeing, especially in the area of consistency of color across several dye lots. Dyeing something Pink is easy, dyeing something the exact same shade of Pink, a second time, is very difficult. Beware small vendors and inconsistency of color.

make a third color by mixing two existing — Mix two existing to make a third new color

Small batch artisanal yarns can be very expensive, especially some of the specialty wools, with a single skein in excess of twenty dollars or more. Try to stay with mass produced yarns unless the artisanal yarn offers some tangible capability the others do not. Small batch typically means inconsistent colors and both inconsistent or limited availability.

Remember Combinations and Permutations when selecting colors

Most of us would rather forget the formula for calculating the total number of combinations, but this is important stuff when determining how many yarn colors from which to build your array of blended colors..

Assume you decide to buy six colors of yarn to start your dry fly palette. Two greys, two olives, and two tans. The total number of colors is 6, and if you mix any 2 colors together it will make a new color. The total number of colors you can make by only blending two is 6!/ 2!(6-2)! = 15 colors. If you blend 3 colors you get 20 colors, and it’s easy to see how quickly you can build a large collection of colors for your use. Because the dry fly palette is much reduced, compared to nymph colors, you can make a workable assortment of colors for your area at minimal expense.

Gold and Pink make a third new color for my area called "Creamy Orange" ... — You may not use it, but there’s no harm in fiddling with colors

I am building a dry fly palette and converting some into a nymph blend, but not all the dry fly colors will be useful to me (nor will all the colors you build for dry flies be useful either) as dry fly colors, nor will be members of the darker nymph palette, so I’ll focus my purchase choices on the colors similar to the insects in my area. If the bulk of the bugs you fish are Olive, perhaps purchasing one less tan, and one less gray, and two additional Olives will yield most of your colors as Olive-ish, which is your Sweet Spot.

For the areas I fish frequently, Olive and Grey are the two predominant colors, so I’ll build numerous Olive and Grey blends to capitalize on this. Recognize that a specific fly isn’t the source of a fish’s sudden weakness, it’s a combination of color, size and silouette that made the fish leave that darkened recess and commit an act of wanton gluttony on your offering …

Why not make flies similar in color to your favorites, as they can be used in a pinch when you run out of your favorite fly. More importantly, when your friends pillage your fly box and take all your extras, you can reach for the Secret Double Probationary Brown Olives … and hand the regular Adam’s to them Meathead pals of yourn …

Things to Consider when building your Blend

Are you building a dry fly assortment or nymph dubbing? The differences between the two are significant, so make sure you have all of your darker colors, browns, blacks, dark olives, if you’re making nymph dubbing. You’ll want lighter colors for dry flies.

How much of each color will you make? Remember that some yarns will disappear in a year, some take longer, if you build these wonderful colors unique to your watershed, how many year’s worth will you save of each color? This is important, as the killer color could run out, the yarn is unavailable, and you are left sobbing in frustration as your pals still have a few they “borrowed” from you last year …

Are you smart enough to write down the recipes for the colors you make? How are you going to build more if you forget what you put in it? You added a pinch of yellow beaver, and a handful of Red Fox squirrel, are you going to remember those a year later when it’s time to make more? DO NOT create colors without writing the recipes down, DO NOT make this mistake (like I did!).

(… and by the way, exactly how much is a handful?)

Stranded yarn turned into fur via coffee grinder — Base yarn colors when converted to fur, much lighter in color than the yarn

Construction of your dubbing assortment starts with you reducing the base yarn colors from stranded form to fur, via coffee grinder. Grinders are perfect for small jobs, just don’t confuse the one used for fly tying with that used for grinding your morning coffee.

Cut the stranded yarn into piles of one inch long pieces.

When building custom colors, use your hand as the measurement for stranded yarn.

Two yarns wrapped around your hand at the same time ensures equal weight — Wrap both around the hand ensures 50/50 blend

Issue: Green is composed of half yellow and half blue, but you need to be reasonably precise with your measurements, and lack a scale to weigh a tiny fragment of yarn … So how to ensure the amount of yellow is equal to the amount of blue?

Answer: Your hand is a constant size. Wrap the yellow yarn around your hand five times, then wrap the blue yarn around your hand five times. Even better, grip both yarns and wrap them around your hand together, the same number of times.

Cut yarn into one inch pieces — Cut into one inch pieces for the coffee mill

Now, when you want to mix two colors, simply wrap the yarn around your hand several times, cut the resultant length into one inch pieces, and grind it into fur. This ensures your color is made from 50% of the first color mixed with 50% of the second.

The last step yields the unknown, as in the samples at left. I don’t think the color will be useful, but not knowing the result of Pink and Emerald added together is likely going to be … an adventure finding out.

blend the cut pieces in a coffee grinder — The resultant fur when finished, not a useful color for me

In this case, the Emerald completely overpowered the Pink, and the result was a cold pastel of greenish hue … not useful at all, but great colors to show how the process works for the uninitiated.

I have taken great pains to HIDE the brand of the yarn I’m using, as this is not a proven winner, it’s a candidate yarn that may prove useful or may not. I do a lot of tinkering with different yarns as they are often priced cheaply, sometimes as cheap as a single packet of storebought fur, and tossing them into the trash will not break the bank.

Because of the regular obsolescence of yarns, I have to rebuild color selections every three or four years, as the old yarn used is no longer made. The process is fun and useful as I usually find a few colors I didn’t have in the previous yarn – that are now available in the new brand.

Because I write down the color recipes, I can reblend the old yarn colors with the new to remake colors that the new brand doesn’t offer, ensuring I can restock most of the useful colors time and time again.

Three colors make up my Creme Orange Dubbing — Mixed three colors to get my Creme Orange dubbing

The above Creme-Orange was an actual color in the old yarn brand I was using, and is a dead ringer for the Hareline Creme Orange used in the original Chuck Stranahan Creme Orange Paradun. In the new yarn I blended Coral, Old Gold, and Sun Glow to make the exact color provided by Hareline.

Row One are the base yarn colors, Row two and three are new colors created by mixing those of Row One — Top Row are base colors, Row Two and Three are new colors made from mixing those of Row 1

Yes, I could have simply bought the Hareline, but then I wouldn’t learn a damn thing about color mixing, decomposing plant and animal fibers into fur, color and blend componetry – that the old timer’s knew and the new generation of fly tyer has absolutely no clue about …

This is a couple hours work during a rainy afternoon. The base yarn colors are at the top, and the below two rows are new colors I am making out of the blended top row colors. Think Tans, Greys, and Light Olives, as the desirable colors.

I start with 14 base yarn colors, which will yield 91 new colors if mixed with one other color, and 364 new colors if mixed with two additional colors. As the Emerald tends to overpower every other color I add to it, most of the emerald blends will not be useful. The Purple color also has limited uses, for similar reasons. I added the Emerald and Purple with the red, yellow, orange, and blue to give me the primary and secondary colors of the color wheel. This will allow me to build a spectral blend of this fiber as another option.

The only Olive that this yarn had was an Olive Drab, and a weak one at that, so I will be looking for a Black, Dark Brown, and two additional Olives from another brand to complete all the colors I plan on making.

Each of the bags has the recipe written on it and the proportions of the colors in that recipe. The top row only has one name written on the bag, that of the base yarn color, all other bags contain their recipe. In this manner, I can more easily remember the contents given they are written down both on the bag and in my notes.

Porting Dry Fly dubbing into a Nymph Blend

While not typically part of my process, in this instance I will take a few of the dry fly colors and make them into Nymph blends. I’m not going to make a general purpose Nymph blend suitable for big Stoneflies, rather I’ll leverage the fine filaments of the original dubbing and convert the Dry Fly version into a blend for smaller mayfly nymphs, targetting the 12-14-16 size range.

The “Wrapper” layer is the component containing the big guard hairs I would add to make a spikier dubbing, and I’ll omit that in preference to simply adding a “filler” layer of fine Red Fox Squirrel dubbing, and a possible “enhancement” layer – that may offer some sparkle in the finished blend.

The process is nearly identical to the construction of the dry fly assortment, with one exception, when considering how much of each color will I make, I need to factor in the different “enhancement” layers I might add.

Example: If I decide to make nymph blends of the above Creme Orange dry fly dubbing, and I wish two packs of the finished nymph dubbing, AND I will add Angelina fibers (Ice Dub) as an enhancement, AND some Antron, without the Ice Dub, then I need to make enough of the base color (Creme Orange) to make four packs of the nymph dubbing. Two packs with Ice Dub as the enhancement, and two packs with NO Ice Dub but Antron as the enhancement layer.

If I know what I will build in advance of creating the dry fly dubbing, then I will need possibly 8 packs of the Creme Orange. Two packs for the base dry fly dubbing, four packs to turn into nymph dubbing with two enhancement layers, and two additional packs to mix with other colors to make new colors … This is why planning what you will be building in advance, and writing it down, will make your job much easier.

Converted Dry Fly dubbing via addition of color muting natural fibers — Three stages of conversion, Original, color Muted, and Color Muted with Enhancement layer

The Color changes are far from Over

Just like mixing the different yarn base colors together to yield new colors, the same thing will happen when you convert your yarn blend to contain natural fur. As most animal furs are greyish, they tend to dampen or mute the original colors made from deconstructed yarn, no matter how much or how little is added.

The above picture illustrates this notion. While most of you likely assumed the Creme Orange flavor of dry fly dubbing had limited use, note its transformation into a nymph dubbing, and how the Creme Orange virtually disappears into a tan or tan-brown with the addition of natural Red Fox Squirrel body fur. Red Fox Squirrel is essentially a giant Hare’s Mask, so I shave the skins into a bag, then add pinches of the fur to whatever else I’m making.

To mute the original color and transform it into a nymph version I added about 30% Red Fox Squirrel to the original Creme Orange, yielding a blend containing fine fibers, and a nicely mottled guard hair that will show up when these small nymphs are tied.

Adding a layer of “enhancement” or sparkle is typically never more than 10% percent of the dubbing. This applies to any of the common enhancements, like Ice Dub (Angelina fiber), Antron, or Baby Seal, or anything else that adds sparkle to the fur. Adding more than 10% will overpower the original dubbing and change it too much.

In summary, by adding natural colors to deconstructed yarn I have turned the raw yarn colors into a buggier version that most tiers would love to own. These changes add to our combinations and permutations, and if you can make 91 new colors from 14 colors of yarn, you can make 3 colors from each of those; original, color muted or buggy, and with enhancement, giving your total options nearly 270 different colors with the use of only a single enhancement layer.

270 colors are way too many to be practical, so when starting this journey start with less colors. One Tan, One Medium Gray, an Olive and a Brown, and a few other colors to mix with them. Don’t be afraid of the wilder colors like orange or purple, as they can be muted with natural fur into a color and form much more friendly to the drab Bug Kingdom. If they fail to impress you, don’t use them …. the fun of the project is in making all the wild colors, what’s useful will be a smaller subset of that.

Focus on the inexpensive yarns so you can accumulate a few skeins, and then cut a few Hare’s Masks up to add to the final mix. This is more than enough to get you started on making your own fur, and will get you incredible colors on the first try, as uniformed dye colors suck by comparison.

Simply contrast the uniform original Creme Orange yarn color (above) with the mottled Red Fox/Antron version to see how complex colors always are better than monotone variants. Note that the Original Creme Orange was actually a three color mix, so it wasn’t monotone, but now it has Red Fox Squirrel and Spectral fibers added to it, making the complex color doubly so. The Spectral Blend contains six colors, making the final product contain 10 colors total.

Drys and Nymph using the dubbing created

The Creme Orange Paraduns, above, show the tightness of the dubbed body, so the yarn candidate has the smallness of flue necessary to make a good dry fly body. The nymph closeup follows, to show the additional “shagginess” induced by adding a bit of Red Fox fur and a pinch of the Spectral blend.

The Red Fox Squirrel addition added a lot of additional “scruffiness” to the fly. It’s a successful transition from tight dry fly dubbing to the kind of unkempt, well used, look that us meathead anglers prefer. This is an AP (Andre Puyans / All Purpose) style of nymph pattern that can be deployed with any color fur. I see a few strands of reddish Spectral blend, not enough to overpower the dubbing color … just enough to catch the light and make a fish think he sees something that isn’t there ..

… kinda like looking at a Denny’s Restaurant menu, lucious red tomatos, icy green lettuce, and when your plate arrives it’s a greasy, drab turd.

Enjoy fiddling, it’s one more thing to while away those blustery Wintery evening enroute to Spring.

As offshore “house” brands proliferate, we begin the search for a suitable knock off

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The last couple of years have seen the emergence of “house brand” Chinese fish hooks, those that bear the name of a local shop, versus a national or international brand. I’ve been using them a lot of late, and with Tiemco and their ilk insisting on thirty-five dollars a box, Tiemco has joined the thousand dollar fly rod on the pile of items I no longer buy.

For me, the selection process for a new hook vendor starts with visual screening, then purchase and physical testing. As the fish hook manufacturers are all offshore, occasionally additional hurdles exist in the payment, customs, and political winds, but I’ll hold on those topics given the casual tier is likely to stay within the confines of his/her local fly shop.

For the last several years I’ve been using the Togen “house” brand of fish hook and they have proven a worthy replacement for the more expensive international brands, and I suspect they source from China, but have no way of proving that claim. I would like to buy a few additional styles that Togen doesn’t stock – and I’m intrigued by a lot of the vicious points I’m seeing on many of the barbless “competition” brands, which are also very expensive.

Chinese vendors excel at copying existing popular styles, as Chinese companies can blissfully ignore copyright laws and simple take existing hooks and reproduce them using their steel, which may or may not be as good as the original alloy. Hooks made in Redditch, England, differ in alloy properties than those made in China and Japan, or Norway, but there are many types of steel suitable for hooks. Physical testing will show differences in the steel quality, its resistance to bending, ability to make and hold a point, the closure of the hook eye, etc … but visual screening is just as important, as it is the first step prior to purchase, and there are squillions of hooks to eyeball …

The most important element of the screening process is determining what you’re going to do with the majority of the hooks, as certain qualities may need to be emphasized at the expense of others to lend themselves to your fishing style.

Are most of your nymphs going to wear beads?

Beads make a difference. The point, barb, and bend of the hook has to be able to skewer the bead and at rest, have the bead roughly inline with the shank, to make the fly ride properly. Slotted beads fit a bit wider range of bend, barb, and point styles, than countersunk beads. Keep in mind that every manufacturer countersinks (or slots) beads at different depths, so the fly and its “attitude” in the water may change based on your choice of hook and bead vendor.

Limerick Bend

I buy beads in the thousands, which allows me to use the same vendor, the same depth of slot or countersink, over and over again. Casual fly tiers should select a known vendor and purchase their 25 packs, as use lends understanding of any unique vendor attributes.

If the bulk of your nymphs will be bead headed, avoid hooks with overly pronounced barbs and shanks that end in Limerick, Sneck, or even some Sproat, bends. These bend types are troublesome with numerous countersunk beads, and you will not be able to use beads from Michael’s or other craft stores, that simply have a hole through them, like Glass or Plastic beads, as the bead cannot pass over the transition between the point and barb, or point and bend (if the barb is flattened).

Sneck Bend

To make life simple, where possible use the Model Perfect bend on hooks destined to wear beads. The Model Perfect is the most common bend for dry flies, and is also among the most common bends for nymphs, vying with the Sproat bend for dominance.

Will you fish most of your flies barbless?

Many types of hooks, especially many of the older Partridge trout hooks were never envisioned as a barbless hook, and lack enough point to hold a fish if the barb is pinched down. This is especially true if the hook boasts a Model Perfect bend, as the lack of point coupled with a wriggling fish allows the fish to simply slide cleanly off. Most commercial tiers are requested to tie flies using barbed hooks, unless the requesting shop has special regulations on nearly all of its nearby water. Using barbed hooks and pinching the barb is the only option for those that don’t tie flies, and can be a cheaper option for those that do tie, as “competition barbless” hooks can sometimes be more expensive than the run-of-the-mill barbed styles.

Not enough point, and Model Perfect bend, stay away from this combination

If you want hooks that fish equally well barbed or barbless, you need to ensure they have enough “real estate” left on the point to hold the fish if the barb is pinched down.

The Mustad hook at left shows a style that would be a poor barbless hook, as there is not enough steel on the point to hold a struggling fish once the barb is flattened. This “visual screening” can save time and money by weeding out hooks ill suited to your style, before you make purchases to try them.

Other things to look for are the “fit and finish” items that display the craftmanship, or lack thereof, of the manufacturer. Using visual screening, pay close attention to the eye and whether it’s closed properly. Is it a tapered or ball eye? Ball eye hooks are the least costly to make as the wire doesn’t have to change shape. A tapered eye is harder to make as the wire gets thinner as the eye is formed, and is thinnest as it closes the eye and touches the opposing shank. Poor imitators will favor the Ball eye due to its cheapness to manufacture, a bit more datum you can file away for your decision making.

Turned Up Point

Competition hooks, especially those for dry flies, often feature a “turned up” point similar to a circle hook. this is a nice fish holding touch and likely increases the cost a bit as well. If you’re buying barbless hooks, which can be more expensive, I typically opt for these small features on the styles I use for my own flies.

Imitators often use the least expensive options when producing their hooks, as their underlying knowledge and physics is not well understood in the hook’s use. Simply copying its shape will not produce a competitive replacement, given the variables in alloys, finishes, and barb and point choice.

” Fit and Finish ” touches, eye closures, point and barb styles, are all features you can visually screen candidates without having to purchase any hooks. Use these physical elements to ensure your search for a replacement vendor among the many “house brands” is suitable for the kind and type of fishing you are anticipating.

Testing the hooks “in the Wild” will determine whether the steel alloy is any good, the wire is too weak, or the finish resists rust. These practical application tests will cement the winner among the many contenders you may be reviewing. Visual cues and “screening” costs nothing and is an important tool for the buyer, especially when faced with literally infinite clones and knock offs.

A couple of newsworthy items worth considering

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Item 1: I saw in the news about the pending bankruptcy and sale of Joann’s Fabrics, and the closure of about 500 of their stores. Joann’s isn’t necessarily a major supplier of fly fishing gear, but like Michael’s, is often the closest source of yarn, chenille, Holoshimmer tinsel, floss, storage containers, metal beads, wire, and about a thousand other useful items to us fly tiers.

I use dozens of items from Joann’s and have to watch myself whenever I’m inside, simply due to all the odd millinery items I suddenly cannot live without. Many of my Czech nymphs use Joann’s clear elastic waistband material, so I’ll have to lay in a supply if they’re closing …

You might want to keep an eye out for a sale …

Item 2: President Trump is starting to levy tariffs on a number of our trading partners – and while few know what’s in store after all the dust is settled, one thing is certain … a lot of offshore products could be a lot more expensive.

Many of our graphite rod blanks are sourced from offshore (China), most of our fish hooks (Europe, Japan, and China), as well as many other common items like monofilament, reels, etc.

As I expect a lot of political rhetoric suddenly interfering with my hobby, it may be prudent to stock up on a few items, just to make sure we aren’t suddenly the victims in all this.

My concern is fish hooks specifically, as we are particularly vulnerable due to the lack of American hook makers. Most of the “generic” house brand hooks showing up at fly shops are sourced from China, most of the time honored brands like Gamakatsu and Tiemco are Japanese, and Partridge, Mustad, and all the competition brands like Hanak, Skalka, Knapek, etc., are all European.

Some Eagle Claw hooks are still made in the US, but many are made in China as well. I can’t think of another large scale American vendor, so there is a likelihood that in a trade war … the price of hooks may climb skyward.

… the Good News being that Pautzke’s is still American made … I think …

You take the Red Pill you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes …

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I think the final phase in any fly tier’s development is that implied by the Matrix, where the mind is finally freed of tradition and dependence on standard patterns, and fly tying becomes a series of test flies and experimentals, all of which catch fish.

It takes many years and a lot of fishing to get to that place, as it’s counter to everything you’ve learned to date, all the conventional wisdom gleaned from dusty tomes, chance meetings of kindred souls, and brightly colored periodicals, each hawking costly gear, expensive fishing, and light on real knowledge.

Your initial foray into fly fishing typically introduces you to the Adam’s killing power, and once seen ensures you always have a couple dozen in different sizes in your fly box. Later it simply becomes a fly with mixed Grizzly and Brown hackle, which morphs into a #16 with Grizzly and any body color, and then it hits you … there’s nothing special about an Adam’s, you simply need a similar color to the natural, and the right size, and the fish will eat …

Fly fishing shows you the door, but you have to walk through it …

It’s actually has nothing to do with flies and fly fishing, it’s the realization that your quarry is really stupid, has a brain the size of a pea, and you’re not outwitting another sentient creature, rather you’re taking advantage of a reflex. Slap a Big Mac in front of a Vegan, and watch instinct overcome concious behavior. If he fails to take it, touch up the lettuce and tomato with an airbrush, and slap it on his plate again …

Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Spoon Boy: There is no spoon.

Neo: There is no spoon?

Spoon Boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Art and proximity to talent were my undoing. I had a family of trained artists at home and talented tiers at the Golden Gate club that didn’t mind a kid peering over their collective shoulders. Several hundreds of years of fishing experience were at work, and it wasn’t a steady stream of Adam’s and Horner Deer Hairs that were hatching, it was a flurry of unknown buggy things of unspecified color and distinct silouette.

Cal Bird was among the tiers and as an artist and calligrapher used elements of both to bring color and sparkle to his flies. He was instrumental in getting me off of specific patterns and into the look and feel of insects.

The Artist’s Color Wheel was my initiation into the realm of fly tying impressionism, as Cal frequently used “spectral blends” of dubbing to tie his flies.

The Artist’s Color Wheel is depicted at left, and a Spectral Blend is composed of all of the primary colors and all of the secondary colors of the color wheel blended together. The primaries are Scarlet, Cyan, and Yellow, and opposite them are the Secondaries; Green, Purple and Orange. Secondary colors are an equal mix of the primaries. Red + Yellow = Orange, Blue + Yellow = Green, etc,. As every color in the spectrum is composed of the three primary colors, technically all colors are contained in the Spectral blend.

Cal used to say, “…the Fish see what they want.”

Impressionism in fly tying is similar to that of the art world. Exacting imitation gives way to approximating their color, size, silouette, and using movement in your materials to complete the seduction and breathe life into your fly. Only the accuracy of the cast and the quality of your knots determine the balance of the outcome.

By introducing me to the Spectral Dubbing blend, Cal was making it easy for me to walk through the door into outright impressionism. By only altering the dubbing mixture, I could continue to tie the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear and understand that adding shards of Red, Yellow, Cyan, Green, Blue, and Purple, to the fly did not make it less of a killer, often it made it doubly effective – and fishing the fly became a crime committed against hungry trout.

Seduction of the Innocent

Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus: No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.

Armed with the knowledge that I was fighting reflex instead of a frontal lobe, and my making minor or liberal changes to established patterns wouldn’t result in excommunication by the fly fishing clergy, I was able to fiddle, tinker, and modify my favorite patterns into untested experimentals. Suddenly flies started to populate my fly boxes based on whim, a theory, or a new material, and their use wasn’t accompanied by an unwelcome lightning bolt from the heavens ..

(The clouds thickened above me several times, and I was quite conscious that carbon fiber was a semiconductor, however …)

FireStar antron fibers in the primary and secondary colors — FireStar Antron, trimmed to 3/4 inch and ready for blending

As regards construction of a Spectral Blend, Cal used baby Seal fur for its sparkle, but today we can use Antron fibers in the same fashion. The yarn industry uses Antron fibers for weaving, synthetic batting, and other textiles, and Antron fibers are available under the trade name of “Firestar.” Firestar is a white trilobal fiber that is used in spinning, yarn making, and the millinery industry, and is sold in its native sparkly white form, that us fly fishermen have dubbed, “Antron.”

Firestar is a member of the nylon family, so it can be dyed using standard RIT or Acid dyes. Firestar is also sold at Michael’s Craft stores in the batting section. Batting is used to stuff and plump quilts, so look for it in the sewing section. Typically it can be found at fiber stores, selling for about $3-$7 per ounce, and is available in many small ETSY stores which sell the fiber pre-dyed. Wildthyme has nearly one hundred colors of dyed Antron available, the most I have seen.

Purchase the Primaries, red, yellow, and (cyan) light blue, and the secondaries, orange, green, and purple, trim them to about 3/4″, mix them together in equal parts. The Chameleon Fiber Company has a pre-dyed multi-colored Firestar that is already dyed in all the primary and secondary colors, and is available for $5 per ounce, which is cheap. All you need do is chop it into 3/4″ pieces and mix it into your fur.

Making a bag of the blended colors beforehand allows you to mix a pinch or two in with your normal dubbing to make a Spectral variant of the original fly. Simply add some to traditional Hare’s Mask to make a Spectral Hare’s Mask dubbing, then tie it identical to the classic fly.

Cal’s Spectral Bird’s Nest is tied in the same fashion. The traditional Bird’s Nest blend is 10% natural baby seal, 45% Hare’s Mask, and 45% Australian Opossum. You can substitue white Firestar Antron for the Baby Seal, and then add a pinch of the Spectral blend to make the Spectral Bird’s Nest.

Ignore the cries of the Unbelievers when you hand them a few Bird’s Nests and they exclaim, ” … this ain’t the Original, Whassup?” The mix of colors in the Spectral flavor will likely add to the original versus detract, and carrying a couple dozen will be an asset.

Spectral Bird's Nest shown in detail to see the motes of color offered by the spectral blend of dubbing

Here is a closeup of the finished Spectral Bird’s Nest after the Spectral blend has been mixed itnto the original fly’s dubbing. The classic Gray/Brown coloration of the Bird’s Nest is intact, and the motes of color that radiate out of the fly allow different impressions of color depending on the angle of vision. If the fish wants to see a certain color, it’s in there .. yet the traditional fly is preserved. The silouette, form, and function are identical, only the diversity of visible colors have changed.

Feel free to tinker with color enhancements as you’ll have plenty of Firestar to add color elements to your flies. I typically keep the Spectral blend at about 10% of the dubbing layer, but feel free to increase and decrease this to check the effects of additional colors. Remember there is nothing sacred about a traditional pattern, so get adventurous and let the trout tell you what is and isn’t clever.

From Beginner to Better: Thread, friend and enemy

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Thread is often overlooked due to its construction role in fly tying; considered a “necessary evil” given its bulk adds weight on small flies, and uneven application leaves lumps and bumps in your fly’s body, causing issues with smooth materials like tinsel and floss. While its water absorption is minor, it will trap moisture and contribute to an eventual sinking. To add insult to injury, the small sizes, 8/0 and smaller, tend to part like toilet paper, and have a nagging tendency to break on critical steps leading to catastrophic unraveling and constant swearing …

… and that’s the Good News ..

Like everything else in fly tying, skills come with time and practice and thread is no different, so let’s focus on a few underlying issues that are not so obvious.

Thread, Proper storage and care

Most threads are made of synthetic materials, nylon, polyester, and GSP (Gelspun) – a member of the polyethylene family. The enemy of all synthetics is sunlight, so if you store thread in a tool caddy in direct sunlight, bad things will happen over time. Gossamer threads, 16/0 and beyond, will decay quite quickly, where size “A” thread will be less affected due to the increased volume of material they contain. Heavy threads resist sunlight better than thinner threads, and all will sustain damage over time.

If you have issues with thread breaking, ask yourself whether the fly shop you frequent store their threads in direct sunlight. Is their display near a window in full glare of an afternoon sun? If so, the less commonly used colors, those that remain on the rack longer could be weaker than “fresh” thread. Think of the Steelhead or Shad colors that are only in high demand for certain parts of the year, and remain dormant in the rack for the intervening nine months. When needed next year they might be a bit weaker, and multiple years of storage will continue their decline. If you are plagued by weak thread that seems to break more than it should, remember sunlight is the enemy and both your storage and the vendor’s premises may be contributing to the issue.

Start with Danville 6/0 before moving smaller

I recommend most new tiers use Danville 6/0 thread to aquaint themselves with fine threads. Danville is a wonderful thread and a great starting point for a new tier. Later, once you’re accustomed to the 6/0 you can move down to the 8/0 Uni’s or Ultra Threads once you have skills using fine nylon thread. Thread choice doesn’t lend any “killing” quality to the fly pattern, it’s typically the choice of the meathead tying the fly, not an element that lends to the fly’s deadliness, so substitution of size, brand, or color, is not an issue.

Thread should be stored long term in opaque drawers out of direct sunlight. It’s fine to store active spools on your bench, just don’t leave them there for months at a time.

While thread is considered the enemy, it has more uses than most tiers imagine

Fly tier’s routinely ignore the properties that make thread something more useful. I’ve watched tiers painstakingly select a shade of dubbing for a fly body, or admire an imitation next to a real bug in alcohol, pronouncing how this season … they have finally developed the perfect imitation of the [Insert_Latin_Name_Here], and how they will no longer be denied victory on their favorite creek or drainage.

… and they completely ignore thread and water, despite both being present in every fishing scenario…

Simply put, the thread color can add itself into the overall body color of the fly when wet, especially on lighter colored flies, most of whom are dry flies. Many fly tying videos and fly patterns specify black thread, and this can affect your imitation in the worst way. Light colored flys, will have a muddy appearance as the fly becomes saturated, not at all the color the tyer originally envisioned. As black is among the most common colors purchased, once damp your perfect imitation of the local bug turns into a darker version, and may in part be responsible for a lackluster reception by fish.

The above pair of pictures show a Creme colored dubbing dubbed with four different thread colors. Black, Fluorescent Orange, Light Yellow, and Light Olive, all Danville 6/0 colors. The dry version shows a nice creme hue regardless of thread color, and the dampened version shows how both the Black and the Fluorescent Orange can bleed through the lighter colored dubbing and alter the overall appearance of the fly. Both the neutral colors, Light Yellow and light Olive show less, if any, color bleed.

Matching thread to the imitation, or simply adding a translucent effect

Tying lighter colored dry flies should always be done with neutral colored thread, tan, light gray, light yellow or light olive. These should be the colors most used by the tier for overall fly tying. Blacks and browns are fine on darker flies or nymphs, and specialty flies like Shad, Saltwater, or Steelhead, may require brighter hues given those flies are typically ALWAYS attractors versus a realistic imitation.

As every fly tier ever created goes through an exacting imitation phase … thread color and color bleed through will be extra important on flies tied to imitate a specific insect. Translucent effects can also be tailored to a specific bug wherein the fly body dubbing is chosen to facilitate thread color bleed through, and you can add a tint to the result using the thread color. Saturated light colored dubbing turns into a translucent gel allowing the thread color to bleed through agressively, as shown in the below photograph.

Above is the female Little Yellow Stone (#16) we use on Hat Creek. There are many variants of the fly, using yellow deer hair and other high floating materials, but this is the version I have used for many years. Rather than dubbing two colors of dubbing on the body, I simply start the fly with Hot Orange Danville 6/0, and switch to the yellow thread once I have finished the dubbed Yellow fur body. I put a pronounced band of hot orange hread at the rear to bleed through the yellow and imitate the egg sac, then dub the remainder of yellow body and rely on the bleed when damp to make the egg sac visible.

Threads can be used to tint as well as to overpower dubbing colors. Neutral colors will offer a hint of color, bolder colors will offer much more depending on the choice of body color. The combination of thread color and damp dubbing can add a dimension of translucence to lighter flies that mimic the squishiness of the original. Whether the fish care is immaterial, as it’s the angler’s confidence in the killing properties of his bug that determines success and failure.

In summary, thread use and colors can be as much a science as other forms of fly construction. Use the neutral colors of thread to preserve the coloration of the dry insect when damp, use more pronounced thread colors and light colored dubbing to “tint” the damp fly body with thread color, and use agressive thread colors to make bug parts pop out, as needed.

… and make sure ALL threads are stored in dark closets or drawers to preserve their color and strength in perpetuity.

Confusion over Ice Dub and Angelina clarified

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There is a lot of confusion over Ice Dub and finding it in the wild. Years ago I wrote a piece on Meadowbrook Glitter’s Angelina fibers, and how they’ve since become Ice Dub. Since that time I have answered a lot of confused questions about the Angelina product and whether it is or isn’t what we know as Ice Dub.

I thought I might reiterate what it is you’re looking for and describe what it is you might purchase when looking for it … and how fraught with peril your purchase might be … and how best to fix it … which is a lot for a single post, but advanced fly tying simply ain’t for sissies.

What we are dealing with …

Meadowbrook Glitter makes many types of Angelina fibers. There are “straight”, “soft crimp”, “hot fix”, and several other flavors for which I don’t have a bonafide description or label. I will call them “small denier”, and “long straight.” All of these fibers are made from a thin polyester sheet sliced into tiny thin strips.

“Soft Crimp” Angelina is what we know as Ice Dub. It is a thin curly film soft to the touch and dubs onto thread fairly well. Soft Crimp Angelina has 15 denier wide fiber, whose filament is about two inches long, and is the only Angelina flavor that is Ice Dub.

“Straight” “Angelina is a similar width fiber to the soft crimp, but is NOT curly, is several inches longer than the crimped, and while it can be dubbed onto thread, is a little stiffer and less easy to dub than Soft Crimp. Straight Angelina is available in all the same colors as Soft Crimp, but Ice Dub has even more colors than Angelina, so Ice Dub has many custom colors unique to their product. Meadowbrook Glitter makes both the Soft Crimp and Straight fiber in about 27 colors, and Ice Dub has considerably more than that.

“Hot Fix” Angelina is a heat fusible fiber identical in appearance to straight Angelina, only the application of heat will make the fiber fuse into a mesh sheet or “bug wing” of iridescence. Simply drape fibers onto a clean surface in any pattern, lay a piece of paper over them, then pass a warm iron over the paper, Instant insect wings.

Why it’s a problem …

Angelina fibers were originally made for the glitter business, chopped into tiny fragments so folks could toss them in the air while inebriated. Angelina fibers are now sold to the millinery and yarn business, and that industry uses most of these fibers interchangeably, so they don’t care about the differences as much. Angelina fibers are woven into spun yarns to add flash and sparkle, and only the heat fusible fibers are of concern to the yarn crowd, as they don’t want their garments melting accidentally.

A fly tier intent on buying “Ice Dub” by the ounce can search for Soft Crimp Angelina on the Internet, and will likely get a mix of Angelina fibers, much of it the wrong stuff. The yarn or spinning vendor lists their Angelina fibers incorrectly, or without knowing which are what, and you wind up buying packages of the “straight” fiber Angelina rather than the Soft Crimp. The yarn vendor doesn’t seem to care about straight versus crimped, and you get a confusing mix of incorrect products when ordering online.

This is the source of the confusion, vendors selling straight fibers when you’re looking for soft crimp, and the product you get is close … but not exact.

As a test I ordered from five different yarn stores and recieved all three types under the “soft crimp” label. That means “caveat emptor” … and I cannot fix this for you.

The Good News being that while the straight and hot fix fibers are only slightly harder to dub, they are still very usable in fly tying and your money will not be wasted.

There are two kinds of fly tiers, those that go the extra mile, and those that buy packaged crap

While I can’t fix this issue of vendor mislabeling, I can teach you how to make Lemonade from Lemons, with the aid of a little knowledge and Science …

Think Taco Bell and it’s products served by high school kids. Any new product they debut will make use of existing Taco Bell products and processes, rather than something completely new. They’ll slap beans onto a taco shell, add a soft flour taco cover and call the Artery Hardening result a “Chalupa” … They already had the soft flour taco, beans, and crispy shell, on other products, as well as the process to cook and wrap them in greasy waxed paper …

The same is likely true of Meadowbrook Glitter, all their fibers stem from the same thin polyester sheets, so there has to be some simple process to convert straight to crimped, as everything but the shape is the same. The “hot fix” flavor suggests temperature modification may be the answer.

Enter Science.

Polyester has a melt point of 220 degrees fahrenheit, at that temperature solid polyester will turn into a liquid. At temperatures less than 220F, polyester will shrink, twist, and curl, changing both its form and texture.

Hot water from the tap is about 100F. All we need do is figure out what temperature will turn straight Angelina into something more resembling Soft Crimp. In addition, the heat fusible form of Angelina is an obvious special case, as it’s likely something has been added to its base polyester to melt slightly with warm iron use.

Doctor Frankenstein I presume …

Dyeing polyester is a lot of fun, and being no stranger to the process as well as owning several pounds of soft crimp Angelina, I figured I could add to my available colors of Ice Dub at the same time I deduced what the heat properties were on the baseline Angelina product.

Case 1: Heat fusible Angelina. Heat fusible Angelina begins to lose its straightness at around 130F to 140F. Hot tap water is about 100F, so this is only slightly hotter than tap water. At these temperatures the width of each fiber and its straightness are both comprimised, and the result is essentially a better form of Ice Dub, with a thinner filament size.

Case 2: Standard Angelina (straight). The straight Angelina fibers that are NOT heat fusible have a higher deformation temperature, around 155F to 165F. At these temperatures the same deformation of fiber width and straightness occur, making standard straight Angelina into more of an Ice Dub flavor.

Note: If you wish to do this on your own, you need to have a good thermometer and remove the Angelina from the water bath frequently to check the fibers for the start of the malformation process. I initially removed the material after one minute of exposure to an increase of 10 degrees fahrenheit. In this manner I could determine a roughly ten degree window where the material began to change shape. Leaving the material in the bath longer, or increasing the temperature more can increase the amount of shrinkage and deformation of the Angelina fiber. So you need to assume you will destroy some learning how to shape/dye this material.

Hell, you destroy materials simply dyeing them the wrong color, and as I can buy a quarter ounce of Angelina for the price of one teensy pack of Ice Dub, we’ll have plenty of mistakes and unsusable mats, and we’ll make plenty of things you’ll want to make again.

Reproduce the Range of Outcomes

You know what Ice Dub looks and feels like. You’ve got a package of Angelina so you know its characteristics, now pinch off a dab and toss it in a pot of hot water equipped with a liquid or candy thermometer.

Every ten degrees of temperature increase over 120F you should remove the materials and check for changes. Once you determine the curl and shrink temperature, destroy some by leaving it for too long. This will show you how much change is possible with the water temperature changes, allowing you to reproduce the effect again.

Keep in mind you might not know what the vendor sent you (he might not know either) so record the temperatures and try the process on another sample, if you bought more than one color. If you get one package curling at a lower temperature, chances are you have a hot fusible pack, so make a few bug wings to see what they look like.

Overdyeing Crystilina Aurora with Brown Jacquard dye, note the dye bath temperature with a candy thermometer

The above picture shows the “default Green” color that emerges first when you dye the Angelina fiber. This is “Crystilina Aurora” color and the opalescent refractions assist in making the result look green. This is “white” Crystilina Aurora dyed with Jacquard Brown iDye. The brown is beginning to take, but more time in the dye bath will be needed to get a dark brown.

Dyeing polyester requires a different type of dye

Polyester is a synthetic fiber, so you need a synthetic dye to color it correctly. Synthetic dyes typically will not dye protein, so you can dip your hand in the dye with no ill effect, other than suffering horribly from scalding water burns.

Spilling it on formica is a different issue, as most kitchen formica is synthetic, and every dollop, slurpage, or drip may dye your kitchen floor vividly.

RIT makes a synthetic dye called “DyeMore” for use on synthetic fabrics including Polyester. The Jacquard company makes “Idye Poly” for synthetics which will also dye Polyester. As Jacquard also makes an Idye for natural fibers, make sure you order the correct product. Jacquard iDye contains a packet of gel fixative to set the color, and the RIT DyeMore requires no additional fixative to set the color permanently.

The instructions on the labels of these dyes are a bit misleading, as they are designed for pounds of cloth, not tiny fragments of polyester. Often the directions will insist the dye bath be closer to 200F than the 120-160F range I described. Ignore the directions and test the process using a pinch or two of the Angelina material, testing shrinkage, curling, and color, before committing your entire purchase to the dye pot. THe physics are undeniable, as dumping several pounds of wet cloth into the pot is going to lower the temperature 20-30 degrees, whereas your little packet of Angelina will not have that cooling affect, and the small pinch of material will probably liquify into an unusable gum.

I tested both RIT DyeMore and the Jacquard IDye Poly and had great results with both. One of the unique things about polyester is that the initial color picked up by the Angelina is always a Peacock Green, even if you’re dyeing something Tan. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this phenomenon, simply leave the material in the pot longer and the proper dye color will eventually show.

I always yank some out of the pot if the initial green color is particularly fetching, leaving the remainder to acquire the actual color of the dye. This gives me two colors for the price of one.

Angelina has several white colors suitable for dyeing, each with a different iridescent or opalescent highlight. My favorite is Soft Crimp Angelina in the “Crystilina Aurora” color. This highlight is like shattered abalone shell and contains more colors than the other highlights, hence my favorite.

Angelina Fibers, exposed to different water temperatures

The above image shows the deformation of the straight Angelina fibers when exposed to hot water. The original sample is in the center, and the 155 Degree was a several minute exposure to 155F hot water. Likewise for the 135F specimen at right. You will have to watch carefully to get the right amount of change in your straight or hot fix Angelina, and as water temperature can differ at altitude you will probably require several attempts before you get what you like. Experiment with small pinches of the material before submerging your entire stash. Remember that Ice Dub has a shorter filament length than the Soft Crimp Angelina, so depending on what the vendor sold you there may be small differences still. Based on the above sample and temperatures, it appears this is “straight” Angelina, not the heat fusible or soft crimp versions.

As most of you are new to dyeing understand that you’ll need to approach this systematically. Your results will vary from mine due to simple things like size of pot, amount of water, amount of dye used, so don’t expect perfection on the first try. In my trials I used a full container of the dye, either Jacquard or RIT, mixed with about 4 inches of water in a large stew pot. The large pot allows the attachment of the candy thermometer without getting in the way of stirring the mix.

To make it easy on yourself, heat the liquid to the desired temperature and turn off the burner. This will allow you to soak materials for several minutes without scorching or destroying them suddenly. Once you’re certain of the time and temperature exposures you can get bolder in your efforts.

The above shows the results of testing both dyes and fibers. RIT DyeMore Sandstone, Gunmetal, Jacquard Green, Silver Gray, and Brown. Several of the greens shown are me pulling some out before the actual color takes over. Almost all the synthetic dyes yield a green on the initial dip with the color showing up only after some minutes in the bath. The Gunmetal color took nearly 15 minutes to show correctly, and I had to reheat the dye bath a couple times to ensure it remained near the desired temperature range.

With products as delicate as Angelina it is really easy to destroy them in the dye bath, so turn the heat off where possible to ensure you do not scorch the product or weaken it structurally.

In Summary, Angelina fibers are sold by many vendors without regard to whether they are soft crimp, straight, or heat fusible, and its possible to recieve any of these flavors when ordering the Soft Crimp flavor online, just as I did. Angelina will curl and shrink under heat, so if the “Soft Crimp Angelina” shows up and is the straight or heat fusible version, you can make it into a better version of itself with a dye pot and the appropriate dyes – or simply hot water.

Expensive bobbins and other engineering marvels distract your dollars from where they’re really needed

Only two items are used at every step of the fly, and rather than spending precious dollars on tools that are simply more expensive because they can be, spend your money where it really counts, by upgrading your scissors or your vise.

The fly tier’s vise and one or more pairs of quality scissors will always justify their cost simply because they are constantly in use, their quality levels increase dramatically with the dollars spent, and their capabilities increase with the increased outlay, as blades and tips become finer and sharper, or jaws become capable of a wider range of hooks, can rotate, and can attain the same nosebleed price levels as lesser tools, so you don’t feel left out.

Fly tying vises being too expensive to own more than one or two of them, thereby making me blanch at the thought of buying several for review, but scissors are enjoying a renaissance in both price and quality, and a canny fly tier intent on upgrading his tool suite should learn where the good scissors grow, and how to determine what he really needs in light of this vast unexplored continent of expensive cutlery.

Scissors, and the Vastness of Options

All the best scissors grow in the medical and dental professions, and what’s available from fly shops are the cheapest quality scissors, mostly made in India or Pakistan. Both regular and dental surgery have created thousands of different types of specialized scissors that you cannot imagine exist, until you are curious enough to visit an online medical supply house, and dive into all the names, sizes, and shapes.

The myriad of choices, shapes, cutting edges, and materials are likely to be a bit daunting to your untrained eye, but I include enough information to help you limit your focus to a few important qualities and the types of tips, frames, and edges available to make your choice and your dollars go further.

Tips

Tungsten Carbide inserts are obvious to the naked eye. Don't assume cheap scissors are tungsten unless you can see the inserts

For the fly tier the sharp fine tip is the most desirable element in a scissor. Medical scissors can have a tip fine enough to trim a single fiber from the inside of the eye of a hook, but that degree of metalurgy comes with a high price, both in dollars and in the education of the fly tier that spent the $600 necessary to own those scissors.

Medical scissors also come with blunt tips, rounded tips, curved, straight, and one rounded tip and one fine tip, but for most fly tying uses the dual fine tip is preferred. Fly tiers may lust after other types of scissors, once they learn of their existence, like Wire Cutting scissors would be superb for cutting heavy feather stems, wire, and bead chain. Medical supply houses often describe these as “heavy pattern” scissors, or heavier frames designed for increased force, and most come with one serrated and one straight edge designed specifically for cutting stainless steel wire.

Stainless steel wire is the preferred standard in dentistry and medical surgery due to its strength and possesses the highest intrinsic hygiene value, requiring less disinfecting chemicals to provide a sterile surface. Stainless steel wire would destroy most fly tying scissors very quickly, so the extra “beefiness” in frame of a heavy pattern scissor is welcome.

For most tiers the question of which tip will reduce itself to straight or semi-curved. Fly tying scissors are typically straight points, but scissors designed for fine work are often available in both straight and semi-curved. The curvature allows the cutting points and fingers of the user to not block the view of the area being worked on, giving greater visibility for precision cutting. Most tiers learn with straight points, many prefer the semi-curved once introduced to them solely due to the increased visibility garnered at the point of the cut.

Edges

The “Supercut” blade (typically with black handles) are superfine serrated blades. These serrations are much finer than anything available to fly tiers and will positively grab and hold anything ensuring no slippage during the cut. Tiers are familiar with hair or fibers slipping along the blade as it closes and we compensate without realizing it, often trimming two or three times to get a single even cut. Supercut scissors prevent any hair from slipping and you will get straight and even cuts on fibrous materials every time.

Tungsten Inserts are small insets of Tungsten Carbide imbedded in the leading edge of each blade. Tungsten is among the hardest of steel, so it makes a superior cutting edge. It is also the most brittle of steel, so you can destroy the points simply by dropping them onto a concrete floor. If you are not careful and cut toward the hook shank perhaps catching the tips on the hook shank, you can remove both tips in the blink of an eye, destroying the scissor in the process. Tungsten Carbide scissor usage requires the tier to relearn how to use scissors, and how to protect the points properly.

Most medical scissors are simply stainless steel which is a softer cutting edge and less prone to damage. Many medical scissors have “German Stainless” stamped or stenciled on them, which refers to the type of steel used versus the steel (or scissor) originating in Germany. Metalurgy analysis suggests sulpher and phosphorus are added to traditional stainless to make this variant, it is considered a “soft” steel.

Ceramic bladed scissors are a ceramic coating added to stainless or tungsten inserts to make the edges harder, sharper, and last longer than stainless or tungsten normally would. Ceramic coating also reduces glare on the scissor, and makes it resist corrosion better. Ceramic coated scissors are incredibly expensive, lusted after by every fly tier that handles a pair, and should be considered only if you have a friend whose a surgeon, a rich uncle, or win the lottery. Ceramic OR (operating room) grade scissors typically range between $250 to $600, depending on size and type.

… and yes, the gold coating on their handles is real gold.

What a Hammy Handed Meathead needs to know before buying the Good Stuff

Semicurved tips on operating room scissors. These are the tungsten carbide OR grade

Medical scissors are available in four grades. There’s the disposable scissors from Pakistan and India that are $10 or less, and make up most of the offering from fly tying shops, and are available by the squillions on Ebay at much cheaper prices. A decade ago these were really poor quality, but the sample purchases made recently suggest vast improvement on both fit and tolerances.

As these scissors are less than ten bucks each, you can order a sample pair to check the points and quality of blade construction before ordering more. These are great scissors for equipping a club fly tying class – or used as loaners for same. These scissors mimic the fancy scissors by using gold colored handles, and stencil “German Stainless” on the frame, hoping you’ll think the scissor is made in Germany.

Often these scissors are labelled with the term “TC” for Tungsten Carbide, but none of the samples that I bought had tungsten carbide inserts in the blades (see the below picture), so this is simply a sales tactic hoping to dupe the unwary.

There is the high quality disposable from both US and German vendors, and are usually in the $17 to $25 range. These scissors are typically better than our fly tying scissors, have fine points, are made in the US or Germany, and are typically only made of stainless steel.

The third grade of scissor is the “supercut” and tungsten carbide scissors. These scissors can range from about $75 to $250, and are better than anything offered by fly tying vendors. The above picture (at left) shows the fit of the blades on a pair of semicurved Tungsten IRIS scissors. Note that daylight cannot be seen between the two blades from their tips all the way to the screw fastener. This is the hallmark of the best scissors as they only cut where the upper and lower blades meet. Daylight means little or no cutting ability on that segment of the scissor.

The ultimate grade is the ceramic coated scissor, and is largely out of the tier’s budget. Paying $300 to $600 for a pair of scissors that you are certain to destroy should they be your first set of quality scissors, is for trust fund babies who can afford thousand dollar fly rods, and $200 nippers. I recommend learning to use tungsten carbide scissors first before moving higher on the food chain, and prior to ceramic coated you should have destroyed at least one pair of tungsten scissors learning how to use them properly.

These scissors (tungsten and ceramic) should be approached warily, as the fly tier needs to learn how to use scissors of this quality, given that flesh and ligaments can be soft in the comparison to some of the things you may be cutting with your inexpensive fly tying scissors.

Learning how “soft” steel can be

Stainless is considered a “soft” steel, and using a quality scissor improperly will show you how soft stainless can be.The screw joining the frame and blades is a much harder steel than the stainless of the scissor, so the more pressure applied to the legs of the scissor to make the cut, the more the screw will deform the soft stainless housing that surrounds it. Over time this screw hole deformity becomes “slop” in the meshing of the blades, and the legs of the scissor will show increased play in all directions. Eventually the scissor will be destroyed, or the screw can deform the screwhole to the point where the scissor no longer functions as such.

Test your existing fly tying scissors for damage in the same fashion. Simply grip each fingerhole and move the legs in opposite directions vertically. The distance the legs move away from one another in the vertical plane shows how much deformity or slop is present in the screw hole.

Your first set of really excellent scissors will be your ritual sacrifice, you will destroy them learning what you can and cannot do. Destroying good scissors should take years if you don’t do anything stupid, so be mindful of their use and assume you will destroy them via time-honored trial and error.

Rule 1: Heavy cutting needs to be done with heavy duty scissors . I have a “heavy pattern” scissor with standard stainless blades that I use to cut wires, monofilaments. stems of peacock and other thick flight feathers, and bead chain. These heavier scissors have lasted about 30 years of commercial tying with no obvious damage, due to my choosing the proper tool for this job. I may succumb to a set of inexpensive wire cutting scissors just to try them in a similar role.

Rule 2: Stop cutting toward the hook shank with tungsten carbide scissors, learn to cut “away” from the hook shank instead. Closing the tips on a hook shank will remove those fine points you paid so much for – so learn how to minimize risk. Use Needle Scabbards on your best scissors to protect them when not in use.

Rule 3: Fine pointed medical scissors are designed to cut flesh, skin and soft organ tissue. They are not used to cut heavy tendon and bone. This learning curve is identical to a surgeon-in-training, you have to learn which tool is best suited for what type of cut. Use your heavy scissors to cut leather for mouse tails, brass or stainless wire, or anything else rigid or thick.

Of the thousands of medical scissors, what should I be looking for?

I have linked to numerous different medical supply houses in this article so you can see the hundreds of types of scissors available. There are also plenty of explanations for the basic types of medical scissors and their uses available on the Internet.

A fly tier who is ready to make the leap from fly shop to doctor’s office should focus on these attributes.

IRIS Scissor : Iris scissors have small, fine tips and sharp blades. They were originally designed for ophthalmic procedures but are now used in a wide range of applications like delicate tissue dissection, cutting fine sutures, or removing delicate ocular tissues. Note the medical uses all mention delicate or fine, pay attention. IRIS scissors are best suited for the fine work needed on flies. Stick with this style in your initial foray, and get more emboldened once you’re used to the types and styles.

If you want to look at a new type of scissor, order the seven dollar version of it from a medical supply or EBay. Test the heft, length, blade, and cut, using the inexpensive version. If warranted, you can buy a better grade of the scissor once you’re comfortable with its attributes, capabilities, and shape.

Length: 4.5″. Scissors come in many sizes, for fly tying … stick with the 4.0 – 4.5″ lengths, depending on your hand size. I prefer the 4.5″ length, it’s typically the standard length for most fly tying scissors sold in fly shops as well. (4.5″ is 11.4 centimeters, Germany is on the metric system. and many supply houses list their metric size.)

Large fingerhole. Scissors are available in different fingerhole types, ribbon and standard. Medical scissors are designed for male fingers so all should have large enough fingerholes, but given a choice, opt for more room.

Fly tying scissors all have straight tips, medical scissors offer semicurved, slanted, straight, and scissors whose blades are tilted 45 degrees. Start with straight points and work your way up to the semi-curved once you’re more comfortable. Semi-curved scissors are designed to remove scissor and fingers from the same plane as the cut being made – meaning you have increased visibility of the work area so you have better control over the single hair you’re removing from the eye of the hook. I prefer semi-curved, but I use both styles.

There are many high quality makers of medical scissors and most reside in the US or Germany. I cannot vouch for all, but if you are concerned and wish to make a large dollar purchase, I recommend the Miltex brand, Miltex being a German made scissor. I have also purchased numerous Hu-Friedy scissors, and I can recommend those as well.

I have used Miltex scissors for at least 40 years and have never had a bad pair. I have destroyed a couple pair, but this was the normal process of learning about the scissors and their limitations. That first sacrificial pair paid for itself many times over as I did not repeat the same mistakes with others I have purchased.

… and Lastly.

If you’re contemplating a purchase please recheck the scissors length, and tip type before buying online. You may even want to call them if the photographs are grainy or too small. It is easy to mix a round tip for a fine tip or a blunt scissor, if you’re not playing close attention.

Some states require the purchaser of the medical scissor to be a doctor, and in those states a license or license number must be produced at the time of sale. Don’t buy from the supply houses that are limited by this requirement. All the eBay scissors and 90 percent of the remaining supply houses do not have a license requirement, so simply shop a different state.

As only the largest of cities host stores selling these items, ask your dentist or dental surgeon to look at his tools. Most dentists are boring conversationists, due to all their conversations being one sided, you being hampered by a mouthful of stainless steel and someone else’s fingers, so have him show you some of the scissors he has at his practice, or … tell you about the merits of the different vendors he’s used .. or where he purchases his tools.

… and when the SOB isn’t looking you can pocket a handful of the Good Stuff ….

From Beginner to Better: Whip Finishes

The “Beginner to Better” posts relay small tips used by experienced or commercial tyers to improve speed, quality, or simply enumerate some of the physics behind our tying that beginners are unaware of until much later in their skill progression. Most tend to be overlooked in the Youtube narrations, as even video footage cannot convey physics or the rationale behind the inclusion or omission of a step.

Big Unwieldy heads caused by a dependance on beaded flies

The dominance of beaded flies is hamstringing a lot of new fly tiers, as the presence of a bead eliminates the portion of the fly that would have been the tie off points for the last few materials, and the formation of a slender, graceful head.

Beads mask the finesse of the fly’s finish, and turn it into a thread lump – often as tall or taller than the bead itself. Tiers no longer plan the fly’s finish, they simply lump everything in one spot along with seventy five turns of thread. Gone is the learned thread discipline, keeping turns to the minimum, and with its departure are the “feathered” tie off points that spread the fly finish and thread over a larger area, rather than simply focusing everything in the gap behind the bead.

Instead of ample room and a gentle slope, whip finishes are crammed on top of the seventy turns already present, and the knot can tighten poorly, prove unstable, or the thread can snap due to a poor draw. We’ll cover each eventuality below.

Whip Finish Physics

Whip finishes are a thread running the length of the knot, covered by multiple turns of more thread, that when tightened, cover that tag end when the thread is cut. Of vital importance, is to only make those turns of thread in one direction, down the hook towards the eye. In this manner the thread is covered by the subsequent turns and the knot draws cleanly and tightens properly.

Should you make a sloppy knot, where the first three turns move towards the eye, and the subsequent three turns move away from the eye, the underlying thread will have an “S” curve in it and the knot will tighten less well. If you are using excessive thread, eight or nine turns in your whip finish, and you spray those all over, up and down the fly, the knot will have multiple “S” turns in the underlying thread, and will likely not draw tight at all – or the thread will snap when you attempt to tighten the knot.

Rule 1: Learn to tie whip finishes with the same number of turns of thread.

Rule 2: Whip finishes must start at the top of the head and move in one direction only, towards the eye of the hook. On a beaded fly, the knot starts at the point furthest from the bead and moves towards the bead with each subsequent turn.

Typically I use a four turn whip finish on everything. If the head is large and exposed, like a big saltwater fly, I might take a few more turns, but will adhere to the “each turn closer to the eye” requirement.

Thread Physics

Thread also influences the whip finish in a variety of ways. Fine threads, 6/0 and smaller, are weak and more susceptible to thread ailments. Besides the hammy handed fly tier, the biggest ailments for thread are age and spin.

Age:

Nylon threads age well if kept in the proper conditions, and age really poorly if you don’t keep them properly. The nemisis of nylon is sunlight, so if you are in the habit of putting your extra thread spool onto a dowel on your tool caddy, which along with your tying desk, is near the window … you can expect your fine threads to die a rapid and horrible death.

Nylon threads must be kept in a drawer or opaque container. They will last forever under those conditions. I have several hundred spools of 6/0 that are nearly forty years old, and show no signs of deterioration due to my keeping them out of sunlight and excessive heat.

Spin:

If you spin your bobbin excessively you will turn your single strand of nylon thread into a round thread. As your bobbin hangs under the fly while tying it will spin in different directions due to your striking it with your hands or the materials you’re manipulating. If your bobbin spins excessively in one direction (without being allowed to spin opposite) you could have a slightly weaker thread due to the constriction of the thread induced by the spin.

Should you immediately spray nine turns of a whip finish all over the head of your fly, the weakness will show due to the increased resistance of multiple “S” turns trapped in the knot, and the weakened thread can snap when tightened.

Letting the bobbin “rest” just prior to the whip finish, will allow it spin to equilibrium, removing the tightness of weave due to your spinning the tool for some purpose, like a dubbed loop or brush.

The above ZugBug illustrates the overly large head where the thread head actually protrudes onto the bead. While the fly is fine proportionally, and will fish wonderfully, the combination of tungsten beads (and whether this is a slotted or countersunk bead), will have the fly bouncing along the bottom making contact with the rocks and timbers that make up the creek bed.

If the bead rides slightly offcenter, which can happen with slotted beads, the fly may be bouncing merrily down the creek upside down, and the thread being “taller” than the bead … the knot will be making contact with all the boulders, and not the bead. Heavily weighted flies take lots of abuse and the overly large whip finish area will be a liability due to the damage that area will recieve.

Rule 3: Beaded flies are fine, when tying them ensure your whip finish is smaller than the bead, so the bead absorbs all the instream impacts and not the knot area.

Cheaper more Flexible Needle Scabbards

As a follow up to the post on using Needle Scabbards to protect bobbins, I’ll introduce a new source as well as a cheaper price, and additional capabilities ..

Ebay turned out to have a stretchable silicon “needle cover”, which is available in a large range of sizes, and being silicon, stretches more than the vinyl needle scabbards purchased from Amazon.

The Ebay vendor sells 100 packs for about $8, which is a third of the price of the vinyl style, and doubles the quantity as well.

I purchased the 1.57mm X 12.7mm size. and it is perfect for most bobbins – and stretches to fit over the large barrel bobbins featured in my two posts on bobbin review. 1.57mm is the internal diameter of the opening, and 12.7mm is the length of the scabbard.

Stuffing the tip of a expensive ceramic lined bobbin into a tool caddy may have repercussions at some point, and having the tip protected when not in use gives you the ability to secure the thread, as well as protecting the finish on the tip of your ceramic or chrome bobbin.

As a double bonus, you can use these to protect the tips of your Tungsten Carbide scissors. The stretchable nature of these needle scabbards are more useful than the earlier flavor, but be forewarned that these will likely deteriorate over time and exposure to sunlight. While heavy walled, sunlight is the nemisis of silicone, and some months or years hence, they will fail.

Tools of the Trade: No changes to Whip Finishers

Fresh off my delving into bobbins, I thought I might dabble in the other mainstay tools to see if any are evolving. Most fly tying tools are in stasis, no significant changes have occurred since their introduction. Whip finishers appear to be one of these static areas, as surveying the web shows no new functionality, only a few minor tweaks to their design, and little to show for the increased costs inflicted on us by manufacturers.

Several decades after introduction, Frank Matarelli’s original tool has no real competitors despite advances in metallurgy and engineering. Reviewing the field of available options simply turned up copies of copies of Frank’s original design, and tools with new shapes and similar mechanics, suggesting little improvement is needed or possible.

Having been a victim of the ancient Herter’s Whip Finisher, and that experience scarring me forever, thrust me into a decade of “fingers only” whip finishes … until the callous on my forefinger started fraying thread mid knot … and I adopted the Matarelli Whip Finisher the moment I saw it.

Since then, very little has moved the whip finisher forward. Thread technology has moved into unbreakable, via Kevlar, and at the same time become more gossamer; Danville 6/0 giving way to Uni 8/0, yet the tool most used to finish flies has deviated little.

In reviewing what options exist, I found two “Familys” of change. The “flexible leg” group of Petitjean, Griffin, and Stonfo, and the “Extended Reach” group, led by Hareline and a host of inhouse brands, offering a larger version of the Matarelli whip finisher. The Petitjean family boasts different shapes and designs, but use the same mechanics as the Matarelli, and the Hareline Extended Reach copying the Matarelli Extended Reach, which is a larger version of their standard whip finisher. Larger isn’t so much a new feature, it’s more of a wrinkle on the original theme.

“Extended Reach” is a convenience that allows a tool-using fly tier to add a whip finish somewhere other than the eye of the fly. Some tiers prefer the whip finish knot to the half hitch, so the larger tool allows its use on other parts of the fly, as well as being able to do so on bushy flies and long shanked hooks.

In comparing the Hareline Extended Reach to my older Matarelli Extended Reach whip finisher, I found the Hareline to be about a half inch shorter (in overall length) than the Matarelli, and a poor fit to my hand. You’d think the larger tool would have a longer handle, but the Hareline only fits across half of my palm, and with the increased leverage of bigger tool and bigger fly, I found it to be a bit uncomfortable. The tool performed quite well, with only the grip and its placement in the palm an issue.

The Hareline Extended Reach whip finisher was able to place a whip finish at mid shank, at the tail, and similarly for mid and long shank hooks. The tool functioned well, spun effortlessly, and outside of the handle length would be a suitable replacement for the Matarelli I currently use. For those tying large flies and bass poppers, this is a handy addition to your tool kit.

Petitjean Whip Finisher

I had high hopes that the Petitjean would bring something to the table to justify its $35 price tag. Having reviewed the Petitjean bobbin earlier, and admiring the new capabilities its designer brought to the tool, I had hoped to see something similar in the whip finish tool.

As a whip finisher, the Petitjean performed its task well, but not flawlessly. The spring side of the tool proved quite weak and immediately bent toward the rigid side, which closed the opening in the thread and gave it less clearance when the tool is spun around the fly. A finger is needed to clear the spring side of the tool from the thread loop and draw the thread tight. The finger must push the spring side out of the thread loop so the knot can be drawn tight – and the tool “hook” can release the thread completely. In addition, the polished stainless was not slick enough to cleanly release both the Danville 6/0 and Uni 8/0 thread, and while the tool functioned, the thread seemed “sticky” and did not slide off the tool as easy as chromed stainless. I felt I had to coax it a bit to come off the hook.

The Petitjean worked well as a whip finisher, but it brought nothing new to the table and seemed to be lacking a few refinements that would have made it much better. A stiffer spring, a different finish, and the tool would simply be an excellent, albeit expensive, whip finisher.

The Griffin and Stonfo whip finishers are made similarly. I would test these to determine the spring tension before purchase as they could be affected by the same issue. (Each user will have to decide if this is a “feature” or an impedance. Different tiers may react differently)

The Matarelli features two righid arms of the tool, allowing the tool to be moved within the loop it creates to release the thread from the indented side and the knot drawn tight while the thread is captured by the hook. It doesn’t require a finger to push the spring arm out of the loop formed by the crossed threads, typically, it can simply be pushed downward to free the thread from the opposing arm, then drawn tight. Less interaction means more efficiency, and not having to remove a forefinger from your grip on the tool – to push the spring arm out of the loop, means the Matarelli model wins outright.

Many new designs exist but the mechanical principals are identical to the Matarelli, the wire bends appear different, but the mechanics of the tier are the same, place tool in thread, thread held by two “arms”, rotate around hook, disengage.

The Reigning Champion of cost, appears to be the Tiemco Dual Standard Whip finisher, which features only slight changes in the Matarelli design, and identical mechanics. It does have a half hitch tool on the end of the handle, but half hitch tools are a couple bucks, and shouldn’t warrant an extra sixty bucks in cost for the whip finisher. Cost for the Tiemco is about $70.

/beginrant

Hard to fathom why we exclude so many people from the sport using cost as a weapon, then ask for their votes to protect a watershed they might be fishing … if the cost of fly rods were cheaper. We need more people in the sport, not less.

/endrant

In summary, little to report in the way of evolution of whip finishing. Tools are static and growing in price, and the expensive whip finishers are not needed by beginner nor expert, as they offer little in new capabilities.

Manufacturers would be better served adding a thread cutter to a whip finisher than a half hitch tool, as you want to marry logical steps versus simply reaching for the tool twice. Completing the knot then cutting the thread increase efficiency and speed, searching for the tool to do a half hitch, then searching again to finish the fly doesn’t necessarily save time over owning a separate half hitch tool.

For us fly tiers, find yourself a good “shop” brand, and purchase the sub-ten dollar Matarelli clone, save your money for a more worthy purchase.

Singlebarbed

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You take the Red Pill you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes …

From Beginner to Better: Thread, friend and enemy

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Expensive bobbins and other engineering marvels distract your dollars from where they’re really needed

From Beginner to Better: Whip Finishes

Cheaper more Flexible Needle Scabbards

Tools of the Trade: No changes to Whip Finishers