I use more copper wire than the Intel Corporation, and my recent whirlwind tour of fly shops gave me a shopping list of items to find in bulk . Copper wire was first on the list, as a measly 30 foot spool costs $2.00 at the shop.

I use the standard size and the “ultra” wire size, which is slightly smaller. The electronics trade calls this stuff many things, but “magnet wire” seems to be a common title. It is a raw copper wire with an enamel coating, and comes in a variety of colors.

I prefer the enamel coated wire to “raw” copper as the enamel prevents the wire from tarnishing. I usually apply a rubberband to the larger spools to prevent unraveling, the enamel protects the wire against discoloration caused by damp flies returned to the box, and the rubber band securing the spool.

A half pound spool of magnet wire is about $10.25. In the 34 Gauge size (our fly tying standard) you get 3911 feet of wire for the price of five fly shop spools.

I am guessing that the Ultra Wire is 36 Gauge, but as it is on backorder I cannot confirm this. I got two 1/2 pound spools today, 34 Gauge and 32 Gauge for larger steelhead flies.

The hard part is electronic supply houses don’t care about the color. You have to ensure that you are getting the simple “brownish” enamel finish, not purple or green, or whatever they have in the rack.

As a reference vendor, Action Electronics was where I got mine, but I got assorted colors which are less useful than the natural copper color. You need to call or visit to ensure color selection – as I haven’t found an electronics site that allows me to choose color via the web.

Singlebarbed readers do not tremble when shopping with a coupon, so buck up.

Technorati Tags: copper wire, bulk copper wire, 34 gauge

I mentioned in an earlier post of finding a new material with great promise for fly tying, while fish and local water clarity are uncooperative, I’m restocking my fly box and absorbing some NFL action.

The two materials I am testing are Angelina and Crystalina fibers, both available from the garment industry as fiber, film, and cloth. Crystalina appears to be called “Ice Dubbing” – a refractive coarse material suitable for larger flies. It’s the Angelina fibers that have really caught my interest however.

Finer than Crystalina and suitable for all ranges of hook size, I am blending it with natural furs using a coffee grinder, then retying many of the patterns I use substituting the Angelina blend instead of the normal mixture.

The results are stunning as even traditional patterns get a dramatic face lift. More importantly, it adds a full range of color spectrum due to the opalescent sheen.

Coffee grinder blending requires that all fur added be no more than an inch in length, any longer and the fibers will wrap around the center spindle and bind the motor, quickly burning it out.

I needed to replenish some Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear’s and mixed a blend of Red Fox squirrel guard hairs, muskrat fur (because I had a ton of it on the skin) and 20% Angelina.

The raw Angelina is about 4-6 inches in length, so I trimmed it into the grinder along with muskrat shaven off the hide with scissors. You have to wad the material down into the blades to get it to mix well, but it only takes seconds to make a batch.

It’s personal preference, I would rather use blends of fur rather than a uniform dyed color. Bugs are an uneven coloration especially when tumbling in the water column, so I prefer having multiple colors and textures in fur for nymphs. Dry flies are not so much an issue as the fish can’t inspect much more than the portion visible to them.

The opalescence of the Angelina fiber really adds quite a few colors without dominating the result. Mixing much more than 20% of the fibers will have start to overwhelm the original dressing, I was just looking to give a little sparkle and solidify my proof of concept.

I like to use a base complement of nymph colors and sizes when fishing. Black, Olive, Gray, Pheasant Brown, and something mostly peacock. Those 5 colors should seduce something in any stream, and should cover most species of freshwater fish.

I have to order additional colors to make all those blends, in the meantime I am focusing on the natural mother of pearl fiber to see how it looks when added to traditional flies.                                                      

The photo is inadequate to capture the colors, but it hints at the effect. A stellar replacement for seal fur as the sparkle of “Angie” makes seal look dull in comparison.

Us bachelors lack ironing skills, fusing the fibers with an iron is next, if soft enough it should make dramatic spinner wings. I’ll be abusing the flies to see how the material stands up to use and whether the refraction qualities grow dull with sunlight. Hungry small fish won’t be much of a test, but it’s close by.

LiveJournal Tags: Angelina fibers, blended fur dubbing, Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear

White lab coat time, as I’m fiddling with one of those materials you stumble across whose possibilities are virtually endless.

It’s a strange synthetic filament called Angelina. It is soft enough to dub like fur, and long enough to use as fine hair, it can be ironed to make bug wings (heat fuses the filaments together) or chopped up and mixed with dubbing to add an opalescent sparkle.

It is available as a fiber from the garment industry, apparently it’s also available as a cloth and as a thread.

It’s something that you can use in everything, especially during them long winter months when experimentation coupled with football and strong coffee brings your artistic side to the forefront.

It looks exactly like hair made out of mother of pearl, yet the filament size is so fine you can dub it onto a hook like fur.  It is available in about 45 colors and 2 cuts; straight, and crimped, bondable (heat fused) and non-bondable. The crimped style is slightly heavier hair than the straight version (large nymphs, steelhead flies), straight is perfect for dubbing smaller nymphs and even dry fly bodies. Every color retains the opalescent quality in addition to the coloration.

My camera cannot show the opal refractive qualities as it just isn’t good enough. I dubbed a #12 hook shank with Angelina fibers, white and pink, allowing you to see the fiber size. Click on both pictures to see a higher resolution image.

Angelina is sold in 1/2 oz. packages, a bundle of material 5″ long, 3.5″ wide, and almost 2″ thick. Cost ranges from $3.50 to $4.50 a package.

Most of the vendors pictures are as poor as mine, included are links to some sites that display a large range of colors.

This may be what they’re calling “Ice Dubbing” but not having seen that product I cannot say with certainty. If so, buying it in this flavor will be a lot cheaper than the little packages available at the fly shop.

Get the Angelina Straight Cut in whatever color you like best, it has the widest range of applications as it is the finest filament size. I purchased some sample packages (5 colors each) from Embellishment Village.