Deer Hair, Moose Hair, Other Hairs

[Fisherwoman]

Hi, When making flies out of these hairs, I understand the hairs which is being used are hallow, makes a better float, human hair is no damn good. What part of the animal is the hair taken from? Back. rump, neck.

 

Are the animals breed for fly tying? Are they organic?

[Din]

as an added question. I may be able to get some hair from some hunters....how would you treat it to get rid of the bugs? also how can you die the hairs?

[Fisherwoman]

as an added question. I may be able to get some hair from some hunters....how would you treat it to get rid of the bugs? also how can you die the hairs?

 

Hi, Treat it for bugs.. I've been told to use moth balls put the hair in a bag with the moth balls leave it for few weeks...

 

Or....

 

Use bleach Borax bleach soak it dry it than it's ok.. Someone helped me with that at Fish Tails,

[Din]

Hi, Treat it for bugs.. I've been told to use moth balls put the hair in a bag with the moth balls leave it for few weeks...

 

Or....

 

Use bleach Borax bleach soak it dry it than it's ok.. Someone helped me with that at Fish Tails,

 

thanks fisherwoman. sorry have no idea to help out with your questions

[ladystrange]

any hair will work from the deer family from most places on the body. that being said, the really short stuff from the legs and ears wont be of much help.

 

moose, elk, white tail and mule are the most popular. caribou and antelope tend to be rather fragile.

 

mane, neck, back, rump, shoulder, belly will all work just fine. i doubt it is organic, but you can purchase from any of the fly supply shops. sorry, i have never bothered to ask superfly where they get their deer from. note to self, ask at sportsman show... maybe that is where all the road kill goes... hummm

 

if you have a hunter friend, make sure the hide is fleshed well and either dried/salted/boraxed or professionally tanned.

 

to get rid of bugs, i just nuke it in the microwave for 15 sec. moth balls dont always work and it stinks. keep in a cool dark place for all furs

 

as for dying, unless you have expreience with picric, i'd stay away from it. it is very volitile and nasty to work with.

 

i buy all my dyed stuff. i dont want the hassle or the work.

[Flytyer]

You can treat piees of fresh hide with pickling salt as well but scrap as much of the fat off the hide as possible to help the curing process.

As for hair from various parts of the animal this link should help

 

http://globalflyfisher.com/staff/helm/selecting/chart.html

[lonefisher]

love dyeing (dying,dieing) stuff.....I use the koolaid method google it and you should find a site explaining dying wool with koolaid works the same for most animal products I have dyed. Though I have only done feathers and deer hair. couldn't find any yellow koolaid though so I have dyed stuff yellow using tumeric.... works but took forever to kill the tumeric smell to my nose 2 hot cycles is a mesh baggie in the wash seemed to work..... I am still not sure if fish can smell the remnants but I don't think so....

For fairly dark hairs I would think you might have to start by bleaching if you wanted a decent dye job..... but I haven't done this.

 

The deer hair under the fly in this pic are examples of koolaid (and tumeric) dyeing.

 

 

As to the actual original questions I don't believe when hair is the topic that animals are bred for tying..... but I'm not sure.....birds are in some cases for sure but animals I think not......

As for organic.... I don't understand the question

[ladystrange]

free range, like chickens in the market - organic, if bred.

 

i guess technically any wild free range animal would be considered organic.

 

 

koolaid, i always thought koolaid would run. how do you set it?

 

LF, i have a whole rubbermaid container of mule and white tail. the koolaid is a much better option than picric. do you have a website or instructions?

[Fisherwoman]

any hair will work from the deer family from most places on the body. that being said, the really short stuff from the legs and ears wont be of much help.

 

moose, elk, white tail and mule are the most popular. caribou and antelope tend to be rather fragile.

 

mane, neck, back, rump, shoulder, belly will all work just fine. i doubt it is organic, but you can purchase from any of the fly supply shops. sorry, i have never bothered to ask superfly where they get their deer from. note to self, ask at sportsman show... maybe that is where all the road kill goes... hummm

 

if you have a hunter friend, make sure the hide is fleshed well and either dried/salted/boraxed or professionally tanned.

 

to get rid of bugs, i just nuke it in the microwave for 15 sec. moth balls dont always work and it stinks. keep in a cool dark place for all furs

 

as for dying, unless you have expreience with picric, i'd stay away from it. it is very volitile and nasty to work with.

 

i buy all my dyed stuff. i dont want the hassle or the work.

 

Hi,

Thank-you Lady Strange for your valuable information.. What I've seen in some of the shops that sell moose hair, deer hair,ect it's very affordable. As for dying it Seems alot of messy work to go that route.

 

It's not important to me where the fur comes from if it's organic or not, I thought I would ask that question, I wondered if farms raised these animals for the pelt to be sold. like dairy farms.

[Flytyer]

Don't nuke your materials to kill bugs it doesn't kill everything. Some bugs are very heat resistant

[ladystrange]

that's why it stays in the freezer before it goes in the nuker. i guess i forgot to mention that.

 

everything that i get from my taxidermist is treated already because of the work he does. i just can't stand the smell of moth balls. reminds me of granny and i want to puke

[Flytyer]

The combination of freeze nuke isn't effective either.The most effective way of getting rid of most potential or actual pests is by washing your materials in warm soapy water, and rinsing very thoroughly.. This will also improve many materials with regard to their appearance, and handling qualities.

[Fisherwoman]

You can treat piees of fresh hide with pickling salt as well but scrap as much of the fat off the hide as possible to help the curing process.

As for hair from various parts of the animal this link should help

 

http://globalflyfisher.com/staff/helm/selecting/chart.html

 

Hi, This website is very helpful, it gives me a good idea where and what the hair is used when it comes to fly tying... It takes very little deer, moose ect to tie a fly.

 

I looked at the pheasant it can be sold in sections I bought half of one last weekend for $15.00 there's more then enough for fly tying for one person to tie.

 

There's grades of feathers, # 1, #2, #3 ect. Some more expensive than others depending on qulity of finished product the fly.

 

My question to organic, is the fur better if it's raised on organic leaves, twigs, than not.. like us we are what we eat!

 

Thank-you for answering my questions. These are only my thoughts I wanted to ask someone, this is a good place to ask.

[Flytyer]

My question to organic, is the fur better if it's raised on organic leaves, twigs, than not.. like us we are what we eat!

 

Most of our materials that we tie with come from herbivores......same as vegetarians in humans

[lonefisher]

Few sites out there can't find the one I originally used but this one is basically the same.

If you are gonna do some PM as theres a couple tricks I learned.... I also usually use the microwave method as its pretty damn simple and pretty fast as well

 

http://www.knitty.com/issuefall02/FEATdyedwool.html

[lonefisher]

sorry I think this one has the microwave directions

http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/basic-howto.html

[Flytyer]

I also usually use the microwave method as its pretty damn simple and pretty fast as well

 

 

I 've thrown out alot that has been nuked and I would never recommend it to anyone........if its fresh best thing I have found was flesh, wash , salt and then wash again...never failed yet this way......drying wings is a knack in itself that I let me brother do as he is good at it

[lonefisher]

I'm not talking about treating and cleaning out bugs..... this is for dyeing when dyed products are not available

[Flytyer]

I misunderstood that sorry for the confusion....I have heard of nuking with koolaid before but have never tried it before

[lonefisher]

Flytyer no worries the post was kinda vague. It works quite well...... but the hair products need to be in small quantities and need to be dried very well afterwards..... also hair needs to be folded over the hide side to make the hairs flare out otherwise its tough to get the hair to dye right to the base. I usually staple the hide to hold it that way. Sometimes they need a couple treatments to get the desired affect. Feathers are pretty cool as well.

[Flytyer]

I'll have to try it someday. Thanks LF

[ladystrange]

well, if anyone has today's calgary sun, pg 5 is a picture of my taxidermist. - sorry, off topic.

 

i fleshed 4 pheasants last year - with the help of said taxidermist. after fleshing, i used borax powder, laid out on newspaper in the cool dark garage for 3 weeks before bagging and storing. pulled 2 out this summer and they look great, no bugs, no lost feathers, no decomp.

 

birds are actually very easy but time consuming to get all the meat out from under the bones.

[Pipes]

For deer and elk hair, I always use the neck. These are significantly better quality hairs for tying flies. As mentioned, when preparing the hide, use a sharp knife at a 90 degree angle and scrape until you can't scrape no more. I prefer using pickling salt and seems to work fine. Definitely, wash with soap before and after. Never had problems with bugs.

Also, don't forget the tail of a whitetail deer, great tying materials.

For birds, same process, there usually isn't as much meat and fat on the skin and it is a little more delicate.

 

I have had some good success so far and could give up some elk and deer hair, if anyone is interested. I will probably have 2 full deer necks and half an elk to give away. My success on the pheasants hasn't been good this year.

[ladystrange]

pipes, do you want to trade some pheasant for some elk? i have a few wings and a few colars/breasts and i think i have a back or 2 kicking around

[Pipes]

Ladystrange,

How about I just give you some elk hair. I am putting faith in my dog to come up with the pheasants! I am away for about 3 weeks though, can I give you some when I get back?

Pipes