Freddy,
I found this series and joined the list so I could answer your questions directly. I've been using versions of my technique for over 25 years- so long I can't remember. It became public when I used it around 2000 at a show in Denver to demonstrate an easy way to dub ice dub in a fraction of the time and with perfect bullet-proof results down to size 28. It was well accepted and they sold a lot of ice dub that day.
I was a member of the VFB (Virtual Fly Box) at the time so Byard and I worked up a pictoral instruction for the technique. Posting videos was not done in 2001. Later he added two small, short videos, but they were too small and quick to tell the whole story. Byard had never seen the technique.
I experienced the gamut of comments over the next 8 years while demonstrating the technique at shows across the country. Very often I heard that it was Polly's technique, so I pulled out his book and showed them that it was not- by a long shot- and the advantages of my way of dubbing. I heard many naysayers, both world-class professional and amature, but after watching me do it, they all agreed that what I was doing was different from anything they had seen. See the reviews on my web site for some of these. Some tiers got part of it, but not all, so they didn't get the full benefits.
I could write a book, but as Nick said, it's too easy to miss the motions with photos and text. Many times I was asked for a video after demonstrating a dozen flies in just a few minutes. I didn't have one, as I was demonstrating the technique for free to anyone who wanted it. I looked into doing a 'proper' video and the production costs would be about $3000, so I decided to do it, just to get it all down on video if I were to suddenly leave this place.
I'm not going to re-write all of the pros of my technique, because they are on my website, along with reviews from buyers and many photos on the sample pages.
There are some misunderatandings still being promulgated by well-known professional tiers. One of them is that the fly will automatically come out segmented. The answer is - 'not if you don't want it to'. Another is- 'yours always starts with a dubbing bump'. My answer is 'not if you do it so it doesn't make a bump'. The technique is totally adjustable for just about any material and size fly, for any look you want, using any dubbing material and then some- no wax, tools, or loops required. You can use wax and tools if you want, but they are just not necessary. You can build dubbing brushes on wire as you tie, or emulate a touch-dub body like the English like. Rope-dubbing is the technique- you are still the designer of your patterns using it. It gives you a much broader range of tying and increases your range of dubbed bodies by many many times. I'm still discovering new ways to apply it, making beautiful fish-catching but simple flies.
I have uncounted tying instructors teaching my dubbing technique- I don't keep track and I don't mind- even if I lose DVD sales. It wasn't my intention to make money off the method, as I gave it away for 10 years in person- actually, I paid out of pocket to get to the shows to be a demo tier, so it cost me to teach it for free. The DVD was a way to give tiers a video tutorial that they could take home and study over and over- 24 sequences (not patterns). It also gave me a little income to offset the costs of getting to the various shows around the country, but it's far from covering them, along with the expense of producing the video.
Denny Conrad reviewed the DVD on FAOL if you want more background. He too had seen it in person but benefitted immensely from having the DVD to watch over and over. I have not had a single negative comment from anyone who has purchased the DVD. Yes, there has been web mis-information, but it's not the technique's fault, but the lack of understanding and practice. Granted, the methods overturns decades of traditional dubbing methods (and voids the tools needed), and well-known tiers such as Dick Talluer and I talked about this. He advice was 'full steam ahead'. Al Beatty just wrote a review for Fly TYer Magazine. If anyone would have seen the technique before, he would have.
Jack Dennis will also be handling my DVD soon, and he loves the technique. He owns the #1 fly-tying DVD of all time, so I think he would spot a duplication method. It's also on Sharon Butterfield's MyFlies.com. Rope-dubbing DVD#2 is planned, but not started. It will have more variables of the technique, how to incorporate the technique into different patterns, salt-water applications, and much more- a 4 hour DVD is planned. I'm waiting to see if DVD #1 is successful enough to warrent DVD#2. I have had many requests for it from DVD#1 buyers, but the negative publicity from people who don't understand the technique is holding it off many potential buyers. Things are coming around as the technique gets around and gets incorporated into tiers' methods, but it makes for slow going when there's uninformed reviews about it.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions that you have after reading the 'all-about it' portion on my website.
Very Best Regards,
Don Ordes
Fantasy Fly Co.
www.fantasyFlies.com
