First attempts at spinning and stacking deer hair

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

You can also get double edge razor blades at meijer.(Meijer Brand, So every store should have them).

[purolohi kalastaja 0]

Thanks! I believe I read somewhere on the forum where someone made his own pinch-style packing tool from some scrap brass. I think I might try that.

 

Bruce, I may try my hand at those poppers later. Sorry I missed your class...they look really good!

[purolohi kalastaja 0]

As far as the razor blade again you do need it to get a really smooth body.

Get a double edged one the single edged are NOT sharp enough. Cut it in

half this gives you two blades with just a single cutting edge each. It is

very flexible which helps a lot with curved shapes especially. Just hold the ends

between your thumb and fore finger and squeeze it will bend into an arc that

is very easy to work with.

-Tom

 

Ok, so as I said on another thread, I tried a popper tonight on a size 4 Mustad 33903 and it looks like a demented muddler.

 

What is the trick to trimming with a razor blade? Do I just grab the excess hair in one hand, and hack away?

 

:dunno:

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

Flare a couple bunches of hair and trim it, Repeat until you are happy with the results.

 

 

I disagree with the people that say Break the razor blades in half, It helps if you leave them together it makes them a lot stiffer and much easier to work with.

[purolohi kalastaja 0]

When you say to flare a couple bunches and trim, I assume you mean just rough trim to start? Then once you have all the hair on that you need, do a final trim to shape and size?

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

I'm talking about practice, Flare some, Trim it and take it apart, Keep doing it again until you are happy with the results.

 

 

When you cut it DON'T cut to the lenght you want it right away, Cut the hair to a very large shape of what you want, Then you can trim along the shape of the fly. This makes for a much neater fly.

 

Also are you spinning or stacking?, It will go much eaiser if you are stacking.

[Hairstacker 0]

Nothing beats a double-edged razor blade for trimming very tight hair, such as the head on a Dahlberg Diver, where you can fold the razor blade over to make curved cuts. They're also great for trimming a flat bottom on deer hair poppers. But if the hair is going to be left purposely long, like the head of a Tap's Bug, I prefer to use extremely sharp surgical scissors instead, because even a razor blade tends to push rather than cut long hair. It does take time though to get a perfectly trimmed fly with scissors.

 

-- Mike

[Bruce Derington 0]

Yeah, generally you can't get the density needed by spinning, in order to make a razor do what its intended for unless you pack the crap out of it. I'll stack mostly, then rough cut with scissors followed by the double edge. Thats not to say a razor won't work with spun hair, but you need to position the bug (in your fingers) so that your index finger is positioned behind the bend and your thumb pushes on the front of the hair, slightly compressing it backwards. This makes the hair a little denser so the razor can cut instead of simply pushing the hair. The virtual site is the way to see it done

[purolohi kalastaja 0]

Ok, So I've tried some poppers again, now that I've got a packer and some DOUBLE-EDGED razor blades. I've tried to pack the hair tight and have actually bent a couple hooks packing the hair. Once the hair is tight, trimming it with th razor makes it look nice, but I'm not sure I dare use these poppers b/c the hooks have been bent around.

 

Suggestions to get the hair tight with less pressure?

 

-pk

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

use heavy wire hooks

[purolohi kalastaja 0]

These are 'gill poppers, and I'm using Mustad 3906b size 8 hooks.

 

Any better suggestions for hooks for 'gills?

 

 

[TerryLee 0]

Get stronger hooks !!! Lay off the weights :flex: !!!

 

 

 

Ok, all kidding aside, make sure that when you are packing the hair tight that you are only pushing the hair, not the hook. Another way to think about it is that you only want to apply force along the length of the hook shank and not at any angle with it.

 

 

 

One problem I have while packing is my tail materials sliding back down the bend of the hook. I seem to have eradicated that by gluing the snot out of them. I know that some advocate using glue and/or half-hitches between hair bundles (I always forget to myself :wallbash: ). Perhaps this will help hold the bundles in place making packing require less force.

 

 

 

Keep at it, it'll come.

 

Terry

 

 

[Sagittarius62 0]

trimming deer hair with a razor also requires a fresh blade. I have found that the blade will start to push rather than cut after only a half a dozen flies. Think back to the first cut you make with a new blade. It seems to slip right through the hair. Things go downhill quickly after that. As Terry said, spin, pack, hitch and glue, spin, pack, hitch and glue. Watch Chris Helm, that is exactly what he does.

[smusgrove 0]

When packing the deer hair with a hair packer, use your opposite hand (left in my case, since I'm right-handed), placed behind your first (rear-most) bunches of deer hair, to apply the same amount of pressure that you are applying with the hair packer. Doing this will prevent your skirt and tailing material from being pushed down the bend of the hook. It will also prevent you from bending hooks. Using this technique, it really doesn't matter how heavy of a hook you use. Hope this helps.

 

Steve.