ditz2 0 Report post Posted June 21, 2011 good reading material http://ukflydressing...lay&thread=4046 Flytying New & Old great tutorial....My hat is off to this fella. I tied flies for several years without having a clue as to what is dubbing. All new tiers should be so lucky at to be exposed to this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prybis 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2011 http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8_L9W7zX7FE Mike P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Prybis 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2011 Hope This works. Mike P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johny Utah 0 Report post Posted July 10, 2011 Interesting. Well all i can say is that a coffee grinder when used properly, ie not over loaded. Does exactly the same thing. Meaning it the blades lift the dubbing, and rotate at such speeds that its the air movement that mixes the dubbing, not the blades. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ashley 0 Report post Posted July 12, 2011 I bought my coffee grinder years ago at a carboot/flea market for less than a pound (I guess less than a dollar). Still works great. I use it for all my dubbing. All of my Irish flies have blended bodies has well as many of my river dries and nymphs which I believe to be more effective than single colour bodies. There is also blending by hand which is OK when tying in camp or for just a few flies but the blend doesn't seem right. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feathers5 0 Report post Posted July 12, 2011 Use a coffee grinder. Why make it difficult for yourself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DFFlyfish 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 Great link posted! I've been looking into this as well Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilverCreek 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 I make some small amounts using two pet brushes. Most of my own dubbings are not a smooth color. I like the varigations that I get by doing it this way.Get some neat colors oout of yanr ends that are aplaca, wool and other furs like that. Crappie Here's an alternative to coffee grinders and the air dubbing mixers. I have a pair of carding brushes that I use to mix dubbing. Works better than any coffee grinder or air system for long fibers that tend to wrap them selves around the grinder blades. They are used to pull apart and align wool from sheep and llamas so the fibers can be spun into wool yarn on a spinning wheel. They are great for small amounts of dubbing and you can titrate the amounts of different fur to get just the mixture you want. You want a small amount of a specific color to try? No Problem! Dog brushes can be used but carding brushes work much better and faster. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mvendon 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 Hi SilverCreek, Have you tried your carding brushes on cut up pieces of yarn ? If so, how fast were you able to get the yarn back into it's original un-spun version? A coffee grinder just spins the cut up yarn around, so I have to comb out each ply / ply's till it's basically all separated enough to put it back into the coffee grinder to mix with other yarn that I also have to comb out. It's very time consuming just for a little bit, even though it's enough for quite a few flies at a pop. Regards, Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shoebop 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 Hi SilverCreek, Have you tried your carding brushes on cut up pieces of yarn ? If so, how fast were you able to get the yarn back into it's original un-spun version? A coffee grinder just spins the cut up yarn around, so I have to comb out each ply / ply's till it's basically all separated enough to put it back into the coffee grinder to mix with other yarn that I also have to comb out. It's very time consuming just for a little bit, even though it's enough for quite a few flies at a pop. Regards, Mark I found if I just run the grinder longer that eventually it blends it pretty well. I just pick out a few pieces that wouldn't cooperate. Now I'm not sure about every kind of yarn. Wool might be different than a poly blend etc. Also it helps not to try to do too much at a time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilverCreek 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 I think you would still need to comb the yarn out before you use the carding brushes. They are not designed to untwist yarn. I learned about carding brushes from Royce Dam. Royce was given the FFF 1994 Buz Buszek Memorial Fly Tying Award. Later he wrote about how he uses them in his book. You can read about it in this section of the The Practical Fly Tier. Gary Borger credits Royce with helping Gary come up with the strip nymph pattern. Gary later won the award in 2006. http://www.flytyinggroup.org/HistoryBuszek.htm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mvendon 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2013 Thank you for the replies, Wool is what I've been working on, specifically a Chadwicks 477 sub with a little bit of clear antron. Here's a pic, even though the yarn covers the number of the original on the card . Regards, Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kirk Dietrich 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2013 You can also mix dubbing with air http://dailyflytyer.com/2010/11/1857/ Works very well without chopping the material finer or waiting for it to dry. You can do this with a gallon jar and compressor also. That's how I do it. I use a one gallon ice cream pail. I've got a bunch of holes poked in the top to relieve some pressure and a larger hole to insert the tip of my air gun that is hooked to my compressor. The relief holes are important or you'll blow the lid right off - speaking from experience on that one. Works great though! Kirk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trevor Langlais 0 Report post Posted March 16, 2013 anyone ever try dryer lint? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roofish 0 Report post Posted March 16, 2013 Seems to me that the blender could become clogged with the fibers?????? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites