Fox Hair

[Buzzby 0]

Any one know what type of fox body hair Mikael Frodin uses in his Make Em Swim DVD?  Marble, Silver ??

[tidewaterfly 0]

I've not seen the DVD, but have seen his flies. It appears to me he ties with various colors, so most likely a combination of fox tail types. 

I tie a lot with fox tail hair, and have yet to find one that I cannot use. The various types have some very nice natural colors, and the affects obtained by dyeing over these natural colors can be very useful. It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. 

A lot of the fox tail materials sold in shops are colors dyed over white, Arctic or white variant Silver Fox most likely. That's fine if you want those bright, monotone colors. Otherwise, many possible shades & highlights can be obtained with these other tail types. I haven't counted, but I may have close to 50 tails, and I dye a lot them myself. 

This is of course, not a fly, but as you can see, the affect of dyeing a Silver Fox tail, which has some black tips to the hair. I'm always looking around for materials, and as I stated, use a lot of fox tails as well as coyote tails in my tying. No two tails are exactly alike. I have Kit Fox tails too, and a lot of other natural fur & hair materials. The possible combinations are endless. 

[chugbug27 0]

That's nice stuff @tidewaterfly

[Buzzby 0]

Tidewaterfly,

 

Thanks for the reply.

In the DVD, he clearly states that it is body hair and shows the large piece when he cuts some for the flies. Definitely not a tail medallion.

[tidewaterfly 0]

1 minute ago, Buzzby said:

Tidewaterfly,

 

Thanks for the reply.

In the DVD, he clearly states that it is body hair and shows the large piece when he cuts some for the flies. Definitely not a tail medallion.

OK, well again, the same thing applies. I have a full Arctic Fox, Coyote, Red Fox & Gray Fox hide in my tying supplies, and many body pieces from the various fox types & coyotes. I like Silver Fox a lot as it's light enough to get good dyed colors, and also often has black tips on the guard hairs. Again, there's none I've acquired that I can't use. Body hair will generally be shorter than tail hair. Both will have a good amount of underfur, that will need to be removed. 

One note, is that some of the various " farmed" cross bred foxes usually have a better hair than wild fox as far as length, but that too depends on the individual animal. I trapped when I was younger and caught many Red & Gray foxes and the natural colors can be quite unique. 

Check out Paulette Fur Company online, or Fur Tails. Paulette handles fur & leather products & Fur Tails is a furrier who sells what they don't use for garments, plus some of the garments they make. They sell garment tanned natural items, so well suited for tying flies, and prices are reasonable. Unfortunately, dyed color choices are limited. For me, that's not a problem as I mentioned, I dye some myself, but you'll get more to work with for the cost.

Another that I have purchased from is Springfield Leather Company, but mostly rabbit hides from them. 

[tidewaterfly 0]

10 hours ago, chugbug27 said:

That's nice stuff @tidewaterfly

Thank you! I really like tying with these natural materials, and am always searching around for something else to add to my supplies. I also tie commercially, flies & jigs, and some of my customers have never seen or fished with flies or lures made with these materials.  I tie a lot of hair jigs for Bass & Walleye anglers, and even have a few pro's getting jigs from me. I'm not tying off the shelf type of jigs, and of course some of these folks are always looking for an "edge" to win tournaments, with lures that no one else is using. Still, I supply some very basic jigs to some of them as well. 

That jig was tied with hair from a Silver Fox tail that had been dyed red and as you can see, the natural black tips really produce a very unique affect that would be difficult to reproduce artificially. The biggest problem I have with my tying, is that each material can be unique, and that makes it difficult to reproduce a lot of the same color patterns once the material has been depleted, which is another reason I'm always searching for materials. Some of what I sell has had very limited production. 

I'll be 65 this year and have been tying since I was 11. I've tied a lot of different types of flies over the years, and have been making lures for many years also. What I do now is how I stay interested and "creative", even though most of it has been done before. So far it's been working out very well, as I've stayed very busy. I also retired from truck driving this year, so this is my "full time" occupation now, one that I can pursue as much or as little as I wish to do. 😊

 

[flytire 0]

https://www.frodinflies.com/pages/books-films

might get the answer from above 

[chugbug27 0]

@tidewaterfly

👍