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Making Wing Material

 

post-23663-0-01060400-1519507045_thumb.jpg(click to enlarge)

Making top quality wing material is a fairly simple process once you have all the supplies necessary. To start you need a pressing talbe and scissors as well as the following items:

 

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1. Iron

2. Heat-n-Bond® ultrahold

3. Netting or Polypropylene (PP) Hair

4. Polyethylene foam sheeting

5. Alcohol ink for additional coloring

6. Teflon® Pressing Pad

 

The pressing table can be an ironing board or any padded surface that can withstand high heat. The recommended iron is a Hobbico® 170-watt custom sealing iron, but you can use a regular pressing iron (although it should only be used for this process). Heat-n-Bond® ultrahold iron-on adhesive is made by Therm O Web® and is available at most sewing supply stores. Netting and the Teflon® pressing pad can be acquired at most fabric stores. PP hair is available on the web at a number of suppliers. Alcohol ink is available at a number of hobby shops.

 

Step-by-Step Process

post-23663-0-82625700-1519508715_thumb.jpg(click to enlarge)

1. Coloring the polyethylene foam sheeting

2. Laying black netting (bottom) PP hair (top)

3. Adding 2nd layer colored PE (optional)

4. Heat-n-Bond folded into a sandwich, ready to press on Teflon® pressing pad

5. Iron on hottest setting foam, netting, and hair inside first pressing

6. Sandwich turned over 2nd pressing

7. After cooled completely, peel back one side

8. Peel off to remove wing material

post-23663-0-27377900-1519508952_thumb.jpg(click to enlarge)

 

Examples of dry flies made with this wing material

post-23663-0-04647100-1519509333_thumb.jpg(click to enlarge)

 

Examples of nymphs made with this wing material

post-23663-0-39742400-1519509438_thumb.jpg(click to enlarge)

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DHC welcome to FTF I am very interested in seeing more.

Can you share some flies you have made or where you might use this material?

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DHC welcome to FTF I am very interested in seeing more.

Can you share some flies you have made or where you might use this material?

All the flies on my Blog (https://unsinkableflies.blogspot.com/) use wing material I have made using this technique

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I do this sort of thing for some of my work. additional notes, it does want to be heat and bond, not wonder under. wonder under does the same sort of thing except it is a whitish color and it does not have the clear look.

 

alcohol inks can be made with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and dollar store markers or pens. not gel pens however. simply cut up the inner felt bit of the marker and fill with alcohol, the more markers you use the darker the color. I do it into 15 ml dropper bottles. $5 of alcohol and markers/pens will make a lot of alcohol ink. Locally it runs about $6 for 10 ml in craft stores. I got (24) 15 ml bottles for $4.52 (two sets of 24 markers from dollar store and a 32 ounce bottle of alcohol) you can also add flash or interference pigments very easily. water colors etc do not work with the alcohol. Stamp pad inck does, as does some dye- dye is expensive so unless you really have to have a color to match something you dyed- don't go that route. Food coloring does not work well, the colors do weird things- such as the green I tried ended up being a turquoise blue with yellowish- gold dots over it. the colors separated or something.

 

other thoughts- The iridescent mylar film the dollar store works great also- especially the blue or green flash on clear ones. Got 5 sheets that were 22"x18" in each pack. It stands up to the heat of bonding with Heat and bond just fine. Its sold to fill bags like tissue paper and they don't always have it. Its also sold in huge rolls at Michael's and jo-ann's fabrics for making gift baskets. The rolls are 30 inches x 10 feet. (if anyone really wants to try this stuff shoot me a message and I'll drop a sample into an envelope so you can try it before spending cash on it. lets face it you may not like it.

 

That's all I think will be useful in wings to add to the original bit.

 

R.

 

added: put the felt marker inner thing cut open into a bottle and fill with about 10-15 ml alcohol. don't pour alcohol into the marker, let it soak 2-4 weeks is about what I let mine sit, shaking them occasionally.

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I do this sort of thing for some of my work. additional notes, it does want to be heat and bond, not wonder under. wonder under does the same sort of thing except it is a whitish color and it does not have the clear look.

 

alcohol inks can be made with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and dollar store markers or pens. not gel pens however. simply cut up the inner felt bit of the marker and fill with alcohol, the more markers you use the darker the color. I do it into 15 ml dropper bottles. $5 of alcohol and markers/pens will make a lot of alcohol ink. Locally it runs about $6 for 10 ml in craft stores. I got (24) 15 ml bottles for $4.52 (two sets of 24 markers from dollar store and a 32 ounce bottle of alcohol) you can also add flash or interference pigments very easily. water colors etc do not work with the alcohol. Stamp pad inck does, as does some dye- dye is expensive so unless you really have to have a color to match something you dyed- don't go that route. Food coloring does not work well, the colors do weird things- such as the green I tried ended up being a turquoise blue with yellowish- gold dots over it. the colors separated or something.

 

other thoughts- The iridescent mylar film the dollar store works great also- especially the blue or green flash on clear ones. Got 5 sheets that were 22"x18" in each pack. It stands up to the heat of bonding with Heat and bond just fine. Its sold to fill bags like tissue paper and they don't always have it. Its also sold in huge rolls at Michael's and jo-ann's fabrics for making gift baskets. The rolls are 30 inches x 10 feet. (if anyone really wants to try this stuff shoot me a message and I'll drop a sample into an envelope so you can try it before spending cash on it. lets face it you may not like it.

 

That's all I think will be useful in wings to add to the original bit.

 

R.

 

 

 

added: put the felt marker inner thing cut open into a bottle and fill with about 10-15 ml alcohol. don't pour alcohol into the marker, let it soak 2-4 weeks is about what I let mine sit, shaking them occasionally.

Thanks for adding the info on Wonder Under. A point Wonder Under is fusible webbing. I to have used this product the person who got me started was Ted Trowbridge a great master fly tier and inventor of the TNT Hopper Legs. Having admired Teds flies and especially his wings, one day I just asked him where he got his wing material. He said, I make it and being the gracious person he is, he went on to explain how. It was just fusible webbing and netting that was purchased at the fabric store and then bound together with an iron and rubber or silicone glue, he used Goop® available at any hardware store.

 

Fusible webbing is a great material that can be purchased at a fabric store at a cost effective price by the yard. You can bind this to just about any material to form a wing. Generally, netting (also purchased by the yard at a fabric store) is the preferred material. Just take the fusible webbing and press it to the netting material with an iron. After binding the two together take a rubber or silicone glue or sealant and place a thin layer over the netting using to permanently seal the two together.

 

As for glues to work with fusible webbing use a general purpose silicone sealant, but other non-water based or permanent glues will work as long as they do not breakdown when exposed to water. On any wing material you can also use head cement, rubber cement, fingernail polish, super glue, etc. to achieve the affect you want and seal the wing to give it the necessary toughness.

 

The advantages to fusible webbing is that it easy to work with, can be colored with a permanent marking pen, ink, or dye, is light weight and cost effective. The disadvantages are that you have to be careful when fusing to a material that the iron is not two hot, an iron that is to hot can melt the fusible webbing. Also you should to place the material to be fused on a Teflon pressing pad (especially netting) and then cover with the fusible webbing before pressing. Without the pressing pad you risk the material adhering to the pressing table. In addition, there is a right side (with glue) that needs to be next to the material. Generally, you can feel the glue side bumps to tell which side goes down.

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since I had heat n bond that had been bonded to (polyester) mylar leftover from an earlier sculpture, I've been doing some tests.

 

first the way I had prepared the materials was I crumpled, twisted and pretty much got the finest wrinkles possible into the mylar. Then I almost smoothed it out and put it between sheet metal plates and put it through a 200F degree oven for about 12 minutes. I did this in stacks of 24 sheets. I doubt that this impacted the results that I shall discuss later, but it did put lines into the polyester mylar that are very interesting in wings- very vein like. This was then bonded to heat and bond at a fairly high temp, highest setting. hotter than I would use to bond to a fibrous material. The reason being that its more difficult to bond to the extremely smooth surface of the polyester mylar unless one uses heat enough to start it melting also. Some had the heat and bond treated with a light Alcohol ink (either brushed on or stamped), or dusted very lightly with interference mica pigment. This with the pieces that do not have alcohol ink or interference mica results in a material that's slightly frosted in its transparency, has a great deal of iridescent flash, the wrinkles create areas that flash in the different tones of the spectrum of the iridescence of the polyester mylar. The alcohol inks tint the heat and bond and become incorporated into it when bonding, its color is not affected by the texture of the mylar. Heavy applications of alcohol ink in dark colors does affect the transparency. The interference mica can interfere with bonding if too heavy, it also is incorporated into the melting heat and bond during the heating process.

 

The testing I've been doing involves use of 'wing burners' and what I have found is as follows.

 

Polyester Mylar is the one that works best. The non-polyester mylar like films do not yield a result I find acceptable in this use (although they worked well in some previous applications, so I had the materials leftover as well and tried them.) The best resulys were when the shape was carefully trimmed to shape with less than 2mm of selvage edge. I clamped it into the burner and then trimmed it. I prefer the result of very even trimming best. The material does not catch fire unless one continues heating it much longer than needed to melt it to the burner edge. one layer of heat and bond and polyester mylar results in a very pleasing edge thats slightly beaded and reinforces the material, this bead also helps the wing with stability. The results are much more pleasing than I had assumed they would be. Every color of polyester mylar I tested yielded the same results. Judged to be highly useful for some wing applications.

 

a layer of heat and bond faced on both sides with polyester film via heat bonding had almost identical results. This creates a wing that has equal degrees of flash on both sides. a single layer of polyester mylar bonded to heat and bond creates a wing with a great deal of flash on one side and a more subdued flash on the other side. a layer of the polyester mylar bonded with the heat and bond faced on the other side with a layer of mylar that was not boned resulted in an edge much the same as the first two and trapped air between the layers. its not a great deal of air, but is noticeable. Judged to be highly useful for some wing applications.

 

two layers of polyester mylar without the heat and bond results in a very fine bead edge that again helps with the stability of the wing, this is not as pronounced, but the thickened bead from the heated edge is much finer. It also traps air, and being significantly lighter weight and the small amount of air,may result in a wing that helps keep a fly afloat longer. Judged to be useful for some wing applications, however lacking in stability.

 

The fine plastic film used in food related uses bonded to heat and bond left a discolored edge when burned. The bead is less regular and thicker than the polyester mylar, most likely due to the added bulk of the food grade film. The edge bead is more opaque and The over all result is thicker. in a pinch this material will likely work, it however does not appear as natural as the previous ones. The food grade film can not be textured as the polyester mylar can be. Judged to be of questionable use for wing applications.

 

The iridescent film used in floral applications (bows, ropes and such) bonded to heat and bond was very unsatisfactory. It easily caught fire, smoked a great deal, and created a scorched looking edge. bringing the heat in very slowly and trying to avoid this did not work well, as it starts to burn almost as soon as it starts to melt. The discoloration and ragged appearance of the edge make this the least useful or pleasing result. trimming the edge as close as possible did not help any great deal. This material also made a mess of the wing burners. It sticks quite well and needs to be scraped off with a razor blade and then the wing burner cleaned with steel wool to stop plastic residue from sticking to further tests. Judged to be a complete waste of time to try to use this material for wing applications.

 

I have not yet tested the polyester film used in modern machine embroidery. I assume that the results will be in line with the other polyester mylars, but will test them when I have time.

 

I do have a good deal of the polyester bonded to heat-n-bond left if anyone would like a few inches to try.

 

R.

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It is really hard to get good photos that show the color I see. I put it between paper to cut it, its not easy to cut small pieces otherwise. here are pics. I have them up on drop box because I still don't seem to be able to post them here directly. Hopefully you can see the texture in these. there are three different colors of flash but green seems to be the color my camera like to catch.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wra78w1pjkhcexr/AAByPivCgEtvhKcqEO5z6EuFa?dl=0

 

R

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