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jmig1

Tempelhair

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I found a couple of tube fly patterns that call for 'Tempelhair'. Google sent me to Scandinavia, and there's a site I can order from, but I was curious about what it is? Can I find it in the states? Is there a comparable substitute? Any info would be greatly appreciated - Thanx.

 

-jm

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If you're tying templedog style tubes, most guys use artic fox or goat, but you can use whatever you like that's long and flexible. I use fox or craft fur to make wings like those on a templedog style fly.

 

Yak would work too. It's long and crinkly so it would give the illusion of bulk and move pretty well in the water too. Give it a try if you have some.

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A material sold as "Temple Dog" was popular and very controversial a few years back.

 

Anlger's Workshop sells something called "Temple Fox" which they say is from the Raccoon Dog. Finn Raccoon might be the same thing and is more widely available.

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Ill be cursed by any Scandinavians in the forum but for me temple dog flies are 3/4 the tying style and 1/4 the fur. You need to build a increasingly narrowing and lengthening wing from bottom up. So first fur is a short full triangle and the upper most piece will be a long narrow length.

Produces a lovely tear shape that swims really well.

I use various density of fox. So marble fox, silver fox etc. as my under wings and then nayat or goat as final.

Tying at least one layer forward of the eye and pulled back to make that shoulder and movement in the water.

Foxytails are a great source over this side of the pond.

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I doubt you will find any US supply of this material and I will never use it for this reason alone.

 

Temple hair supply

 

ex., writes (translated): "The material comes from China, from a long haired Chinese dog that is being skinned alive to make the hairs stand out. We don't use or sell such products".

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The Raccoon Dog is now commonly marketed as Finn Raccoon (although in the USA it is required to be labeled ' Asiatic Racoon" on garments) (yes spelled with one c) because of a animal rights campaign that made a fake video that claimed to be inside a Chinese fur farm and depicted animals being skinned alive, something that is very nearly impossible to do and dangerous to the person trying to do it. (The same people showed a video of what they said were cats being skinned alive in the Philippines, to be sold as mutton, I think.)

Raccoon Dogs or tanuki are are neither raccoons nor dogs but are a wild canid closely related to foxes. They are native to East Asia and have been used in fur farms since the early 1900s in the same way that mink and fox are and have been introduced in many parts of Russia. There was a scandal some years ago of one or more large department stores selling Finn Raccoon as faux fur. (I'm not sure it was true but the AR groups made such a media fuss that the stores changed policy on furs.)

These things I know because of my own dabbling in the fur trade.

 

I don't know if the hair in the Tempel Dog pattern is Finn Raccoon or Sasquatch or craft hair, but I am sure it was not obtained by skinning a live animal, most Asiatic Racoon is farmed in the EU under strict regulations and sold through SAGA Furs of Finland- https://www.wearefur.com/auction-houses/saga-furs/

 

Sasquatch fur on the other hand is mostly unregulated and black-marketed- often ordinary sheep's wool dyed, I believe. And craft hair is spun from non replaceable, non-sustainable dinosaur remains.

 

Read about Asiatic Racoon here; https://www.humanewatch.org/images/uploads/2008_05_01_Asiatic_Raccoon_DJCase.pdf

 

Internet search shows "Temple Dogs" to be a fan fiction related to "Dresden Files", resembling the Tibetan Mastiff. I don't know.

 

In this post it mentions Tibetan dog hair http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=32611&do=findComment&comment=290645

In this video, if the captions work, the tyer (inventor?) mentions 'Angel Hair", bucktail, squirrel and goat. I took it that he is using 'Angel Hair".

 

 

 

 

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This thread got way off course, and I started it. So, I removed my original post and all the replies it generated.

 

My apologies.

 

Back to the OP's question.

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I don't think you started it Mike, it is in misinformation and disinformation that is a integral part of the internet.

 

ended up substituting Temple Dog fur for his wings.

When stones don't have hair, published by a well known supplier as linked above. And

 

people all over have seen the awful and heart breaking documentaries on how cats and dogs in China are being treated, how they are kept in small cages, strangled and skinned alive.

also as linked above, spread from people that admittedly don't know and re-spread as facts by other people.

 

The purveyors won't tell. There is a growing opinion over here wanting to know the origin of this material,

 


Could apply to almost all synthetics. What is SLF? Does the manufacturer tell where you can purchase the same thing cheaper?

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