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kpendergrass

FUR coats as tying materials

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Greetings everyone !!

 

recently, while at a salvage store, I came across an old fur coat. I believe rabbit. I said to myself. " this will make an amazing Hairs Nymph pattern. Then it hit me, start buying unwanted fur coats ($5 - $10) for a WHOLE coat that probably cost $000's when new. I think its good KARMA to re-use the fur for a positive purpose and pay homage to the animal that was killed soley for its fur. Now I'm looking at FOX, MINK, RABBIT, BEAVER, etc, just a myriad of available furs out there that no one's buying but that's to my advantage now and to the fly tying community as a whole :)

 

Anyone else doing something similar or has an interest in doing what I'm doing?? I figure I could also shred the coats and garments, break them down to small lots, and sell them on eBay perhaps???

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I am sure there was a post on here before with someone doing similar. I remember because its another occasion where the availability of certain items or types of shop in the UK is rubbish.

I think as long as the dye is water fast and they haven't used some chemical agents on the fur it will work for dubbing if nothing else.

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You're right Piker. There was a thread about a year ago... someone picked up a fur stole at a yard sale maybe. I don't think we ever saw any flies they tied with them. can you imagine a chinchilla zonker?

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I was given a patch of raccoon fur off of a coat by a forum member a few years back. It makes nice tails on poppers and small flies. It will be difficult to cut into zonkers since it was stitched together in strips that are not uniformly or straightly cut, ao I have just been snipping fur directly off the hide.

 

post-18514-0-79154600-1470950848_thumb.jpg

post-18514-0-52748500-1470951054_thumb.jpg

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Those look great. Especially the brown one. Is that a cork head? Haven't seen one of those in years. Other than deer hair, the only fur I have used is from my cat, and that only for dubbing. I may try to comb some out straight and tie a deceiver or something with it. It's too fine to use as a popper tail.

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Find you local taxidermist and BEG if he will sell small left over pieces... most will just give you some...You never know what they may have been working on???

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Those look great. Especially the brown one. Is that a cork head? Haven't seen one of those in years. Other than deer hair, the only fur I have used is from my cat, and that only for dubbing. I may try to comb some out straight and tie a deceiver or something with it. It's too fine to use as a popper tail.

Thanks. No, they are both soft foam heads. They are colored brown with black spotting using a sharpie. The raccoon is really a nice fur for tails since it is soft enough to have good action but stiff enough not to foul

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I've been using a mink stole. Enough to last me years. Cutting hair off. Making dubbing. Small zonkers. It's awesome.

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This is the thread I did on furs my daughter brought me.

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=82227&hl=

 

This is the Russian Sable

">http://100_7064.jpg

 

These are the cross cut zonker strips from it, and the pile I ended up with

">http://100_7172.jpg

">100_7171.jpg

 

This is the rabbit vest she brought me

">http://100_7066.jpg

 

You can see in the picture that the vest is nothing but straight cut zonker strips

">http://100_7069.jpg

 

These are the strips and I still haven't finished cutting it apart yet

">http://100_7070.jpg

 

I look at the good will store all the time, make sure to ask them if they have a bin of furs that aren't good enough to put out in the store.

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