Jump to content
Fly Tying
Sign in to follow this  
Rjohn7

was a good weekend for scrounging materials

Recommended Posts

Anyone else have good luck lately?

 

Friday I went to a craft supplies junk sale and found weavers wool, some weavers 'blending fiber' in red huge cone, looks like tinsel. more than a lifetime supply for me. (anyone want some?) a hundred or so bundles of this other blending fiber. its in one yard and 2 1/2 yard bundles. a bunch of colors of woolly nylon (looks like floss when wrapped.)and some other miscellaneous interesting stuff- mostly other 'blending fibers' A bunch of furs that look like a bleached muskrat. sort of a white blond color but otherwise looks like muskrat. going to try dying some of that. hope the skin doesn't turn to slime like the rabbit skin did.

 

Then yesterday went to a poultry and small animal auction. got some guinea fowl and old English game birds and a few pheasant. all interesting feathers and meat I really like. was a hundred bucks, but I doubt I could have gotten 9 hides of these sorts for that price anywhere already dried, and even if I did I wouldn't have the meat which is just as nice.

 

wonder if today is going to bring another fly tying score. hope not. I still have six birds to dress, and their hides to scrape and peg on boards to dry.

 

Anyway links to pics of some of the blending fibers. seriously if someone wants some of the red let me know and I'll find time to wind some off.

 

R.

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fafia0zz4xbpho1/IMG_20180429_104009450.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5asp4i7822g97da/IMG_20180429_104023046.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mf6hoium63b5sms/IMG_20180429_104241175.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm9ck5tsauhj2qs/IMG_20180429_104249067.jpg?dl=0

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice score, love to hear about sources for alternate tying materials. While it wasn't a bargain for me (retail price) I picked up a small hank of knitting yarn that I thought would make good bodies for nymphs and tied these.

20180430_202811_zps6bs5vjmi.jpg

With this:

Madelinetosh%20Unicorn%20Tails%20Bronze%

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

more than counts! great score!

 

I had just decided I was going to start checking road kill when I can here. most common is whitetail deer ( see couple dozen at least a year) and fox. see a few a year.

 

wish I knew more alternative sources, but seem to be finding out about more each week.

 

R.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This strikes me as a little odd. Its certainly unexpected, but perhaps useful.

I was tossing some feathers into the dye pot, and decided to de-grease some and see which way dyed better. I used an industrial de-greaser that I use to clean oil off of stone I cut. (diamond saws are cooled with oil very often, but you need to get it off because the oil can ruin diamond laps used for gem cutting)

So I mixed a splash with a gallon or so of water, dumped a couple gallon bags of feathers in agitated a bit and let it sit a while, rinsed it well and then let them soak in clear water a while. the next day I tossed a bunch of them into the dye pot.

 

what I found was that many of the de-greased feathers were well sort of stripped. the barbs were gone, and they were 'hairy'. This isn't something that happened fast. The soak in the de-greaser was like close to 5 hours.

 

I wanted to make sure that it was the de-greaser, so did a test.

The pic shows a feather de-greased, then dyed, and the same type of feather not degreased and dyed in the same dye pot.

 

odd but interesting, maybe useful. not all feathers are completely stripped by the de-greaser. Some would take a much longer soak to strip I think, like wing primaries barley show it was starting to happen while the more downy marabou like feathers were nearly completely stripped.

 

R.

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbdlhg1kabr6r5g/IMG_20180502_234323088.jpg?dl=0

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is the stripped one brittle? If not, you couldve just made a new spey hackle alternative.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Definitely spey hackle worthy, maybe even rhea sub.

Could even prove useful to strip peacock herl.

What is P/N of de-greaser.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Its Stanley Home products The original degreaser. I find it at restaurant supply places by the case. never found it elsewhere.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Rjohn7 looks like Amazon and Wallmart carry it too.

Have you tried or do you plan to try peacock herl?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The packages are going out tomorrow for everyone that requested some blending fiber.

 

R.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@ fshng2 and anyone else interested. I did a test on some more feathers including peacock herl. There are pics.

 

This first pic is what happened to a wing feather, one of the primaries, but not a pointer after about three hours in the degreaser with heat, Its still flexible enough that it can be wrapped into fairly small circles without kinking. The barbs are pretty much all gone.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bdcvix8b70los16/IMG_20180504_085604416.jpg?dl=0

 

closeups of this on both ends of the feather.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/90hrh56pedbfusz/IMG_20180504_085616471.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ltbcjmjssvkr213/IMG_20180504_085625459.jpg?dl=0

 

the peacock herl was in the same bath. This first pic shows the herl that I tested, and a piece from the same feather left alone. the longer section was treated. It did not completely strip it, but the difference is very noticeable. It is still flexible enough that I could easily untangle it from the other feathers and its self with little to no damage.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vcw8zeqvjtno10q/IMG_20180504_085701293.jpg?dl=0

 

This is a close up of the two examples of herl. The untreated has lovely full barbs and the treated has noticeably reduced, shorter, ones. I think if the goal is to remove them completely that It would take overnight in a crock pot. Perhaps I shall try that next.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/524ljzrrn2iqoan/IMG_20180504_085708441.jpg?dl=0

 

R.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Its Stanley Home products The original degreaser. I find it at restaurant supply places by the case. never found it elsewhere.

I grew up Stanley Home Products all over the house. My grandmother was a dealer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...