Craft store foam vs. fly shop foam

[idahojake 0]

I have always bought 8" x 11" foam sheets at the craft store or Wal-Mart for $.50 a piece. The Fly shops sell sheets a quarter of the size for closer to two dollars. I read somewhere that the foam designed for fly tying is somehow superior in flotation to the craft store stuff.

 

Just want to get a feel for what others are using and if its worth the extra dollars at the fly shop.

 

 

Is there a difference??

 

[DevinKaradeema 0]

personally i have only used walmart stuff but i have played with the stuff at the fly shop and it feels like there is a gloss(not gloss but a film/glue/powder coat of some sort) on the flyshop foam but they are same thickness and both closed cell foam. both come in many colors, but the fly shop has more bugish colors.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

I have used them both and I haven't seen any difference in floatation

[Runarsson 0]

In my own experience, much of the craft store foam has been more dense than foam I have bought in fly-shops and I think much of my fly-shop foam has a higher boyancy than my craft store foam.

 

But there is "good" foam and there is "bad" foam. I also have craft store foam that seems better than some of my fly-shop foam. There are no rules without exceptions...

 

 

 

/Nick

[JSzymczyk 0]

if it's not the SAME, then it is so close as to make no real difference. If you look around craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby, you will find all the "buggy" colors plus a thousand more. As with everything else, be realistic in your expectations--- one millimeter of foam isn't going to float a 2/0 hook.

[Cheri 0]

yep PRICE!

[Runarsson 0]

if it's not the SAME, then it is so close as to make no real difference. If you look around craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby, you will find all the "buggy" colors plus a thousand more. As with everything else, be realistic in your expectations--- one millimeter of foam isn't going to float a 2/0 hook.

I chose my foam depending on the fly it's going to be used for. A hopper with a body made of 2-3 foam strips or a Mohican Mayfly will not need the foam with the largest air cells to stay on the water. But when it comes to flies like emergers etc, on which the foam will be a smaller part of the flies, I get pickier and chose one with larger air cells... often one from a fly-shop, but I have some good sheets from craft shops too. In England, at Hobbycraft Superstore, I bought a pack with 40 foam sheets (I'd say 35 different colours) and among those sheets you could see big differences in the densities... some very good and some very poor.

 

The foam with the (without competition) best boyancy qualities I have seen is the one from Wapsi (the one that comes in 1/8" and 1/16" thickness). http://www.wapsifly.com/foams.html

That one has very large air cells and float much higher than any other foam I have tried. It's a little different from the "regular" foam also when it comes to tying. As the density decreases, the deeper the thread will collaps when tying. Good when little bulk is of the essense, but not as good for extended mayfly abdomens, since the wraps go so deep that it makes it look more like a series of balls than a segmented body. Another difference is also its durability, not in the same direction as the boyancy difference though.

 

/Nick

[Robert M 0]

Has anyone found any 1mm or smaller foam at the craft stores?

[DevinKaradeema 0]

yes i did find 1mm foam but it is not in sheets :/ A little wile ago hobby lobby had some like scrap booking stuff, Bugs like worms hoppers butterflies( thats why i was in that section) the biggest little bug was about 1 1/2'' though

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Has anyone found any 1mm or smaller foam at the craft stores?

 

You could buy the quarter inch thick stuff or thicker and maybe shave your thickness???

 

Kirk

 

[JSzymczyk 0]

if it's not the SAME, then it is so close as to make no real difference. If you look around craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby, you will find all the "buggy" colors plus a thousand more. As with everything else, be realistic in your expectations--- one millimeter of foam isn't going to float a 2/0 hook.

I chose my foam depending on the fly it's going to be used for. A hopper with a body made of 2-3 foam strips or a Mohican Mayfly will not need the foam with the largest air cells to stay on the water. But when it comes to flies like emergers etc, on which the foam will be a smaller part of the flies, I get pickier and chose one with larger air cells... often one from a fly-shop, but I have some good sheets from craft shops too. In England, at Hobbycraft Superstore, I bought a pack with 40 foam sheets (I'd say 35 different colours) and among those sheets you could see big differences in the densities... some very good and some very poor.

 

The foam with the (without competition) best boyancy qualities I have seen is the one from Wapsi (the one that comes in 1/8" and 1/16" thickness). http://www.wapsifly.com/foams.html

That one has very large air cells and float much higher than any other foam I have tried. It's a little different from the "regular" foam also when it comes to tying. As the density decreases, the deeper the thread will collaps when tying. Good when little bulk is of the essense, but not as good for extended mayfly abdomens, since the wraps go so deep that it makes it look more like a series of balls than a segmented body. Another difference is also its durability, not in the same direction as the boyancy difference though.

 

/Nick

 

I use packing foam for my emergers- found "regular" foam sheets to be unsuitable. I've found it in several thicknesses from very thin to too thick. I was ASSuming the question was about sheet foam commonly used for beetles, bugs, chernobyl ants, etc. No doubt there will be variations in quality, but I have yet to see any that won't float well. I have NOT however seen any 1mm foam in craft stores. Never had a use for it though.

[TOM PRUETT 0]

The craft store foam vs fly store foam is 99% made by the same company!!!

If they believe they can get 1$ more they will!! because now its fly foam!!

[Runarsson 0]

I use packing foam for my emergers- found "regular" foam sheets to be unsuitable. I've found it in several thicknesses from very thin to too thick. I was ASSuming the question was about sheet foam commonly used for beetles, bugs, chernobyl ants, etc. No doubt there will be variations in quality, but I have yet to see any that won't float well. I have NOT however seen any 1mm foam in craft stores. Never had a use for it though.

I don't understand what there is to 'ASSume' regarding the topic and my post. I'm not the one who brought packing foam into the discussion, if that's what you mean. Only foams I've mentioned are the common foam sheets (2mm) and Wapsi's foam sheets (1.5mm and 3mm).

[flytire 0]

Has anyone found any 1mm or smaller foam at the craft stores?

 

GOOGLE found this 1mm foam

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...4=263602_263622

 

[taotefishing 0]

wandy-foam on ebay (in the previous post) has .5 mm to 6 mm foam in a bunch of different colors. Only black, tan, white and olive in the 0.5 mm tho.

 

 

I've never noticed a difference between fly shop foam and michaels foam!