Tying with Mink?

[NCNinja 0]

Well, we got into our annual January cleaning and my wife found two single gloves. Her losing a glove means new materials for me to tie with. I now have a leather glove with a mink cuff (yes, it's real) and another black glove made from 50% angora, 30% wool and 20% nylon (according to the tag). What should I tie first? Anyone have experience with these items?

 

[petelangevin 0]

Mink dubs up nice. Not really spikey. Or remove the fur cuff and cut it up into strips. Look up zonker patterns and just think smaller.

[netabrookie 0]

I love mink. Like petelangevin says, it dubs great. I have gotten lucky over the years and came across a few items in antique shops so I now have a good variety of colors to use. Great zonkers too.

[rotaryflytyingdotcom 0]

Those guard hairs make great dry fly tails. Very stiff and surprisingly easy to gather and stack.

And even better is if somehow or another you can come across a mink tails. Real long guard hair on the tails.

[NCNinja 0]

Hmmm . . .didn't think about zonkers. I was only thinking about using it for dubbing. I guess I'll reserve a bit for that.

 

This will actually be my first attempt at using dubbing that didn't come from a pack. Should I just get a pinch, cut it close and make a noodle? Is it necessary to blend? I haven't found a coffee grinder cheap enough for me to get yet since I only used the dubbing from packs, AND I saw how compressed air mixing and water mixing were an option if necessary. Suggestions or preferences?

[netabrookie 0]

I usually just cut off a pinch or so and fluff it up with my fingers. I have used clippers like the barber would give a crew cut with and shaved a skin and bagged it but I have only done that to one. I didn't think to mention the guard hairs and rotaryflytyingdotcom is right about them. The tails do have longer ones. I came across a mink stoll (however you spell it) that had 7 minks with tails for $25.00 if I remember correctly in an old shop years back. Mink collars and hats are out there just waiting for us fly tiers to find them.

[Piker20 0]

Right I'm just off to the charity shop. A stoll, fur lined gloves and a feather boa. Hopefully I'll get there before Panama Red, Chef Ben or PJ can get their next outfits.

[petelangevin 0]

I have a white mink i got at a thrift shop for 3&. Wish i had bought the other furs they had too

[utyer 0]

Years ago, my mother was working in a Fur Store (both now long gone.) One day I was in the store, and she was downstairs in the "cutting room." I noticed all the little bits for fur left from alterations and repairs and I asked what became of them. When they told me they were usually too small to save, I asked them to save them for me.

 

Soon I had several large boxes of fur scraps. That started me our blending my own dubbing. In 30 years, I haven't needed to buy dubbing at all. I mix the furs with yarns, or blend it with other furs. My yarn pile is bigger than my fur pile, and I have found yarns of every description. ALL natural fiber yarn began life as fur or hair. Synthetic fiber yarn started out as hanks of fibers called "roving,) which you can buy at Joann Fabrics. Either alone, or blended together all yarns can be chopped and blended back into dubbing.

 

You can use a quart wide mouth jar, add some chopped fur and or yarn, and water (I add woolite,) and shake it. After your done pour it out into a large screen type strainer. I have a coffee grinder that I got for a couple of bucks at a yard sale, and a nice blender that was less than 10 bucks. The coffee grinder will chop things (like ice dub,) into powder so dull the blades with emery cloth or a file. The coffee grinder is used dry to blend small batches.

 

The blender is used with water to blend larger batches. After you pour out your blend, its wet, so you get a true picture of what your dubbing will look like in the water. I squeeze the mixture out in a paper towel, and loosen it up to dry. I do add flash (ice dub, or Angelina fibers to my blends.

[Steve P 0]

Remember that mink are mostly aquatic creatures do their fur naturally sheds water and when used as zonkers will float. On of my favorite flies is a slump buster tired on a #8 wet hook with white mink and uv ice dub. Imitates shad extremely well.

 

Steve

[flysmallie 0]

AND I saw how compressed air mixing and water mixing were an option if necessary. Suggestions or preferences?

 

 

Air mixing works great. Takes just a minute to get a good feel for it and then you are off. Very quick too.

[[email protected] 0]

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Edited June 1, 2022 by mikechell
Attempted sale without the required 30 posts.