Dubbing questions???

[Drifter]

Fellow Tyers,

I want to start blending my own dubbing. Which is better for this: a food blender or Black & Decker coffee grinder? Is it worth the hassle?

If I go the blender route, I'll buy my wife a new one, and I'll put animal hair in the old one?

Also has anyone used the Orvis product known as "Magic Dub"? It is dubbing already wrapped with fine gold/silver wire. Does it make neat flies?

For what its worth:
A few years back, I came across an old deer antler. I made a set of tying tools (bobbin threader, bodkin, dubbing tool) with small sections of the antler used as handles. The tools really work well but most of all, they look neat http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif

Comments on the dubbing questions are appreciated.

Thanks,

The Drifter

[The Ole Man]

Drifter
I've never done the grinder thing, but go to www.flyshop.com/bench/ , the VFS flytying board. Pull down a short way and see the thread at "OK I've got a coffee grinder..now what". Few hints and formulas there. I use Ligas, Orvis, Scintilla, Superfine and Spirit River. Haven't used magic dub. What I like about Spirit River and Seal-ex (if you can find it) is that it is long strand fiberous rather than chopped. You can pull it from the package to an estimated length, roll a noodle in your palm and tie it on to the hook without dubbing it on the thread. Then you just wind the noodle on the hook to the shape you want, tie down the end and clip it off. It doesn't come apart like chopped dubbing would. Course you can't get any tri-colors -blends either. You have to take whats packaged. But they have lots of colors. The last Spirit River I bought was at the Fish Hawk but I think a lot of places have it. Ole Man

[The Ole Man]

Drifter
Just a point of clarification. We're talking smooth body flies here with the noodle. If you want shaggy, then its chopped-on the thread or in a loop. I thought for years that all dubbing went on the thread or in a loop. Then I saw someone wrap a noodle and I thought-dang. This was after I had gone through a bucket of saliva between my thumb and forefinger. I eventually understood that a lot of things in flytying are negotiable. I once thought that you couldn't tie a Tellico unless it was a floss body-which is evil stuff. Then I found that it was fine to tie them with a yellow dubbed body. I thought an Adams was set in stone and then I got the book "Flies for Trout" by Stewart and Allen and the first two pages show 11 different ways to tie an Adams. As Will Rogers said "it ain't what a man knows that bothers me, it's what a man knows-that ain't so-that scares me". Sometimes it takes years for the depth of this philosophy to reveal itself.

[Drifter]

Ole Man,

Thanks for the tip regarding dubbing. I stopped by the Fly Tyer's Bench at the Virtual Flyshop, and ended up reading the various posts for about an hour.

I even read some very good posts from A.K. Best.

Thanks again.

The Drifter

[Loren]

Drifter

I've used a coffee grinder to make dubbing out of craft yarns. Nylon two strand craft yarn makes a bugging looking dub, but larg fiber. Antron, for example, is an extremely fine-fiber nylon. Some materials just don't do in a grinder - some do fine.

Loren

[edwin]

Drifter,
I've tried both and I like the coffee grinder. They're cheaper and they do not require the use of water. I have heard, as stated above, that some materials don't blend as well in the grinder. No troubles so far here. Good luck, and thanks again for the fly swap!! --edwin