Johnny Utah
You're no daisy
Hello fellow tiers!!!!
Making dubbin can be fun. It is a great way to make blends of your liking. If you have ever seen a real insect than you know that they are not a consistent color. It doesn't take much, just a simple electric coffee grinder will do the trick. Furs from any animal. Yarn of just about any kind. Even marabou (AWESOME DUBBING)
For furs my personal favorites are rabbit, both mask and body hair. Body under fur is one of the softest and easiest dubbings around. When treated with a water proofing agent ie floatant it will float all day. Body fur with guard hairs makes awesome nymph dubbing that is extremely easy to dub. Squirrel of any variety. Squirrel makes great spiky nymph dubbing. Australian opossum is great nymph dubbing. Seals fur is great emerger dubbing. Which really goes well in dubbing blends. Muskrat is great nymph dubbing and also dry fly dubbing. Beaver makes great dry fly dubbing as well. For this we will focus on nymph and emerger dub blends.
Yarn of just about any sort. Check out whats on sale at the craft store or mega stores and pic out some colors you like.
Its very easy to make yarn into dubbing. You can get wools and synthetics. In the craft world they are acrylics.
Marabou from feathers and actual marabou makes some awesome dubbing. When you pluck those hackles don't just throw away that butt or strip it away. Instead cut it away. Store them in a bag or container and when you have accumulated a bunch simple trim the marabou from the stalk. DON'T strip it or you will up with the stems skin, which will not blend or dub so well.
Flash materials can be picked up via yarn or just picking up some packets of ice dub, polar dub, sts, antron and so on. My favorites are ice dub u.v., polar dub, and sts. The bags you get will make tons of blends. So they are well worth the couple of bucks.
General materials list.
1- Electric coffee grinder. Wally world has a great one and its cheap.
2- Scissors.
3- Fur, yarn, Marabou, Flash materials.
4- dryer sheet- this is to help with static cling, not necessary but very helpful.
Tools. The coffee grinder is a wally world one, works excellently. I like the large scissors as you can get more with just a cut
Ok lets do a blend! This is one my favorites, its a great olive blend for caddis and various nymphs.
caddis green polar dubbing, an olive hare's mask, and caddis green sts
Cut a small amount off the hares mask. If you want extra coarse dubbing cut in some ear hairs.
load it into your grinder, and give it a few pulses of about the count of 1,2 and stop. Repeat. It will then look just like dubbing in a bag, but fluffier. This will help us add the flash materials. The grinder will chop up your fur if you let it run to long.
Take out about 3-4 pinches of flash, about this much will do nicely. Add them to your hair that you have blended. Just dump the sts right in. Its a short cut dubbing so it will come apart and blend easily. The polar dubbing is a long cut dubbing. You will need to tease it out and put it in. Once you have them all in, give it several pulses of 1 and 2 and stop. Any time you use synthetic in your blender never blend to long or will end up with little plastic balls.
The result. A buggy, flashy but not to flashy, easy to dub blend
Lets do another
A foot of acrylic yarn. Black u.v. ice dub
Cut your yarn into 1/4"-1/2" into the grinder.
Do the same pulsing as described before but with one up to a 3 count before the last pulse. This will be the result. Good dubbin, can be used like this, but lets customize it.
When you do acrylics in your blender particularly yarn. This will happen. Simply remove it. If you dont it will bind up your blend.
Ok the flash, add about 3-4 pinches of the black u.v. ice dub.
With ice dub you will want to tease it out as well. Load it all in the grinder and pulse the 1-2.
The result. A very easy to dub flashy dubbing.
Hear is another.
Grey antron yarn and grey squirrel.
Do the one foot of yarn chopped and blended like in the blend before. Cut about 3 swaps off the squirrel skin. Guards and under fur. Load them into the grinder. Give it the one 1-2 count pulse several times.
The result. A very productive adams emerger blend.
I hope you all like the post and there will be more custom blends to come
Making dubbin can be fun. It is a great way to make blends of your liking. If you have ever seen a real insect than you know that they are not a consistent color. It doesn't take much, just a simple electric coffee grinder will do the trick. Furs from any animal. Yarn of just about any kind. Even marabou (AWESOME DUBBING)
For furs my personal favorites are rabbit, both mask and body hair. Body under fur is one of the softest and easiest dubbings around. When treated with a water proofing agent ie floatant it will float all day. Body fur with guard hairs makes awesome nymph dubbing that is extremely easy to dub. Squirrel of any variety. Squirrel makes great spiky nymph dubbing. Australian opossum is great nymph dubbing. Seals fur is great emerger dubbing. Which really goes well in dubbing blends. Muskrat is great nymph dubbing and also dry fly dubbing. Beaver makes great dry fly dubbing as well. For this we will focus on nymph and emerger dub blends.
Yarn of just about any sort. Check out whats on sale at the craft store or mega stores and pic out some colors you like.
Its very easy to make yarn into dubbing. You can get wools and synthetics. In the craft world they are acrylics.
Marabou from feathers and actual marabou makes some awesome dubbing. When you pluck those hackles don't just throw away that butt or strip it away. Instead cut it away. Store them in a bag or container and when you have accumulated a bunch simple trim the marabou from the stalk. DON'T strip it or you will up with the stems skin, which will not blend or dub so well.
Flash materials can be picked up via yarn or just picking up some packets of ice dub, polar dub, sts, antron and so on. My favorites are ice dub u.v., polar dub, and sts. The bags you get will make tons of blends. So they are well worth the couple of bucks.
General materials list.
1- Electric coffee grinder. Wally world has a great one and its cheap.
2- Scissors.
3- Fur, yarn, Marabou, Flash materials.
4- dryer sheet- this is to help with static cling, not necessary but very helpful.
Tools. The coffee grinder is a wally world one, works excellently. I like the large scissors as you can get more with just a cut
Ok lets do a blend! This is one my favorites, its a great olive blend for caddis and various nymphs.
caddis green polar dubbing, an olive hare's mask, and caddis green sts
Cut a small amount off the hares mask. If you want extra coarse dubbing cut in some ear hairs.
load it into your grinder, and give it a few pulses of about the count of 1,2 and stop. Repeat. It will then look just like dubbing in a bag, but fluffier. This will help us add the flash materials. The grinder will chop up your fur if you let it run to long.
Take out about 3-4 pinches of flash, about this much will do nicely. Add them to your hair that you have blended. Just dump the sts right in. Its a short cut dubbing so it will come apart and blend easily. The polar dubbing is a long cut dubbing. You will need to tease it out and put it in. Once you have them all in, give it several pulses of 1 and 2 and stop. Any time you use synthetic in your blender never blend to long or will end up with little plastic balls.
The result. A buggy, flashy but not to flashy, easy to dub blend
Lets do another
A foot of acrylic yarn. Black u.v. ice dub
Cut your yarn into 1/4"-1/2" into the grinder.
Do the same pulsing as described before but with one up to a 3 count before the last pulse. This will be the result. Good dubbin, can be used like this, but lets customize it.
When you do acrylics in your blender particularly yarn. This will happen. Simply remove it. If you dont it will bind up your blend.
Ok the flash, add about 3-4 pinches of the black u.v. ice dub.
With ice dub you will want to tease it out as well. Load it all in the grinder and pulse the 1-2.
The result. A very easy to dub flashy dubbing.
Hear is another.
Grey antron yarn and grey squirrel.
Do the one foot of yarn chopped and blended like in the blend before. Cut about 3 swaps off the squirrel skin. Guards and under fur. Load them into the grinder. Give it the one 1-2 count pulse several times.
The result. A very productive adams emerger blend.
I hope you all like the post and there will be more custom blends to come
