FLYMPH FORUM

I have a question about tying with wool dubbing. How do you all normally make bodies with it as dubbing? It's longer fiber than natural furs I have used. Do you chop it up? Mix it with other dubbing? Spin it in a thread loop like Liesenring bodies? Thanks in advance for any responses.

I normally just chop it up, then use a cheap coffee grinder to mix it. Blend in the coffee blender just like natural dubbing, and it can be used just as you would any other dubbing.

Yup, What Chase Creek said. I just chop it up and toss it in a cheap coffee grinder and hit it with a couple pulses. Works like a champ. You can also mix in other materials, like SLF, other synthetics or natural materials. Making dubbing can get addictive.

One of best wool yarns for dubbing Is crewel yarn. It’s the kind mentioned by Leisenring for his cow dung fly. What I do is cut it into approximately 4” lengths. I then twist the yarn into individual strands. These strands can then be easily pulled apart. This way you don’t have a lot of cut ends showing up in the dubbing.

Thanks again for the help. I guess I have to invest in a cheap coffee grinder. lol

You can really do it anyway you like. I use separated yarn and tie it in like chenille. I’ve used felted yarn and you can start twisting cords of it off and tie those directly onto the hook and wrap or you can make dubbing. If I make dubbing I try to tear the wool into about 1/2 inch pieces, not cut with scissors. It gives a little different texture to the ends of the fiber. Wool comes in so many different textures from ultra fine like alpaca to really course that you have to play with it to see what works best. If you don’t have a grinder, place it all in a container of water, swish around to mix and then squeeze it out and dry. Works great.

What Ron said: fooling around with dubbing is addictive. I have grain bags full of raw material just sheared from a couple of Nubian's if anybody wants some. Mostly black with swirls of mocha and cream running through it. The embedded hay and goat poop bring a subtle nuance to the colors.

Often as not I use yarn as it comes in the same way Sawyer did, it can be untwisted and used in the smaller strands or it can be pulled apart into fibers and then used in a noodle or twisted in a loop- all dubbing methods end up making a yarn, so if it works as is or slightly unraveled I save a step.
The gun cleaning brush will pull out some fuzz after tying, but if I want a real fuzzy look I'll use stiffer furs because wool will flatten with use or when wet. You can also use the brush to "card" the wool back out of a yarn.
Whole wool, I would try to arrange in a loop so that only the skin ends are captured by ~1/8" and form a long fibered chenile like cord that can be used more like hackle, by matching ends and using something like a bulldog clip.

I love using wool yarn to make dubbing. I went crazy playing around with various dubbing blends and using the blends for wingless wet flies.

I'll look for the old posts and bump them, to make it easier to find.

Have fun!

For larger bodied flies. it works well in a dubbing loop. Trim to shape like you would deer hair.

For example: https://www.flytierspage.com/eshenk/she ... minnow.htm