I get lots of requests from people at my classes, and elsewhere, to explain where and how I obtained some of my seemingly vast collection of materials, so here are some of the answers.
First of all, if you wish to collect "bits and pieces" from domestic pets or similar animals, ask the owners first, and be careful how you ask! Some people are very sensitive in this respect. Being charged with cruelty to animals, because you have been caught chasing the neighbour's cat while brandishing a razor, is not likely to further your fly dressing career, especially as at least forty character witnesses will then proceed to swear on a stack of bibles that you are a well known pervert anyway, and your obvious intention was to torture the poor creature! Even if the judge is a fly angler, and able to appreciate how difficult it is to obtain dubbing in this particularly delicately mottled shade of light ginger, you may still have problems.
Half a pound of mixed smelly dog hair which has been removed from the vacuum cleaner is also not a lot of use I have discovered. It is extremely difficult to clean, store, and dye, and is difficult to use for anything but rough dubbing. If you collect hair, try and get it on the skin. (I am not suggesting you go around skinning dogs or the like however!).
Getting some other stuff on the skin is also likely to prove somewhat problematic.
When people get to know that you collect fur or feathers, they will often bring you the most amazing things. It is better not to discourage them if you can possibly avoid it. A nice trout or a bit of smoked Salmon can work wonders here, when delivered to the appropriate people (nice old ladies who live under high tension wires is a good idea, see below!), and has some intrinsic merit!
Admittedly it is very difficult indeed to look pleased and enthusiastic when the lady from down the road brings you the seventh completely tick infested and irreparably squashed Hedgehog in succession, (although Hedgehog belly is a very useful dubbing and hackling material).
You must skin a Hedgehog in the same way as hedgehogs propagate their species by the way, extremely carefully! But do not be dismayed, the same lady may one day come up trumps, and present you with a Heron found in the garden, which has fallen dead from the high tension wires, or, as also happened to me once some years ago, two perfect if somewhat dried out Jungle cock necks, apparently once part of the decoration on ladies hats! (I refuse to buy Jungle cock or any other protected species nowadays on principle, but see nothing wrong in accepting such serendipitous gifts which would otherwise land in the bin!).
I still live in hopes that somebody will one day bring me a genuine Polar bear rug!
There are many possible sources of materials the old hare fur coat shown in the photo in the previous article was bought at a flea-market for next to nothing, and I have tied very many excellent flies from it already, as have quite a few of my friends!
Fox fur stoles and other furs were once much in vogue for fashionable ladies about town, and may be obtained quite regularly for next to nothing at flea-markets, jumble sales and the like. If you see something like this you think may be useful, and it is cheap, buy it! Especially any pure white fur you can get. The same stuff sold in small patches in expensive packaging probably costs a fortune at your fly dressing supplier or tackle shop. No matter that you do not yet know what to use it for, or what it is, have no fear, we will go into that later!
If you have a taxidermist in your area, he will probably be only too pleased to give you sacks of material at a modest price, or even free, especially if he gets a nice trout or sea-trout occasionally. Furriers also have large amounts of off-cuts which are useless for their purposes, but excellent for fly-dressing.
Small zoos and aviaries will often have dead animals and birds that they are only too happy to give away, as soon as they have ascertained that you are serious, ask them to freeze the deceased as soon as possible after their untimely demise, this makes things easier for you.
Large pet-shops sometimes have dead parrots and other birds and animals which have a lot of useful feathers, fur etc, it will not hurt to ask, but try and be diplomatic, if you walk into the shop when there are forty other customers in and ask in a loud voice whether or not the very ill looking blue macaw you saw last week has snuffed it yet, it is unlikely that you will receive anything other than black looks, even if the bird is indeed deceased, or perhaps even more so, because the creatures are apparently worth a fortune, and your enthusiasm for its feathers may be unfavourably connected with the unexplained mortality!
Such Monty Pythonesque scenes may be funny on television, but try explaining yourself to the officer who comes along to quell the resulting disturbance, this is not funny at all!
Dog trimming establishments can be an excellent source of materials, but talk to the owner, and he or she may arrange for separate types of hair, colours etc, from individual dogs, to be placed in separate bags for you. Some hair will be useless, and you can simply throw this away. Don?t under any circumstances try to burn it! The stink is quite indescribable! You may get some really good stuff here though. The "Collie Dog" a famous and very simple and effective salmon pattern when tied correctly, originated from such a source. Some terrier breeds have wonderful fine mottled hair for dubbing purposes.
Farmers and smallholders who keep hens will often save you the heads and necks of their birds when they slaughter them, you won't get anything like a Whiting cape doing this, but on occasion some very nice hackles;
If you ask nicely and offer modest payment they will slaughter the animals in such a way that the capes are not soiled with blood etc. Capes soiled with dried blood are very very difficult to clean, and it is often not worth the trouble anyway. Of course such sources are rapidly disappearing nowadays, as more and more farmers specialise in "factory" farming of specific animals. The feathers from birds kept in cages are generally useless.
Bantam cocks sometimes have excellent quality feathers in wonderful colours by the way, there are still a lot of Old English Game strains around in these birds. If you see an outstanding cock cape on a bird, ask them to reserve it for you, it is easy to remove the cape and saddle from such a bird, and the wings are also useful usually. After having served a useful life these birds usually end up in the soup pot, as they are too tough for anything else, and are consequently almost worthless to the owner.
A small payment or a nice trout now and again may result in a real prize here. One of my best capes, a very rare genuine Brassy Blue Dun of superb quality came from such a source! I have no idea what it is worth, as I have never actually seen one anywhere near as good for sale, but I suspect an awful lot of money!
Such capes are now available from breeders such as Whiting, but when I got mine, they were almost unheard of. Not many dressers had ever seen such a cape.
The same goes for butchers who deal in game birds, turkeys, geese etc. This material can usually be had for the asking, and is absolutely perfect for fly dressing purposes. A good country butchers at Christmastime is a wonderful place for a fly dresser! Ask the butcher to refrain from plucking the birds, and do it yourself.
Human hair is usually relatively useless for dressing purposes, and contrary to popular opinion, is not the reason for my baldness! There are rumours of certain types of hair from specific parts of the anatomy of raven haired Andalusian virgins being used for some absolutely killing patterns, but the collection of this material poses problems which I consider beyond my capabilities of solving, however interesting and enlightening the attempt might prove, my wife would probably not have believed my perfectly honourable intentions either!
For similar, but not quite identical reasons, patterns calling for hair from the scrotum of a wild ram or similar, usually result in my seeking a somewhat less exotic substitute. Some people might consider this a little cowardly, and even rather less than dedicated on my part, and they would be perfectly right! Fishing is adventurous enough for me!
Of course, depending on the patterns you wish to dress, you may not need many of these things. To be perfectly honest, if I had known forty years ago what I know now, I would not have bothered with most of it at all! I learned a great deal about many things though, and it was usually enjoyable, and sometimes eventful!
Road kills are also an excellent source of cheap and very useful material, I have a very large collection of materials obtained in this way. Cost? A bit of borax and salt, and the time spent in preparing them.
The photo shows a small selection taken from dead birds found at the roadside;
If you do find birds it is often best to clip off or pluck the feathers you require and not bother trying to skin them. Birds, especially small ones, are very difficult to skin unless you have a lot of practice. The wings of most birds should be clipped off close to the body with strong scissors or pruning shears, and then the knuckles treated with a 1/1 mixture of salt and borax, and left to dry until no sweating or moisture is discernible, add more salt and borax as required to achieve this.
When dry, place them in a sealed polythene bag and then in the freezer for a couple of days (this kills nearly all possible pests). After freezing I wash my stuff in warm soapy water, let it dry naturally for a while on a few sheets of old newspaper and give it a bit of a final blow dry with a hair dryer to smooth and fluff up the hair or feathers. I usually also microwave the stuff after freezing, for sixty seconds at six-hundred Watts, but this is not strictly necessary. I am just ultra careful.
Bugs can ruin a collection in no time, and my collection is large and irreplaceable. I have been collecting stuff like this for over thirty years.
The result, when completely dry, is then placed in a zip-lock bag with a few crystals of Napthalene or similar moth and pest deterrent. Useful body feathers should be plucked and treated in the same way. Write down on the packet where you got them from, what bird, what part of the body etc. Some old dressings give instructions where the feathers mentioned in the recipe may be found on the bird, this information is extremely useful, and saves a lot of frustration when dressing some patterns, as you can select the correct feather to start with. Dressing some flies with feathers from the wrong part of the correct bird renders them almost useless for their originally intended purpose. Of course you may not wish to dress such patterns at all.
Before you start collecting things like this, it is best to have at least an idea of what you are likely to need. Whatever you do, do not under any circumstances add materials to your collection until you are absolutely certain that all pests have been eliminated from them.
I also skin rabbits and hares, the occasional bisam or squirrel, and a few other animals, when I find them relatively undamaged at the roadside, squirrel skins and tails are especially useful. They must be fresh and not too badly damaged if you want to do this, if you are unsure how old the carcass is then leave it. If there is anything much crawling about on the carcass you should also leave it. If youz pick up stuff like this prepare or store it properly as soon as you get home! If you forget something like this in the boot of your car, especially in warm weather, I can absolutely guarantee that you will bitterly regret it!
This photo shows a small selection of road kill I have picked up;
This photo is of hare skins which were brought to me by hunters. They keep the meat, I get the skins, and they get a nice seatrout or some flies, if they are anglers.
Notice the large colour variation. This is one major advantage of road kill. You get animals which have winter and summer pelts. This is very useful for a variety of reasons. The pelts from hunters may only be shot in season, and this might not be exactly what you want. Hair and fur differs considerably at various times of the year.
Animals found dead on the road in winter are likely to be OK, in high summer be careful. You should wear a pair of heavy rubber gloves for picking such animals up and placing them in a well sealed polythene sack, and before commencing skinning or trimming operations douse the carcass with a good disinfectant, and wear gloves at all times.
In some countries or states it may be illegal to pick up road kills generally, or just certain animals, make sure you are aware of the regulations before you do it. Cats and dogs should be left alone, they invariably belonged to somebody, and if you are seen cutting bits off them at the roadside, completely unnecessary and ridiculous complications may arise, which it is better to avoid.
Skinning small furry mammals is quite easy, the usual method is to use a scalpel or sharp carpet knife. Cut carefully around the legs slightly above the "ankles" of the animal, and then cut down the inside of the legs towards the middle of the animal's belly. Cut as shallowly as possible to avoid damaging the carcass. A straight cut down the belly joining the four cuts you have made, and then using the back of your scalpel to ease the skin off works well. Taxidermists and others use different techniques for skinning many things, including birds. I use this technique almost exclusively, as I normally mainly want the guard hair form these animals, and although I may use some belly fur, it is of less importance.
The head of some animals is difficult to skin, and can be a messy business. If you don't need it, cut the skin at the neck and dispose of the head with the other remains. Hares and rabbits may be easily skinned, although removing a hare's mask can be a trial. Moles, and bisams are fairly easy, and squirrels are slightly more difficult, but after you have done your first one or two it becomes fairly easy. If you get them for nothing, it does not matter much if you muck one up.
Just a small but very important point here, if you keep stuff like this in your freezer, make sure it is properly wrapped and labelled. If your wife, girlfriend, etc, removes such a package and unwraps it, they will not generally be overly enthused upon viewing the contents. (Screams issuing from the cellar may well be a sign that something similar has occurred).
After you have completed the cuts described above, taking care not to damage the carcass itself, ( you can start with a scalpel and then use blunt nosed scissors to continue) the skin may be eased off by pulling, and using a flat bladed knife to sever any membranes etc.
When you have the skin off, take a piece of board and carefully nail (use galvanised roofing nails they do not rust and discolour the skin) the perimeter of the skin to the board, fur side down, stretching it as you go, when the skin is stretched fairly tight on the board carefully remove any fat or flesh left on the skin by scraping with a flat bladed knife or similar. You can also stretch such skins on a hazel frame, and "sew" the perimeter of the skin to the frame with string and a sacking needle.
Once the skin is clean, then powder it with a layer of salt and borax sufficient to cover the skin entirely, a few crystals of napthalene or paradichlorbenzene suffice to keep insects away. Put it in a cool dry place away from draughts and the likelihood of other animals getting at it. Inspect it at least once a day adding salt and borax if there is any trace of wetness. When completely dry, remove from the board, shake off the excess salt/borax mixture, wash and dry the skin, and proceed as already described for feathers. The borax is not absolutely essential here, you may just use salt if you wish, but the borax cures the skin faster.
When washing, do not leave the skins in the water for too long, as otherwise all the hair will fall out! This is known in the trade as "slip".
Small animal skins require no further treatment.
It is not necessary to tan the skins, this is a far more difficult process. If the skin is a little stiff this is not a problem, if you really need a flexible skin as for zonker strips or similar materials, then rubbing glycerine into the skin will soften it considerably, Nivea hand cream also gives good results. If you have difficulty obtaining industrial borax (Pharmaceutical Borax is very expensive) then a mixture of wood ash and salt works as well. The ashes from a charcoal grill, or any clean wood fire, are excellent as long as there is no fat or oil left in them.
Foxes, rats, and some other animals, carry dangerous diseases in many parts of Europe, and if you are not sure how to handle the carcass then leave it alone! It is impossible to give general advice here, you must inform yourself of the local regulations and conditions.
If you are at all squeamish it is best not to try this at all, and you should on no account carry out such operations in your kitchen or anywhere similar, not if you want to stay married for long, or have no particular desire to become homeless at short notice, quite apart from the hygiene problems which may arise. Do it in an outhouse or garage or on a table in the garden, and dispose of the remains carefully. Burying them is usually the best solution.
If you do bury things like this, do not do it at dead of night by torchlight, this will get you talked about if anybody sees you, and make sure you bury the stuff deep enough so that the neighbours dog can't dig it up and transport it proudly into your best friends house for supper. This sort of thing is liable to strain even the most abiding friendship!
Game animals are subject to stringent laws as well in some countries. Taking a dead deer or wild pig found at the side of the road for instance may well be considered poaching, and may get your car confiscated and result in fines or even worse. Protesting that you were not the person who hit it in the first place will avail you nothing.
Simply possessing some animal skins is also illegal, irrespective of how the material was obtained. Use your common sense here. It is unlikely that anyone will complain if you find a dead mole and use its skin, but do not go trafficking in mole skins and the like, or shouting about your collection at an animal rights meeting. Some of these people think even dead animals have rights, and may unfortunately even be correct in this respect in some places.
Before approaching some animals be absolutely certain that the animal is dead. Even comparatively harmless animals may bite or kick you if they have been seriously injured and are in pain, and the results may not be to your liking. If you do find animals injured but alive at the roadside, call the appropriate authorities, do not attempt first aid or putting the animal "out of its misery", this may well be misconstrued by other road users, and is unlikely to help anyway. If you are reported in the local newspaper because you were found bashing an animal?s head in with a tyre lever, it will not help your social status.
Make sure you have current anti-tetanus and other relevant jabs etc. before you do anything like this as well.
After a while you will develop an 'eye' for road kills, and will notice them almost automatically without it even distracting you from your driving, with experience you can tell sometimes at a glance whether or not your sighting is worth retrieving.
Common sense is also very important here, even if you see a whole flock of dead and comparatively undamaged Jungle cock all with perfect nails (the "nails" are the beautiful enamelled eye feathers used a lot on salmon flies), lying at the side of a three lane motorway, consider carefully before attempting to retrieve them, and if this should appear in any way dangerous DON'T DO IT!
The same applies to other roads, slamming on the brakes, and doing a racing U-turn in order to inspect a likely sighting is not a good idea, far better to carry on to the next turn-off, turn around and check carefully for traffic, before attempting retrieval.
Try not to make a song and dance about it either, grab your polythene sack and your shears, get the stuff into the sack and disappear as unobtrusively as you hopefully arrived. You will not believe the amount of curiosity your apparently eccentric behaviour may engender in some people should you be observed, even on minor country roads, and this could be dangerous as well. Some people get very incensed indeed at people "who go around mutilating harmless animals for fun," whether legal or not, it is best to avoid confrontations of this nature.
I wish to stress here that I would under no circumstances advocate the killing of any animal or bird merely in order to obtain material for fly dressing purposes, protected or otherwise. It should be clear that we are talking here of dead animals found at the roadside or in similar circumstances, whose demise is a result of accident. I like to think of this as natural recycling, the remains would often only rot at the roadside, if I did not use them.
The same goes for material obtained from hunters, friends etc, the feathers or fur would invariably end in the bin, and the animals concerned were killed for other reasons, usually food. I see no good reason not to use things that would otherwise be wasted. Furthermore in all the years I have been driving I have never personally hit an animal, I even slow down or stop when frogs are crossing the road.
I am prepared to admit that this is more due to luck than absolute intent on my part, as I have seen situations where the driver of a vehicle had no chance to avoid hitting an animal, I am nonetheless proud of the fact.
QUESTION I have a bantam cockerel and he has some of the most brilliant plumage i have ever seen. I also had another half bantam half white leghorn with a very nice white cape, the head of which is still in one of our sheds. Is there anything that needs to be done to treat the feathers and whats the best way to get the cape from the head?
ANSWER If you cut down from below the beak to the breast, then you can "peel" the skin off. It is not difficult to do. Once you have the skin off, lay it feather side down on a board, and scrape off any fat etc still adhering to it. Now you need to cover the skin with salt. ( Some people prefer to use borax, but salt works fine on capes). Leave it for a day or so, until the salt is completely dry, adding more salt in the meantime if necessary.
When the cape is dry, which is easy to see, as the salt forms a crust. Just wash the cape in warm soapy water, rinse well, and place skin side down on newspaper to dry. You may also use a blow dryer on low heat to "fluff" it up, if you like, but normally beating it lightly against your leg will suffice.
When the cape is completely dry, you may store it as normal. It must be completely dry though, as otherwise it will rot.
QUESTION Rubbing moisturising cream into the skin is supposed to keep the skin soft and flexible, have you tried this & if so how successfully?
ANSWER Yes, I have tried it on a few things. It does work on some, but there are problems associated with it. If you rub the stuff into some capes, you can not store them in airtight bags any more, as they tend to start rotting.
Nivea cream and similar stuff disappears into your skin quite quickly if you rub it on your hands for instance. Rubbing it into various pieces of cured skin does not always work in the same way, it just does not "soak in". This results in rather greasy feeling capes which are quite difficult to handle, and if you get the stuff on your fingers you have to go and wash your hands before you can continue dressing.
On some dyed capes and furs etc, the Nivea, (and similar stuff) may leach out some of the dye from the skin, and you will end up with your fingers coloured. This also means that you have to keep washing your hands if you don?t want to discolour other materials.
Unless you really need a flexible piece of skin for something or other, then it is best to avoid doing things like this. In the case of fur I prefer to have this in small pieces, or strips. This makes it much easier to work with, and it does not matter whether the skin is soft or not.
For "Zonker strips" and suchlike, you really need to use tanned skins. The Nivea, ( or just pure glycerine), does not soften untanned pelts sufficiently for them to be used as zonker material. Hot dyeing will tend to harden the skin of whatever you are dyeing. If you want the skin to remain supple then use "Cold" water dyes. These dyes will not stiffen up the skin. Cold "reactive" dyes like these, or similar are best;
http://www.dyeproservices.com/Dylon%20C ... %20Dye.htm
TL
MC
Am I right to assume you wash/condition smaller skins like hare's masks and pine squirrel whole, then take just what hair you need off the intact skin during each tying session? Any thoughts on "hare conditioning" 
would be appreciated.
