Foam Crazy...

About four years ago my fellow guide and fly tier Walter Wiese came across some "wood grain" 2mm tan and brown foam. Wally tied some killer hopper patterns with this stuff and he gave me a sheet or two of it. I have tied a bunch of my Wrapped Foam Hoppers with it but saved and guarded them for my own fishing. That stuff is long gone!


Since then both Wally and I have kept our eyes open for "unique" fly tying foam. Well the other day my wife had to stop in AC Moore and buy a few things so I went in with her just to check on the craft foam - Yeah baby, jack pot; Leopard Yellow, Tiger Orange and Zebra Pink.... I see Golden Stones, Salmon Flies and Pink Hoppers jumping out of these sheets of foam already.


Don't worry Wally, I got a couple of sheets of each for you. I cleaned them out, buying all they had... I'll stop by today to see if they have any more...... as you might have guessed Wally and I tie a ton of flies!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tw9a6oBLVE...0/P1070005.JPG

Leopards and Tigers and Zebras, Oh my!

Doug,

Those are pretty wild, but lets see you guys make a hopper out of Clown Barf foam:

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/...ps194ccd64.gif.

Regards,
Scott

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Originally Posted by ScottP

Doug,

Those are pretty wild, but lets see you guys make a hopper out of Clown Barf foam:

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/...ps194ccd64.gif.

Regards,
Scott

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Yikes, now that's wild... not sure what to do with that... LOL Crazy stuff... But I like the Clown Hopper name.

It looks like the background at a Jefferson Airplane concert; I'd call it the Timothy Leary Hopper (I'm dating myself here folks).

Regards,
Scott

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Originally Posted by ScottP

I'd call it the Timothy Leary Hopper (I'm dating myself here folks). Regards, Scott

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Half the members said "WHO?" but half of us understood you perfectly. I heard they were releasing some of his papers, recipes for LCD???

Timothy Leary = LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) and "turn on, tune in, drop out"

I thought the foam that Weise demonstrated had color all the way through. I still have one sheet of it. I thought I had found the mother-lode of the same and bought it from a vendor in China. It is ink stamped on instead of component as the hopper video below and the Clown Foam above. If anyone finds the component foam please let me know...glad to trade you for any of the ink stamped "stuff" I have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juofPgOpic4

If someone said WHO? I would have said, no, Jefferson Airplane and an Abott and Costello "Who's on First" routine would have broken out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg

I bought a set of wood-grained foam blocks (kid's toys), various shapes, but the prime pieces are 2"x2"x6" long, and it has the color all the way through. I'm working on breaking it down into manageable strips of the proper thickness, "re-sawing" as it were and hope it produces something close to Walter's foam.

Regards,
Scott

Scott, I don't know what you are using for your re-saw, but I sawed some flip flops on a scroll saw and found it worked very well. Clamp a piece of 1" material for a rip fence and you can get consistent widths.

Jesse,

I was just using steel straightedge/X-acto; results have been adequate but the scroll saw sounds interesting. I'll have to give that a shot; thanks for the suggestion.

Regards,
Scott

Cool looking stuff, but questions for Doug and Scott:

Scott, where did you find the foam blocks?
Doug, is there a picture of your Wrapped Foam Hopper somewhere on the net, or was it the one that was posted a while back?

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

A meat slicer comes to mind to resaw. Has anyone tried it?

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Originally Posted by Uncle Jesse

I heard they were releasing some of his papers, recipes for LCD???

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I don't think he made any himself. He originally imported it legally, as an experimental (and apparently successful) treatment for alcoholism.

Are there really people so young as to not know who he was? :)

What size are the patterns on those pieces of foam? Are they still discernable when you cut it to tying size?

Gandolf,

I found them on EBay a few years ago, payed about $20; just did a quick interweb search and they appear to have gone up in price a bit.

Regards,
Scott

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Originally Posted by ducksterman

A meat slicer comes to mind to resaw. Has anyone tried it?

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I'm sure Kramer has.

Regards,
Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ducksterman

A meat slicer comes to mind to resaw. Has anyone tried it?

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That's a great idea, you could really get the thickness desired. Be careful not to pick up salami residue, it might make for an illegal fly on some streams.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gandolf

Cool looking stuff, but questions for Doug and Scott:

Scott, where did you find the foam blocks?
Doug, is there a picture of your Wrapped Foam Hopper somewhere on the net, or was it the one that was posted a while back?

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

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You can see it here: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6587365398588568558#editor/target=post;postID=8310283233900750663;onPublished Menu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=10;src =postname

thx, Doug.

TaB said: "I thought the foam that Weise demonstrated had color all the way through. I still have one sheet of it. I thought I had found the mother-lode of the same and bought it from a vendor in China. It is ink stamped on instead of component as the hopper video below and the Clown Foam above. If anyone finds the component foam please let me know...glad to trade you for any of the ink stamped "stuff" I have."

Yes TaB, that's the best stuff with the colors going all the way through the foam. We had both that and the stamped on both sides, I still have a little of the double stamped. This stuff is stamped on only one side, but hey better than nothing. Guys please post it if you find the wood grain foam going all the way through, it's a rare bird indeed... Keep searching and i'll do the same.