Free, Unusual, or Cheap Tying Material Thread

[alangarbers]

As my material inventory increases and my money decreases, I am finding myself looking for other ways to get tying material.
I just went out to the local fly shop and bought a section of fuzzy tying foam, only to get it home and find it was a square of tan velour blanket material? For the price I paid for a six by six square, I?m sure I could have gone to Walmart and bought a square yard in the cloth department.
Anyways, here some other things I have found:
The nylon yarn at Walmart costs 25 cent for ten yards, come in a dozen colors, and looks just like Antron yarn that costs much more for much less yarn.
The 5-Minute clear epoxy that sells for $5.00 at fly shops is $1.97 at you-know-where, same brand, same size.
Kroger supermarket is selling the thin metallic Flashabou right now in caddis green, blue, and shrimp pink. They?re disguising it as Easter basket grass and selling it for $1.50 in a bag large enough to cost over twenty dollars at your local fly shop.
I work doing service in several factories around the state. Each factory has ear plug stations. The foam ear plugs are connected with vinyl tubing in cicada orange, blue, red, or catalpa worm yellow/green.

I?m sure we can all think of things like this. Maybe you could share your ideas.
Alan

[acal]

Walt Mart or your local archery shop carries what is called "Cat Whiskers". It is made of thin rubber sections that are tied onto a bow string to silence the noise from the string when the bow is shot. Very cheap !

You can peel off very fine sections, without any tools, and use them for legs or antennae, etc.

[Eric-WD]

ACAL welcome to FAOL from the west coast, glad to have you here and posting.

Eric

[Valhalla 1]

Walt Mart or your local archery shop carries what is called "Cat Whiskers". It is made of thin rubber sections that are tied onto a bow string to silence the noise from the string when the bow is shot. Very cheap !

You can peel off very fine sections, without any tools, and use them for legs or antennae, etc.

I save the old ones that I take off my bowstring when I replace them. I get double duty out of them. When looking to buy this stuff, check both the flyfishing suppliers and the archery suppliers because one is usually cheaper than the other for the exact same thing. Go figure.

[jimsnarocks]

First I want to welcome acal to the board. That's a good idea.
This thread has really brought out a lot of good ideas for tying materials.
I recently put up a new 6' redwood fence along the side of my carport. I have been finding cat hair by the hands full along the top. Good dubbing material in a variety of colors. Jim

[jimsnarocks]

Addendum to my previous post.
Made a trip to the .99 cent store and bought 600 hollow tube Q-tips for tube flies and found a package of medium length false eyelash clusters. Enough to make tails for 40 or so dry flies or tails and legs for nymphs. $2.15. The look on the cashier's face...Priceless. Jim

[Ken Y]

I found that the felt sheets selling for ~1$ at craft stores make great wool heads on streamers. They come in many colors and absorb water very well. Just super glue it on the hook. you can also make nymphs with them by wrapping thin sheets of the felt onto the hook, and picking out the fibers.

Also, I have a friend at school who has dreds. I found out that they make great leech patterns,

[acal]

When conditions warrant additional sinkers to get the fly down, I found some inexspensive beads to use instead of the bead head beads some of us use for tying our flies.

In the jewelry section at JoAnn Fabrics, they have magnetic beads that can be slid onto our leaders before tying on the fly. Allow the bead to slide down to the fly, cast and the bead stays with the fly. Better than using BB Split Shot. 36 for $1.99

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

I've collected wool I found in a paddock (free). I've then been dying it using various things from around the house, or from out in the yard. Like onion skins, coffee, grass, beet roots, dandelions, etc. All more or less free. I'm getting all sorts of cool colours, all very useful for fly tying.

- Jeff

[hungNtree]

Being brand new at fly tying I just have to say, this thread is Awesome It has already been a big help to me. I don't have any tips of my own, but Jack told me he would go to the dollar store and buy flip flops for a dollar and use a leather punch to punch out peices of foam for ants and things like that.

I do have one tip, though it isn't for tying, I bought four zingers at wally world for around $2, they sell them for hooking on thier name badges, which is also their time card. I took off the little rubber flap and attached a key ring from some old key rings I had laying around then attached my nippers or whatever to that. I don't know how long they will last but so far they are working great.

I sure hope this helps someone, because it has been a big help to me.

hNt