The thread on the hare's mask brought this to mind.

I'm big into doing it yourself. I buy the vast majority of my materials from other than traditional fly shop/catalog sources. I haunt craft stores, hardware stores, second hand shops and dollar stores. I find an incredible amount of stuff that can be perverted into some flies or assist me in making some. I spend hours doing this. Hundreds of hours over the course of a year. I enjoy it.

But I just don't get making your own dubbing.

When I walk into any fly shop, or open a fly tying catalog, I see ready to go dubbing made in an incredibly vast amount of colors and dozens of materials, all optimized for particular purposes. And it's all pretty inexpensive, if not downright cheap based on the amount of flies you'd get from a bag of it.

I have some hare's masks, plus lots of other stuff that would be used for dubbing. I even have the blenders for it and some neat scissors that cut with four blades at once for chopping furs down to size.

But I just can't see the point. I waste lots of time saving money on fly tying, but this is one area where I just can't justify the effort. A buck seventy five for a ready made bag of hares ear dubbing, or half an hour making half as much from the mask that cost about the same. It gets worse when you start talking about having some color variations from the natural. I can buy it cheaply in lots of colors. If you have to dye it before you make the dubbing, that's just way too much for me.

I'd get it if the resulting dubbing was somehow better than the packaged stuff. It's not. Especially for the first couple of dozen attempts. Doing anything like this is a skill that requires some practice to become proficient at it.

I'd get it if the slight color differences were critical. They're not. Besides, with the vast array of ready made colors available, you can mix what's on the rack into any concievable color easily if you just can't live with the ready to go blends.

I'd even get it if it was fun to do. Not for me. Them little hairs get everywhere, the bunny faces are creepy, and you seldom get what you want on the first, or even the fifth, attempt.

Maybe if you harvested the animal involved and didn't want to waste any of it. But I don't hunt and the gifted hair and fur I've recieved is useful for other things.

I'm trying to eliminate dubbing in my tying anyway. I like other methods and the fish don't seem to care, but even when I did a lot of it, I bought it.

Buddy