Let's do like Mom said and share

[Uncle Jesse]

I saw a pattern in a magazine of a larva pattern that was tied by twisting doubled strips of rubber glove with dubbing between the strips and wrapping the resultant rope around the hook. The dubbing protrudes from between the wraps and it looks very buggy. It had a peacock herl head. The last time I was at the proctologist rather than let good tying material go to waste, okay not really I got a glove at the dentist, I obtained a glove and tried cutting it into uniform strips with scissors. Not really successful to my satisfaction. I knew our church had a paper cutter in the copy room. I took the glove and one Sunday after taking care of my responsiblities I used the paper cutter. Very easy to get good uniform strips that way. I think it would have been even better had I inserted a stiff piece of cardboard in the glove.

While I enjoy see the SBS and flies tied by Scott, Byron and Hans, I love getting in the minds of everyone and learning the little things you do that are not commonly discussed. So do like Mama said, SHARE!

[John Rhoades]

Cutting rubber gloves into strips sounds like a lot of work Better make sure you take them off your hands before cutting them though.

Why not just use rubber bands? Awhile back, I saved the rubber bands that we got around our daily local newswpaper. Those rubber bands were buff colored and I used permanent markers on them to make nice segmented nymph bodies.

There's usually more than one way to skin a cat -- which also reminds me that I once had some wonderful tanned, soft, black cat fur (on the skin) Much better than rabbit fur for dubbing! That's something that you might not see commonly discussed.

[ScottP]

Uncle Jesse,

Best way I've seen to get uniform strips was to roll the latex into a tube and then cut cross-sections to the width you want (razor blade or X-acto works fine); found this to be a lot easier than trying to get that stuff to lay/stay flat and cut with straightedge/ruler.

Regards,
Scott

[Allan]

What Scott said.

[Uncle Jesse]

Why not just use rubber bands?

Rubber gloves are much thinner than rubber band but you are correct about using rubber bands for nymphs.

You don't have to skin the cat to get the dubbing, a wire brush will produces some pretty nice dubbing. I am pretty sure I have some naturally mixed black and white dubbing in a prescription container somewhere. Unfortunately, the resident cat at the moment is solid white.

[John Rhoades]

Okay. Here's a fly tying tool that you might not see discussed much -- an iron.

Just use the iron to flatten curved feathers before you tie streamers with them. Just be careful so you don't get the feathers too hot. You can put these feathers between 2 lightweight cotton towels and steam them if you want. Flat feathers are easier to pair, and to tie in on top of the hook, when you're tying 2 or 3 of them together.

[Uncle Jesse]

In a related tip - you could use the steam feature of the iron to improve the condition of brittle feathers or if you have an old steam type room humidifier hang the feather in the plume of steam. They will then wrap without breaking.

John, will we need to explain what an iron is to some of these youngsters?

[sandfly]

Uncle jesse,
iron= a tool to play golf with (younger generation)
Iron= a tool to whack someone (older generation)

[Captain_Mortis]

I have a complete set of irons, which one would be better? 5 or 7 iron? Those are the ones I rarely use now.

[John Rhoades]

In a related tip - you could use the steam feature of the iron to improve the condition of brittle feathers or if you have an old steam type room humidifier hang the feather in the plume of steam. They will then wrap without breaking.

I have a large sauna here at my home. Thanks for giving me an idea.