Buffalo Hair

[millerwb]

Whay would one use Buffalo Hair for is tying? I have some and am not sure how to best use it. I am guessing that I could use some of the longer pieces to tie streamers (some is about 6" long). Any suggestions?

[Lew]

I've got a buddy who has half a dozen buffalo, as well as a Bactrian camel. Can I piggy-back?

[Rick Z]

I got a little bit of buffalo hair from some one, I cut it up and made a few hares ears out of the dubbing.

Rick

[CharlaineC]

i love buffalo hair works well for a number of flies. wish i had more if you buy DonO's robe dub dvd and use that dubbing style you'll soon find its makes a great sub for many uses. tailes. wing posts. dubbing, bodys, wings . its very useable. Besides buffalo are great eating.

[DaveMac]

I sell a lot of Natural Buffalo Fur on my site. The majority of the purchasers seem to be buying similar length materials, ( Icelandic Sheep, Llama, Goat ). Buffalo fur can be as long as 8-9 inches and averages 6". These lengths work great for Streamer patterns, Pike and Saltwater. I am told that it can be bleached and dyed quite well. The underfur makes good buggy dubbing. As is with most tying materials you are only limited by your imagination.

[kelkay]

I like buffalo on streamers. I also use it on jigs. I especially like the underfur for dubbing.

[DonO1]

Like any other fur, patches of bufflao hide from different areas of the buffalo have different qualities. There are long, straight hairs, short straight and short kinky hairs. Hair from a bull's curly collar is thick and unruly and hard to use. There are also about 6 grades of underfur if you care to separate the different lenghts and textures. The very fine fibers close to the skin make great dry-fly dubbing. It has a water-proofing oil naturally, but depending on how the hide was handled, most of this may have washed out.

I have tied many hair-streamers with the long fibers, but mostly stoneflies using the shorter, coarser hairs and underfur. But I would not use it at all if I wasn't using the rope-dub technique to make the segments and tapering easy to accomplish with using so coarse a material. Using a hank of shorter hairs (3") with the underfur attached (cut from the hide, not blended), i can leave the tips for the tail, rope the longer hairs tight to make the abdomen segments, then the thicker underfur creates the thorax (loosen and 'compress' the rope some), and I pick that out to make it fuzzy on the bottom. All this is one step for a simple, fishable stone fly on a wire core for durability and weight. I can add wings and legs and barbell eyes during the tie, but I find the basic stonefly shape is just as effective.

The underfur is a tan-blonde color, and once I have a bunch separated out for dry-fly dubbing, I take brown, black, and orange hilighters and dab blotches of color into the clump. I dub this without re-blending, and I get a nice blotchy-colored body that works well with speckled hackles and wings for a natural mayfly imitation.

[DaveMac]

Thank you Dan,

I would love to see some photos of your "Buffalo" flies