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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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