I made a small post in the “What do you make” thread about making your own floatant. I thought this would be a better way of getting some input about making your own floatant.
Please post your Homemade recipes for floatant.
Fortunately I am a student pharmacist and am able to compound concoctions. List them out! I will make a few different recipes and do a highly scientific study comparing and contrasting various formulas, of course copious amounts of fishing is required!
Carcinogenic, explosive, flammable. The three best qualities of most old floatants. Oh yes, they left a pretty ring on the water, made it easier to find your fly. Oh too, they worked.
I just rub the fly with my greasy fingers after eating dried salami from the pouch in my vest. Good old animal fat, and it don’t wash off with water! Burp…
I, believe, it was Robert Traver, in one of his books, that cracked me up describing how; "The accidental embers, falling from his fishing pipe, ignited and subsequently, “Caused my favorite vest to explode into a ball of flame, when falling into my open necked bottle of dry fly prep,in the upper pocket of my vest!”
“Melted down, paraffin, mixed with kerosene and any type alcohol”, was quite popular; “In the day”!
Not exactly, ‘Home-Made’, but buy some Abolene and repackage a quantity of it into a small squeeze bottle or tiny container. If you didn’t know, it is a cosmetic cleanser and found in drug stores or departments.
Use your vast Chemistry knowledge to ferret out two or three hydrophobic compounds that can be disolved in something like alcohol and start mixing them. Just make sure that at least one does not sublimate at your standard fishing temperatures.
That was my first thought! Mineral Oil is very hydrophobic and is viscous at most, if not all, of the fishing conditions that I frequent. My only concern was the innevitable ring of hydrocarbon that would diffuse into our water systems. Although the concentrations are minimal, I thought someone may have a better formula.
Another thought, though I don’t know how to go about it, was to make a micellular type formula that “encases” the fly :idea: . Many of our homes have these micellular detergents… the problem, the water gets sudsy.
I want something that doesn’t inhibit the look of presentation (mine is already poor, don’t want to make it worse) yet does the job of keeping in high and dry!
The mix of parafin and mineral oil is by far the most common… I don’t smoke or play with fire so the flammable, volatile formulation may be the best bet :twisted:
The quail… it was a mess! I don’t think I did it right… The feathers had to be discarded!
What he said there! I have a small (babyfood) jar on the desk that I throw the dries into as I tie them. Then I treat sparingly with my dry treatment on stream. (When I remmeber to use the RainX that is! :shock: )
For a non flammable mix use 25-30% silicone oil with 70-75% parrafin wax. Melt together and let cool you want the consistency so that the heat from your finger will melt the paste… Silicone oil comes in many viscosities and you may need more for a usuable paste. When dressing the fly simply rub your finger aross the surface of the wax mix and rub on fly.
If you want a liquid mix add Coleman fuel to get the right viscosity. You might have to heat it so use boiling water away from the fire to melt the mix
The paste will also help to keep your floating line …floating
WOW! All these great ideas and concoctions just to save buying a $4.95 bottle of floatant once or twice a year. I enjoy tying and rod building, but I stay away from things that go BOOM!
Albolene has already been mentioned as a good floatant.
(quote)
The mix of parafin and mineral oil is by far the most common… I don’t smoke or play with fire so the flammable, volatile formulation may be the best bet.
The main ingrediants in Albolene is parafin and mineral oil. WOW! $11.00 and some change will get you a lifetime supply of a parafin and mineral oil mixture. The stuff will float a lugnut.
I use it on flies, fly-line, squeeky or locks, reels, chapped hands, chapped lips, ferrules, on guides in the winter to keep them from freezing tight with ice, and other things too numerous to mention.
Make something if you want but, I will stick with my Albolene.
An old non-flamable formula was parafin desolved in carbon tetrachloride. You havn’t been able to get carbon tet for a good mana years.
Well, you SHOULD like “Albolene Cream”, if you ever used a fly shop floatant!
Old George, basically, put Albolene Cream into “Gink” bottles and gouged us all for years, selling makeup remover that way!?! (And, at the risk of getting sued for slander)… Hareline Dubbing, will have to stop selling “Water Shed”, pre-treatment, if the makers of “Rain-X” ever go belly up.
The feathers had to be discarded! 
