I was reading in the archives a while back and there was a tip on how to make your own dubbing with a blender and materials…I looked at every entry and now its gone…Can someone out there help me out…My wife wouldnt let me use her blender, so we went to an estate sale and I found one for 5 bucks but now I cant find the post…
Thanks
Morning Kap,
I’m not sure that you want to use a blender for this venture unless you are really careful and keep your blender pulses very short. Most of us use a coffee grinder which is a little less powerful and less likely to chop the material up. Anyway, this is an easy, quick way to make dubbing and in exactly the color, degree of sparkle, and the amount of “buggyness” that you need.
For natural furs just cut a couple of thumb-sized chunks off the hide (as close to the skin as you can) and pulse blend. For a fine, dry-fly mixture, comb out most of the guard hair and blend only the soft underfur. For a buggy nymph dubbing leave more guard hair.
Need a little more olive color, add some dyed olive fur and reblend. Or add olive yarn cut into half inch pieces and reblend. Keep adding natural and dyed materials until you get the blend that you need.
Want a little sparkle add antron or Z-lon cut into half inch pieces. With synthetic materials you must be very careful not to overblend. Use short pulses and stop when mixed. I always add synthetics last. BTW, Polar Fibre makes some great dubbing and is a wonderful additive to natural fur because it comes in a bunch of different colors.
Above all, experiment, have fun. This is a great chance to be creative.
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it’s a real short camping season.
It is not as fast as the coffee grinder, but you can do it with two heavy duty dog brushes.
ONe thing to do is to keep track of what you use to make each batch. That way if you want to do it again you have the recipie.
That is the voice of experience talking.
Rick
Admittedly wet blending with water and a tiny amount of dishwashing detergent is slower than dry blending but after you drain in a sieve,rinse and dry on a paper towal you’ll have a neat little disc of “felt”. One word of caution, if you blend synthetic yarn-like material be sure to cut it into short lengths and loosen up the stranded sections or they will tangle.
Have fun !
Eight Thumbs, have you no mercy? Another poor soul is now pointing down the road to ruination… <sigh>
I wonder if he will catch up to me. 
Ed
Are coffee grinders more prone to static electricity than the blenders?
How do you deal with the static electricity problem…I haven’t had much luck with the anti static sprays?
I’d suggest these types of yarns as a very inexpensive source of synthetic material…I got mine at Wally World for 25 cents a pack…some brnds can be shinier than others.
Wooly
Member posted 20 December 2005 07:51 AM
Here is a picture of the J&P Coats acrylic yarn. It is softer than another brand that I have which is called Needleloft plastic canvas yarn.
Michael (Wooly) Woolum
State Certified Hunter Education Instructor
Hickory, MS
I see the picture didn’t paste…you can go to wooly’s post…under punch yarn.
If you can find a small pint jar attachment for your blender it will give you a small enough volume to dry mix a reasonable amount of dubbing. Yes I found the plastic coffee grinders to be more prone to static than the glass blender jar.
Jay
Ed,
I do sometimes feel like the street corner pusher who hands out free drugs to newbies. But, if I didn’t do it, someone else would. As far as catching up with us, I think we are both safely ahead of the pack for some time. 8T 
To control the static in the coffee grinder, you can wipe the inside with a dryer sheet before using.
I have some fur that I would like blend if someone is will to do it for me… I just wanting some sparkle add (or flash)… I will send enough to split with who ever will do it for me…
I can also throw in a few flies to boot…
Leonard
Night Angler,
It’s just a suggestion but why not invest $15-20 for a cheap coffee grinder. Thrift stores and garage sales have grinders even cheaper since a lot of people use the grinders once or twice and then go back to canned coffee. This whole dubbing thing is really easy and fun. By the time you spring for postage and wait for the return package, you can be knee deep in dubbing made just the way you want it. 8T
Bingo!
What Eight Thumbs said!! And it’s fun. You can get some sparkle “stuff” from your fly shop and customize a miriad of blends.
It’s really a no-brainer in a coffee grinder. And it takes only a couple minutes.
Jeremy.
I just cut up the antron and other materials (using a sharp scissors), letting them fall onto a prefolded sheet of paper, then sliding the accumulated material into my “Dubbing Box” for blending.
Instructions for making the [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/readerscast/rc66.html:1b956]“Dubbing Box”, (click here)[/url:1b956] and how to use it. ~Parnelli
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 26 January 2006).]
Per Polly Rosborough’s instructions in his book on Fuzzy Nymphs, shear a Muskrat skin for example, put all the hair, guard hairs and all, into the blender jar, add some lukewarm water to cover the fur and a little bit of liquid soap, ( I use liquid Ivory ) run the blender until you think the job is done. Here is where you might learn how much soap to use. The right amount is " not very much " because you might wind up with a table top full of soap suds. You aren’t trying to wash the fur, just break up any surface tension or whatever, and get the fur to mix. Pour the water and fur out into a kitchen strainer. Rinse the blender jar out into the strainer as well. Squeeze the water from the fur, make sure all the soap is rinsed out. Turn the fur out onto a paper towel, and squeeze the fur again between some paper towels. Shape the fur into a flat pancake shape and put it between some more paper towels to dry. Be absolutely sure the fur is completely dry before you store it in a plastic bag or closed container. This will create a felted pancake of fur. From this you can pick out the edges to get the fur you need for dubbin. You can also pick out the guard hairs if you choose. Polly used Muskrat a lot, but I have done this with rabbit hides, otter, fisher and beaver as well. Get Polly’s books and learn how to dub with a " noodle ".
Anybody tied with llama hair? I watched it demonstrated a couple of weeks ago, and it’s really neat stuff. [url=http://www.canadianllama.com/:3d8ac]http://www.canadianllama.com/[/url:3d8ac]
Take a looksee.
Here’s a US distributor.
info@highlinefishing.com
Lew
[This message has been edited by Lew (edited 05 February 2006).]
While I don’t do the blender thing preferring wet blending in a jar instead; any method that incorporates water has the added advantage of letting you see what color the dubbing will be when wet.
No dubbing stays dry unless you fish exclusively in the parking lot .