I have just recently got serious about tying my own flies. I have tied woolly buggers and soft hackles for years. Branching out to hair wings I find that many people use calf body hair instead of tail material. How do you find calf body hair long enough to use! I comb it out and there is nothing left! I have resorted to deer hair. Hope that is kosher. Any other suggestions for hair wing material? Thanks
Midstream
Midstream,
When you buy a calf tail, find one that has the straightest hair towards the tip. When tying, grasp the hair and hold out at a 90* angle from the bone and cut at the base of the hair. Put the scissors down and wiggle the fingers holding the hair so that you have the tips between your fingers. Now squeeze hard and with the free hand grasp the hair. Pull the hairs in opposite directions.One hand will have the longer hairs and the other will have the shorter hairs. You can now do one of two things: 1)If you have enough long hairs you can put them in a stacker and align the tips; or 2)add some of the shorter hair to the long hair by aligning the tips, squeezing the tips again and pulling out more shorter hair.
Calf tail hair is dense so you probably don’t need as much as you may think.
Good luck.
Allan
Sorry Allan…here I go again…
Good discussion of calf TAIL but isn’t he asking about calf Body?
I don’t use much body but isn’t he trying to do something with it better done with the calf tail…or something else?
Calf body hair works very well for wings and stacks very easily compared to calf tail.
I use both and at first had the same problem you have. I only have one local sorce for tying material. When I purchased that first patch it was of short hair and it was very crinked.
I kept an eye out after that and finally my supplier got more in. The next patch I purchased was plenty long enough and very straight when compared to calf tail.
So, the hair is available in the right length for wings, you just have to find it.
Having said all of this I do prefer the calf tail after learning a few tricks for stacking it to get even wing tips.
I prefer the calf tail because of how it looks on a finished fly, the body hair is still easier to work with.
Hope this helps. -Yaf
duckster - Actually, you’re right and thanks for pointing that out. I misread ‘midstream’s’ post. Guess my mind, what’s left of it, is going faster than my eyes.
midstream - Sorry about my reference to the wrong material. The calf BODY hair I’ve seen isn’t very long and is kinda soft. I’ve seen it used for wings but hardly ever see it used for tails.
Allan
I use a lot of calf body hair for tying wings on dry flies. I got tired of trying to find good calftails. I got a piece of calf body hair like I wanted to use and bought a whole hide from a wholsale company I deal with. I sent them the piece and told them if most of the hide was not at least that long I didn’t want it. Took a bit but I got a great skin. The hair is about 1 1/2 inchs long over all and that is a good length.
For you I would suggest going through the bags they have in a store and if they won’t let you do it go elseewere. Or do as I did and send a piece that is what you want to a big outlet and see if they can fill it for you. Or try Chris Helm’s I bet he can get hair long enough for you.
One other thing to look at is goat hair. I have some that is just great. about 2 inchs long and stright. Makes great wings on flies. Ron
Thanks guys, I will try all these things. I am getting some very good experience trying the different materials. I appreciate your help!
Ron,
I was going to make the point that actually I like the kinkiness[word?] of the calf tail because I think it’s more like wings …and I don’t find stacking a problem…
I can see where a “volume” tyer would not like searching for calftails…
Let me ask you this …if you could have the same volume of calf tail and body hair… for MOST wings… which would you pick?
Is straight the best?
Body hair. I think it makes the fly look better and I know that the fish do not care which you use.
I also should say that I have special hair stackers that I can stack one dozen wings in at a time and I have three of them. It makes it a lot faster tying hair wings this way. If someone would want calftail wing’s then I would have no problem doing them for an order. But I have found that most people don’t care as long as the fly is well tied. Ron
I am looking for a good source for Impala Tail, for tying some Quack Coachman’s!
~Parnelli 
I like to use calf body for flies size 18 and smaller, calf tail for flies larger than 16.
The calf body stacks better for the small ones and is a little easier to handle in small bunches.
The calf tail is much longer andhas more kinks, this provides a more bushy look for the bigger flies. One great tip I found was to use some anti-static spray (Cling-Free) on the calf tail, this makes it much easier to stack.