I’ve got my eye on a bag of carpet samples at a local thrift…I think they are mostly wool.
Anyone know any patterns where wool is especially good or desirable ?
I’m a believer in the fact that many materials can be substituted in fly patterns but wool has certain properties that probably makes it desirable at times.
wool = dubbing
dubbing is called for on thousands of patterns
be creative and just substitute
The amount of dubbing and yarn I have is obscene…no wool though…so if wool doesn’t have special properties…I don’t need it.
Hi,
You can use wool (when it’s still in strands for yarn) in any pattern calling for cheneil to get a thinner profile. Also, if you pull wool yarn apart into dubbing, you can use it for anything that might call for seal’s fur (although it doesn’t quite have the same translucent quality). I use wool a lot, mostly pulled into dubbing, but keeping it in strands (pulling yarn into individual strands) lets you use it similar to floss. Natural wool is great, very long fibres, and takes dyes well (natural wool stained in the water you boiled brown onions skins in makes a great ginger colour).
Like others have mentioned, it can be used for almost anything from dubbing to tailing or parachutes. I have found that you can go to almost any carpet store and they have sample square boards from outdated carpet that they no longer carry. They will usually give these away. I have 3 or 4 of them that I picked up and each one has 30 2X3 inch squares of carpet in a multitude of colors. I cut the carpet fibers off as I need them and blend my dubbing with loads of different colors to get different effects. Total cost to me $0.00. Loads of fun messing with different fibers and dubbing mixes. Just a thought…
Jim Smith
Carpet samples are really not what you want. Wool fleece you can cut off the skin or wool yarn is better. Royce Damm’s "The Practical Fly Tyer" is a good source on how tp process wool for dubbing.
Also see:
http://www.flytyingforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t7223.html
One of the problems I’ve experienced with wool is that it soaks up so much water that it tends to make flies a bit heavy to cast and the wools stays wet long enough to cause rusting problems in the fly box. That is part of the reason that I switched over to synthetic fibers for many dubbing applications. There are certainly applications for almost every material depending on what you’re trying to acheive. If you want sheep skin with the wool on it, you can find them a lot of different places like here: http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=6997823
Jim Smith
I have an unlimited amount of wool yar that is multi-ply. I often pull off one ply and wrap it on bigger nymphs for an underbody (like a thin chenille). Over that I dubb my normal hares ear or other dubbing. It makes things move along faster.
Carpet samples as others have noted are indeed good for dubbing. Just snip off and chop up in a coffee grinder. For a range of wool in a dozen or so colors go here and order free samples. http://www.rmsheepskin.com/order.htm
The patch you get is the same size as what fly shops sell as sculpin wool. The only difference is the sculpin wool is combed out where these fleece samples are not. Between me and 2 family members I ordered all the colors. 
Didn’t cost me a penny.
By the way, get used coffee grinders at your local thrift store. I bought one for $1.91. I’ve never seen them for more than $3 and they always have several on the shelf.
Duck: I took a look at Han’s site & found some patterns I thought interesting.
Tim
Panman,
I just went to Hans’ site, typed in wool in the search engine and came up with 123 places to look at. I do like that feature on his site.
REE
Not to hijack this thread but some folks in my family have just added a brown alpaca and a white alpaca to their family of animals.
The purpose is to raise their own continuous supply of knitting yarn. My question is whether there is anything unique about alpaca hair that relates to fly tying and should I plan on asking for scraps?
Ray,
While not particularly ‘unique’ Alpaca hair (wool) is great stuff for the fly tyer.
The longer hair common to these animals, which is one reason it’s so sought after by yarn makers, lets us tie longer streamers and such with it. It also makes great bodies and tails.
I prefer loose or ‘unspun’ hair when I can get it. Natural colors of this wool have that nice color variation seen in most natural materials. With the already spun yarns, many are too thick to use as is, but it can be unraveled and combed out easily.
This stuff absorbs water well, which makes it ideal for bodies on nymphs. You can tie in a small bunch of loose hair, twist it into a tight ‘rope’ and wrap it for a body. Gives nice segmentation and is easier and faster than dubbing. By mixing the diffferent colors, you can get some nice effects.
I do a lot of arts and craft fairs each year, and I run into a few spinners and yarn sellers at these events. I’m always getting scraps and samples from them. I’ve taken to trading with them if I see a particularly nice color or texture.
Take all you can use.
Buddy