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Home Made Materials
Do it yourself materials for your flies

Duck's extended body

Body work: Roger Duckworth shows an innovative and extremely easy technique to make durable extended bodies for mayflies, caddis, and stoneflies, and he shows a way of hackling the dry flies so that the hackle is under the body but above the hook so that it supports the fly more like the natural.
See how it's done here

Cutting and buying zonker strips

Zonker: Here's a description of how to cut zonker strips yourself and some advice on getting the best store bought material - both as strips and whole skins.
Get the tips on zonker strips here

More about "Unsinkable flies"

Unsinkable flies

Floating: David Cowardin's concept for preventing flies from sinking is slightly different - as are his flies. They are different creatures! Most anglers can put a name on them, but the way they are tied... or more like built. Different is not quite enough to say that these are not like your average dry fly.
Learn why here.

Go to the article "Phloating Eyez"

Phloating Eyez

Bella Donna: Eyes as large as tea cups on your flies? And still lightweight and not smashed down by loads of goo on the head? Yes, it's possible! Follow Pete Gray's instructions and your squids and baitfish will be gazing with larger eyes than ever before!
The full story here

Click to go to "Colored Mono Eyes"

Colored Mono Eyes

Five pairs of mono eyes dipped in epoxy for just around 5,50€ or 7$. It sounds like a good business opportunity, but as a consumer it just pushes you to make your eyes your self. On a trip to Fyn this spring two Danes and an American-wanna-be-German made their own.
See how easy it is

Go to the article "The Simplest Fly"

The Simplest Fly

Corked: "What is this"
"A fly!"
"What kind of fly"
"Well, this is a fly that imitates a beetle"
The fly that he showed me then was really huge one, may be about 2 - 2,5 centimeters or almost and inch in diameter.
"Wow, why is it so big?"
"Because I am an old man, I can not see well"
Go simple here

Go to "Eyes of Epoxy"

Eyes of Epoxy

Make your shrimps look well: Tired of buying eyes, that make your shrimps look great? They are expensive and yet it is hard to find the color you want or the right size. It is not complicated and a good pursuit during winter time. Make your own in all sizes and colors you want.
Learn here how to do it

Go to "C&F tube body tool"

C&F tube body tool

Extend yourself: The C&F extended tube body tool is more than two darning needles in a fancy holder. If you - like Dutch Henk Verhaar - like doing it yourself, this might be worth looking into. The flies tied with extended bodies can become very realistic and still be simple to tie.
Read Henk's review here

Read more on "Wash-n-Dry Dubbing"

Wash-n-Dry Dubbing

Dubbing: Make your dry fly dubbing in bulk quantities while washing your clothes! It's that easy! Harvest the fibers that come from you tumble dryer and prepare it for fly tying. Read the whole story by Steve Schweitzer here.

Click to see "Hot melt glue"

Hot melt glue

Burning: Epoxy is out! Hotmelt glue is in! When it comes to tying eggs and MOE blanks, this stuff is the new hot way to do it! Let our own Mad Scientist teach you more...
Learn how to use hot melt glue here

Go to "Brush eyes"

Brush eyes

Salt: Shrimp patterns are always fun to tie. These salt water imitatoins are easy to do and fish well. Martin Joergensen has once again pursued the art of imitating these salt water arthopods - this time utilizing his family's hair brushes! Read the story and find the patterns here.

Click to see "Siman dubbing block"

Turbo Block

Tying tool: Siman Ltd. has taken the Turbo dubbing twister a step further with this tool, which enables you to easily make your own dubbing brushes - stiff or soft and from almost any dubbing material.
Read the review by Martin Joergensen.

Proceed to "Blend your own dubbing" here

Blend your own dubbing

DIY: Almost everyone has the right stuff at their tying bench to make a great batch of dubbing. But not many people know they have everything they need to make an outstanding sealï¿½s fur dubbing substitute. This dubbing is a viable replacement for SLF, angora goat and sealï¿½s fur, and the trick to making it is so simple it will amaze you!

Click to go to "Dyeing material"

Dyeing material

Color: This small section with advice on dyeing fly tying materials was made after a discussion took place on the European fly fishing mailing lis. The text was put together from input from several people of this list: Graham Ward, John Davies, Pat Orpen and myself.

Go to Eyes from pearls

Eyes from pearls
There are other ways than bead chain eyes to make eyes for a fly. Here are two ways: Copper thread and pearls and melted monofile.

Make your own dubbing wax
When I recently reached the bottom of my last tube of Overton's Wonder Wax, I decided to try making my own instead of buying one of the newer commercial dubbing waxes. Like a lot of other tyers I had made my own dubbing wax years ago, but I didn't do it with a critical frame of mind.

Go to Mix your own dubbing

Mix your own dubbing
Making your own or improving store bought dubbing. I recommend that all dubbing be passed through a coffee or spice grinder prior to using. The grinder tends to separate and air out the fibres providing a lighter product than would be normally accomplished by just using the blend out of the bag. By David Allerton

Go to Monofilament eyes

Monofilament eyes
These eyes are actually quite easy to make, but can tease a bit if you want to do them both on the same piece of monofile -- which is the neatest way to do things.

Go to Raising chickens

Raising chickens
From feathers to chickens - and back again. You don't need to raise birds to get feathers, but it's both easy and fun. Here's the story about how I had chickens for eggs, meat and not least feathers

Toilet ring dubbing wax
Here's a quick and simple way to make your own dubbing wax if you don't have the patience or confidence to custom blend your own.

Go to Picric acid

Picric acid
Dyeing with picric acid yields colors between a gorgeous olive and an electric yellow.

Go to Cleaning fly tying material

Cleaning fly tying material
Cleaning tying material Why bother to clean your materials? Bugs, dirt and chemicals are likely on the material By Wayne Luallen

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