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| Processed olive hare's mask dubbing. |
I used to waste a lot of
hare’s heads. The masks, natural or dyed, feature a lot of shades &
textures. I’d use up the reddish poll on a natural mask, pull some lug from the
ears for the spiky guard hairs, clip the easy-dubbing cream from the cheeks,
& the rest would pretty much go to waste. There was no uniformity of
coloration in the flies tied from them, as it’s nearly impossible to get the
same blend of furs twice when you’re picking it from a mask. And no two natural
masks are exactly the same. But then I learned a simple process that allows
maximum use of the mask, creating a perfect mix of uniformly colored spiky
dubbing. Here’s how:
Materials you’ll need: a
hare’s mask; a quart jar (canning jar is perfect) with cap; a kitchen strainer;
a paper coffee filter.
Using your spare fly tying
scissors, clip the whiskers from the hare’s mask & save them for mayfly
tails.
Clip the hair from the entire
mask – bend the ears & train the short hairs away with the side of the
scissors while trimming down the ears. Some shave the ears with a single edge
razor blade, but I scraped into the hide too much while attempting it. The
scissors will get it close enough to the skin with negligible waste. Once as
much fur as possible is removed from the mask, worked into a pile on the table,
mix all the fur together until fairly blended.
Fill the mason jar about 2/3
of the way full with warm water; mix in a few drops of hair conditioner; add
dubbing; screw the lid on; shake for about 5 minutes.
Over the sink, pour the
contents of the jar into a screened strainer & rinse with warm water. Press
the mixture in the strainer to remove excess water, then place into a paper
coffee filter & place somewhere to dry. As the mixture dries, break it up
from time to time. When fully dry it may appear clumpy, but the puffs of
dubbing are easily broken.
This process results in a surprising
quantity of perfect, spiky dubbing, of uniform color blend, the guard hairs evenly
distributed throughout.
