Deer

[Traditionalist]

Deer, to the fly-dresser.refers to a large number of various animals and types of hair. The use of deer hair requires knowledge of the material and its properties. Nowadays it is used for a very large number of patterns and purposes. Even beginning to explain these would be impossible here. If you wish to dress patterns using this material, then I would suggest an extensive search on it, before you begin. The wrong hair, either will not work at all for various techniques,or be unsuitable for the pattern in question, as a result of its properties.

Here are just a few types of deer hair used for various things. I will describe the hair and its use in time, but I will have to gather all my notes on it together, as I just don´t know this information off by heart, and I have to look it up myself when I want to use deer hair, unless the type is specified in the pattern, or it happens to be one of the types I know about!. These are the most common types. I also have a large selection of European deer hair, as I bought a few whole hides. The type of hair also depends on its location on the animal. If you buy bits, in order to dress specific flies, then you are more or less entirely dependent on a knowledgeable dealer sending you the right stuff!