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Hare?s Ears *

Started by Traditionalist, February 01, 2007, 03:41:16 AM

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Traditionalist

Hare fur is far more complex than many people realise, and it?s many uses are a result of this complexity.

The simplest, quickest, method of obtaining the best light dubbing, is to cut the tips off the hair.  This is the part of the hair which waterproofs and otherwise protects the animal. But this is very wasteful, and also severely limits the blend shades and types one may obtain. It will still be mottled and spiky, but predominantly the same colour as the guard hair tips. It will not soak up any water at all, and floats like a cork. It is also springy and spiky.

Most patterns however call for darker hair.Most especially the "Gold Ribbed Hare?s Ear". The dubbing usually commercially supplied for this, and called "hare?s ear dubbing" is shaved and blended body hair which is quite unsuitable for that pattern. It is too light in colour because all the underfur is in the mix, it soaks up water, and it is often far too long in the staple. ( The staple is the average length of the longest hairs in the mix).

Indeed, as a rule, there is no "hare?s ear" in the commercial dubbing at all, the mask with ears is always sold separately, because that is mainly  what people buy if they don?t buy a packet or box of the other stuff, which is usually mixed with plastic of unknown antecedents, which for all I know might be ground up old carpets!

Or does anybody seriously imagine that the suppliers scrape the ears and then discard the rest?  =)

Buying "ready mixed"  "hare?s ear dubbing" is a total waste of money, as there is no way of knowing what is in it, or what to use it for. If you can?t get a piece of pelt, then buy antron. At least you know that will work. It may not be as effective, you can?t tie excellent dry flies with it, and  you can not alter it?s texture, but apart from that it is probably all right! =)

This is a bunch of hare body fur from about the middle of the back of the animal from a winter pelt. This is an old jack hare. ( a male).

The bunch was selected by grasping a bunch with the fingers, like this, and cutting it off with scissors, as close to the pelt as possible;


This is the resulting bunch;


To use this sensibly for various things, it must be separated into it?s component parts. Here is that bunch reduced to its components by cutting the tips off, cutting the middle part off, ( which is very dark, almost black) and leaving the underfur with the guard hair roots;



One may also separate the guard hairs by separating the underfur and the guard hair from the bunch. This is done by simply pulling the underfur from the bunch with the fingers. This results in a bunch of long guard hairs like this, ( this guard hair is going to be used as a hackle on a dry fly), and the underfur on the right;



It should be noted that there is a lot more underfur than guard hair!

One might also simply cut this guard hair into smaller pieces and use it as dubbing. This will give a darker dubbing with a greyish tint, because the guard hair itself has these three shades of hair along it?s length.  This dubbing will be spiky, and it will shed water easily.

The underfur may be used, but unless very tightly dubbed, ( and also treated with a floatant) it will soak up water like a sponge.

Many old time dressers merely used the "flax" which is the light yellow/brown/red/black  guard hair tips, and discarded the rest.

I often use the whole length of the guard hair for hackling dry flies, and the "flax" for dubbing the bodies.

One may also mix the flax and the "middle cut"  ( the dark hair), from the guard hair, in whatever proportions required to get the shade one is aiming for. This is then more or less identical to the hair which one obtains by scraping the ears, which have no underfur, just the tips ( very short on the ears) and the "middle cut", which is why the dubbing from the ears is darker. This is also considerably easier than scraping about for little return on mummified ears! =

Other blends are also possible such as the flax with the underfur. This gives an easily dubbed mixture which will go on tight, but still have some nice spiky guard hairs. This will then of course be a much lighter shade. One may also simply use the underfur which takes dye very well ( pantone marker)is very soft, and can be cut into small peices for "touch" dubbing. But this is quite useless for dry flies. Even with floatant it will sink fairly quickly.

The actual colours and shades involved vary according to where on the animal the fur is selected. This may vary from light grey through yellow to red to chestnut to dark brown or black guard hair tips, and the rest coloured accordingly.  The underfur also varies considerably, but on the back for instance is a more or less uniform light grey colour.

The whole thing also varies with the season when the animal was culled, it?s sex, and it?s state of maturity. Old jack hares give the finest dubbing, and the greatest variety.

There is a great deal more to be said about it, but those are the basics.

In order to select dubbing for a specific function, floating sinking, spiky smooth, or a blend of these,  one has to select and mix the various furs properly, or it wont work. Hardly anybody even knows how to do it, or why any more, they just buy a plastic box or a polythene packet with a label on it which says "hare?s ear dubbing".

Here is a dry fly ( sunk abdomen emerger) Using guard hair as hackle, and blended guard hair as a thorax. ( The abdomen is stripped peacock quill);


This fly uses guard hair for the wings, blended guard hair for the thorax, and blended flax with  light underfur ( the darker fur is removed)for the abdomen;


This combination defines the fly?s function.
Here are three hare pelts from winter animals, two jacks and a doe;




This is a piece of partially used pelt which shows the make-up of the fur;



TL
MC

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