Thanks for sharing! I now have my first ever batch of home-prepared tying materials about dry and ready for use. It's been another method to increase the satisfaction of completing a bug. Please let me know if you're interested in any of the streamers, dries, or nymphs I produce with them!
Kev
From: "Joyce Westphal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [VFB] washing skins - Joyce
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 18:56:44 -0700
To do bucktail, here's how I do it:
Taking my filleting knife tip or a scalpel blade or razor blade, I slit
the tail down to the bone. Then I use my fingers (I wear rubber gloves) and
peel the tailbone out of the skin. I make a solution of Dawn dishwashing
liquid and give the tail with the skin on it a thorough washing. If there is
blood..use cold water and use perioxide until the blood comes up. Sometimes
I add about a 1/4 cup of Chlorox bleach to about 1/2 gallon of water and use
that as well as it gets rid of any grime and whitens the hair a bit. Then I
rinse very well in cold running water, finish with Downy rinse (capful to
about 1/2 gallon) and rinse the Downy out. Then I squeeze all the water out
of the tail and wipe the skin part with paper towels. If I don't need the
bucktail right away, I have best luck to lay it so that the skin side is up
and the hair underneath but laid nice and flat and cover it with Borax after
tacking it to a piece of heavy cardboard or board. I put more Borax on each
day until it gets entirely dry. I don't put these in the dryer as they tend
to not come out very well..the skin is too thick on tails. If I need it
right away, I will dry it with the hair dryer..takes a while, and also rub
Borax into the skin, but tack it with the Borax on thick, with the skin side
down and use the hair as I need it. when finished with this run of flies, I
turn the skin over and dry it with the skin side out. I'm sure others have
other ways of doing this. This works well for me. Joyce
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