Thanks for the link to the vid, Blue. I just have a basic Griffin clamp-on vise. Holds hooks fine, but doesn't rotate. So far, my dubbing loops have been short, mainly tying #14 and #12 dries. I still have to use both hands to wrap, doing the hand-off each wrap. Bobbin hanging down from near the hook eye has always been a problem for me, getting in the way. Its easy to see how I can make a separate bobbin holder easily enough (on a weighted stand) so as to keep my bobbin out of the way while I'm wrapping the loop. I won't have that little extension bar (on the rotary vise in the vid) in the way to hinder my hand-offs. One of these days I should get a rotary vise!
Honestly, making dubbing loops is the reason I use the rotary function of my vise. Other than that, almost everything I do could be accomplished just as easily on any vise. . . .but I do a lot of dubbing loops!!
Absolutely. Me too. That is why I suggest rotary to newbies. Because you can do both. I like the dubbing loop tool that looks like a wire W...;-)
I have a nasty time with dubbing. Most wends up on the floor and my dog tracks in the house much to the sergrein of the wife. I've looked at a few you-tubes but all seems magic to me. Best I can do is rap a few turns around the dumbbell eyes of my signature series Redheaded Winged Splat.
Thanks for the link Blue. I watched it several times and decided it didn't look too hard so I went to the fly shop and picked up a dubbing loop tool, along with some more dubbings. I couldn't find any wax there or at Walmart, so I haven't used any yet. Got home and played around with it a bit. The loop itself is pretty simple and I can tell I will be using this technique more and more. I was playing around trying to achieve something along the lines of a Hale Bopp but couldn't get my body to look..... "straggly" enough? My body keeps looking way too tight, not all hairy like those nice leech patterns look. I've tried picking the dubbing out some, but didn't have any velcro sitting around the house to do it like the video. Not sure if I'm using the wrong kind of dubbing, or just need to tweak my technique a bit.
The stuff I just used was called larva lace mohair plus. Also tried some stuff earlier called scintilla that really didn't work. This larva lace stuff is better but I still think I must be doing something wrong
I don't know if they show this in the vid, as I have not watched it again, but I take a clump of dubbing and keep pulling it between my point finger and thumb of each hand. Pulling as in straightening a piece of paper. Try to get the fibers all facing the sam direction, then I place them in the loop so it looks like hackle more or less. Twist then wrap, while brushing fibers back each turn so as to not wrap on top of the fibers. But velcro will make it bushy.
