fox tail fur....

[castafly]

I am having a difficult time tying with silver fox tail. I am trying to tie the foxie red by clouser. I know he calls for red fox..at this point I only have silver fox. I am brushing out the underfur and I am still finding it difficult to get neat heads. The material is flat out frustrating me. I guess it could be the size of hook I am using. I am using size 8 S/S. hook from mustad. Will the red fox tail be easier? any points will help.

Greg

[fessiewig]

Fox tail (any kind) is what I would call a "hard" hair. It's dense and tends to easily roll on the hook. A couple of things; make sure you have a thread base to tie on. Next, after you've gotten all the under fur out of the base of the bunch of fur you're tying with cut the fur fibers at an angle, kinda like a wedge. This will help when you're forming the head. And lastly, use a multi strand thread. This will allow you to "spin" the bobbin and unwind the thread. You do this so the thread is no longer "round", but flat. This will also help in tying that wing on. Oh yeah, place the fox tail on the hook and take two "loose" wraps. On the third wrap, once you get the thread over the top, pull the thread straight down and sinch it up. The wing should stay right where you put it.

I hope that was clear enough.

[castafly]

Thanks for the help. cutting the material at an angle helped a lot.