Coffee grinder

[Brennan]

Using the Coffee grinder.

In this step by step, I wish to highlight the usefulness of using a coffee grinder for mixing dubbing. I am by no means an expert, I only got the coffee grinder a week ago, but it has made the task of making hares ear dubbing a lot easier!

The materials: Coffee grinder (from ebay for abot 20 quid), hares mask (in this case treated with Picric acid), bags for storing the dubbing and a small pot (not necessary but useful).



The whole point of putting the dubbing through the coffee grinder is to break up the dubbing and make it more uniform when it comes to tying the fly. I used to break up the dubbing by hand but this wasn’t very effective and if I were mixing the fur with the likes of antron, it wasn’t very uniform. Using the coffee grinder eliminates all these problems. Here is a batch of hare’s fur cut from the cheeks of the hares mask. It isn’t very uniform and wouldn’t make good dubbing in the present state.



After a few short bursts on the coffee grinder the fur has fluffed up nicely. The dubbing is more uniform and easier to manage. You literally need to mix the dubbing for only 10 seconds. At this stage you can add a bit of Ice Dub or anything else to enhance the dubbing in the way you want it.



I then bag the dubbing and label it for future reference. In this close up, you can see that the dubbing is much more uniform and easier to manage. This process saves a lot of time in the long run as you will always have the dubbing ready when you need it.



I mixed up various colours from different hares masks and bagged them for future use. The bags shown only took about 10 minutes to knock up and will last for ages. You can put anything through the coffee grinder to make dubbing. The only limit is your imagination.



Many people recommend that you put all your dubbing through a grinder as it adds air to the dubbing making it lighter and easier to dub and control.
Take a look at the bottom of this page for some useful dubbing mixes:
http://www.globalflyfisher.com/tiebe...bing/index.htm

I hope you find this thread useful for your fly tying.

Brennan

[scotfly]

Well done Brennan, those who have not used the coffee grinder should find this useful.

I got mine from Robert Dyas, about £10.00. Could only find one on their website, £17.99

http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/webapp/w...cache_entry=-1

[thewickedpickett]

superb steven been meaning to get a grinder but always wondered if it was worth it. it most definitely is

incidentally, what do you use to take the fur from a hares mask?

[scotfly]

Originally Posted by thewickedpickett

superb steven been meaning to get a grinder but always wondered if it was worth it. it most definitely is

incidentally, what do you use to take the fur from a hares mask?

Once you get one you will wonder how you managed without it!

[Brennan]

Originally Posted by thewickedpickett

incidentally, what do you use to take the fur from a hares mask?

I use a pair of curved scissors. I also use them for most of my flytying. When I cut the fur from the mask, I try not to trim too close to the skin as you will get loads of unwanted underfur, a little of this fur is good though.

These are the scissors I use, (although they don't have the curved pair for sale) here. Good quality scissors at a very low price.

Hope this helps,
Brennan

[thewickedpickett]

thanks steven, ironically i have those very scissors. have you ever came across fur rakes for hares masks?

[Brennan]

I have a fur rake, but I've never used it for hares ear as I haven't needed to. I bought it for acquiring rabbit underfur from a patch of rabbit skin for tying up Grey Dusters. I also use it for muskrat underfur.
Have you used it for hares ear?

Brennan

[thewickedpickett]

nope, but i've always wondered if it makes the job any easier. i find theres a lot of waste when using scissors????

might well just be me

[Brennan]

I just cut off lumps and bung it all in the grinder and it comes out good. I like to put a bit of underfur from the cheeks into the mix to lighten the colour. If you like it a bit darker, take the fur from the face, ears or forehead. Mixing the cheeks and the face gives a nice hares ear colour.

Brennan

[Dapper]

Using a coffee grinder is not a new thing for "mixing". DAVE COLLYER mentioned it in one of his books back in the early 1970. The only trouble is , it can not be used for coffee as there will be bits of fur left in it no matter how well you clean it.
Dapper
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