Moose Hair

Some of you may know that I tie trout flies. These bug imitations for fly fishing are made with all kinds of natural and synthetic fibres, hairs, and feathers. Back in the fall, a fellow at work who is a hunter mentioned to me that he was going moose hunting - was I interested in some hair for fly tying? There are two types of hair on a moose - the body hair and the mane. Fly tyers use the body hair for tails, body material and for some wings, particularly on stonefly patterns. The mane, which consist of hollow hairs, can be used for bodies on mayfly patterns.

I received two patches of body hair. It was in good shape, but still it needed to be cured, or tanned. There are a number of ways of going about this. The method I used is as follows. First, I packed the patches of hair in rock salt and let it sit for about three weeks. I then submerged the patches in a mixture of water, rock salt, and alum, and let it sit for another three weeks. Today I took the hair out of the salt / alum mixture, washed it, cut it into smaller patches with an exacto knife, and set it on paper towels, hair-side down, to dry out. Hair prepared in this manner is well-preserved, but the skin gets hard and fairly inflexible - perfect for fly tyers.