Introduction to Deer Hair

Bench Notes No. 1 · Lee H. Blanton · L.H. Blanton Benchworks

A bench reference for selecting, preparing, placing, packing, shaping, and finishing deer hair. Read the construction sequence before using the condensed reference entries. The pattern application is published separately as Bench Notes No. 2, Backwater Retriever.

Deer Hair As A Structural Material

The label tells you where the hair came from. The clean clump tells you what it can do.

Schematic midshaft comparison. Proportions vary with season, animal, and collection site.

View illustration at full size

Figure 1. Midshaft comparison of body and belly hair. The broad, cellular medulla contains many air spaces rather than one empty tube. Proportions change with season, animal, location, and the individual patch.

What Matters at the Vise

A deer-hair shaft carries a cuticle outside, a supporting cortex beneath it, and a broad medulla through the center. Under thread pressure the shaft bends and partly collapses. The free ends move outward. That is flare. Once the clump is secured, those yielding shafts can be pushed together. That is what gives good hair its packing value. [4-6]

Usual range

Body Hair: Very broad, from fine wing hair to coarse spinning hair

Belly Hair: Often selected for long, stout, strongly compressible fibers

Color

Body Hair: Natural tan, brown, gray, or mixed; dyes may read quieter

Belly Hair: White-to-cream base often takes bright, clean dye

Best use

Body Hair: Wings, collars, muddlers, sliders, divers, and many heads

Belly Hair: Dense bass-bug heads, vivid color blocks, broad carved planes

Common mistake

Body Hair: Assuming body hair is too fine or too weak

Belly Hair: Assuming every belly patch is prime spinning hair

House check

Body Hair: Clean, inspect, compress, and grade

Belly Hair: The same check. Origin never replaces behavior

The Useful Comparison

Good belly hair often makes large warmwater work easier. It offers color, volume, and broad fibers that hold a trimmed plane. Good body hair may do the same job, and some belly hair will not. Open the patch, part the coat, cut a sample, remove the underfur, and judge its useful length, shaft size, soundness, and response to compression. Buy and grade the behavior, not the package copy.

BENCH RULE Scientific anatomy explains why hair can work. Careful inspection and handling show whether the patch in your hand suits the fly in front of you.

Season, Patch Variation, And Grading

A hide changes by inches. Treat every patch as its own piece of material.

Season and Location

Winter guard hair grows over dense underfur. Supplier terms such as mid-season and late-season are useful sorting language: mid-season hair commonly runs shorter and finer, while late-season hair commonly runs longer, thicker, and more strongly medullated. They are tendencies, not promises. [7,14]

Shoulder, flank, rump, back, and belly can differ in length, diameter, stiffness, tip shape, color, and underfur. The center of a patch may tie differently from the edge. Tanning, bleaching, dyeing, storage, and repeated handling change it again. Mark a good working zone instead of pretending the whole patch is equal.

Seven-Minute Patch Check

1. Look across the whole patch.

Note average length, curl, broken tips, thin areas, underfur, and visible changes from edge to center.

2. Cut a small clump close to the hide.

Hold the tips and remove every strand of underfur, short waste, and broken material.

3. Roll the clean clump between thumb and forefinger.

Sound packing hair should yield without feeling brittle or papery.

4. Part the cleaned clump at the base and compare shaft diameter and usable length.

Make sure enough sound hair remains after the underfur and short waste are removed.

5. Bend and compress the clean clump between thumb and forefinger.

Note whether the shafts yield evenly, spring apart, or feel brittle and papery.

6. Match that behavior to the intended fly.

Choose longer, fuller hair for buoyant carved work and a more moderate patch where the head should sit lower or admit water.

7. Record the job the patch does well.

A material card should name the working zone, usable length, tie response, and best pattern family.

Prime for the job

Bench Meaning: Long enough after cleaning, sound, consistent, predictable under thread, and willing to pack or remain open as required

Serviceable

Bench Meaning: Usable with more sorting, smaller clumps, or a marked working zone

Special-purpose

Bench Meaning: Excellent for a narrow job such as a collar or open streamer head, but not for dense carving

Reject for structure

Bench Meaning: Brittle, shedding, severely curled, too short, thin across the hide, or inconsistent enough to defeat repeatability

HOUSE STANDARD The best patch is not the most expensive patch. It is the one whose behavior is known and matched to the structure being tied.

Tools, Thread, And Clump Preparation

A simple bench lets the hands stay ahead of the material.

Vise

Purpose: Hold the hook without slip

Bench Standard: Keep the point, gap, underside, and eye visible

Bobbin and strong thread

Purpose: Locate and compress hair

Bench Standard: Use a smooth tube; flatten GSP when a broader pressure band is needed

Comb or rake

Purpose: Remove underfur and waste

Bench Standard: Clean every clump before it reaches the hook

Hair stacker

Purpose: Align natural tips

Bench Standard: Use it only when the tips define the finished profile

Hair packer

Purpose: Move a completed stack

Bench Standard: Push straight along the shank, never against a loose clump

Scissors

Purpose: Clear eyes and refine transitions

Bench Standard: Keep one sharp pair for hair work

Double-edge razor

Purpose: Establish broad planes

Bench Standard: Use a fresh blade, shallow passes, and a rigid sharps container

Bodkin

Purpose: Place adhesive and finish

Bench Standard: Work finish into the structure instead of painting clipped ends

Steamer

Purpose: Reset compressed fibers

Bench Standard: One controlled cycle is usually enough

Prepare the Hair Before the First Wrap

1. Cut close to the hide and preserve the full working length.

2. Hold the natural tips and remove underfur, short waste, and broken fibers until the butt ends are clean enough for direct thread contact.

3. Decide which end matters.

Preserve tips for movement and collars. Orient the color boundary and working length for a trimmed head.

4. Reduce the bundle until it can be cleaned completely, held without twisting, and placed without asking thread pressure to correct the hand.

Arrange the Working Zone

Keep the comb, prepared clumps, packer, scissors, and bobbin inside the dominant hand's natural reach. Razors remain wrapped until shaping begins, and every used blade goes into a rigid container. Loctite Gel and Flexament belong at a separate, ventilated finishing station. They serve different jobs: the gel secures the eyes, while Flexament coats and penetrates the finished body. The next tool should be ready before the material reaches the hook.

BENCH RULE Clean hair takes less force, packs with more certainty, and gives the thread a fair chance to do its work.

Foundation, Thread Control, And Obstructions

Durability begins below the part of the fly anyone admires.

Build the Platform First

Dave Whitlock treated a large warmwater fly as one structure. His hard-mono foundation broadens the shank, resists rotation, and gives the tail, body, back, and deer hair a durable platform. Lightly texture the shank, lay a close thread base through a thin adhesive coat, secure one straight mono rail on each side, cover them completely, align them, coat the assembly, and let it cure before tying. [8-10]

Containment Before Force

Early wraps gather and locate the clump. Later pressure bends the shafts until they flare and lock. Place at least three loose wraps in one compact plane. Hold the hair. Predict the direction of torque. Then increase pressure smoothly. A sudden hard pull cuts hair, rolls the clump, or both.

Thread shape

What The Hand Should Feel: Flat enough to spread pressure; not corded into a cutting edge

Loose wraps

What The Hand Should Feel: Together at one tie-in plane, containing the clump without deciding its final position

Torque

What The Hand Should Feel: Expected before the bobbin travels under the hook

Working pressure

What The Hand Should Feel: Shafts yielding and flaring before final tension is reached

Clump size

What The Hand Should Feel: Large enough to build useful volume, small enough to clean and control

Front reserve

What The Hand Should Feel: Enough room for the last deliberate clump and a compact finish

Work Around What Is Already on the Hook

Eyes, mono rails, body materials, and other fixed parts divide the available space. Do not force one large bundle around an obstruction. Split the hair into sections that fit above, below, and beside it, then use the same narrow thread plane and progressive pressure on each section. Andersson and Galloup both demonstrate this principle around fixed eyes. [3,18]

Four Questions Before Pressure

Is the clump clean from the tips to the exposed butt ends? Is it small enough to place without distortion and large enough to do useful work? Are the loose wraps together where the stack belongs? Do I know where thread torque will move the hair?

HOUSE PRINCIPLE Pressure should finish a good placement. It should never be used to rescue poor preparation.

Spinning, Stacking, And The Controlled 360 Stack

Choose the method by the architecture the water needs, not by habit.

Spin

Strength: Fast distribution around the shank

Best Fit: Single-color bands, collars, general hair bugs

Common Failure: Unmanaged torque, trapped underfur, color drift

Stack

Strength: Exact color and volume placement

Best Fit: Dense heads, deliberate bellies and backs

Common Failure: Oversized clumps, wide wraps, unbalanced top and bottom

Set and flare

Strength: Preserves tips and open movement

Best Fit: Streamer heads, wings, and collars

Common Failure: Too much pressure, crushed movement, cut fibers

Building a Lower-and-Upper Stack

This is a standard deer-hair stack, a method fly tyers have used for many years. Bench Notes No. 1 presents it as a controlled lower-and-upper stack because that order makes the balance visible before the razor ever touches the head. The thread stays at one tie-in plane until the intended hair surrounds the hook. Only then is the stack locked, packed, and followed by the next one.

1. Clean and size the lower clump.

Place it on top of the hook and make three loose wraps at the chosen tie-in point.

2. Carry the bobbin around the hook and use the contained thread path to move the lower clump beneath the shank.

Center it on the bottom.

3. Press the loose wraps from above while the thumb and middle finger control the hair.

Increase pressure until the lower clump flares and locks.

4. Place the first upper clump directly above at the same thread plane.

Make three loose wraps, align the color and tips, then cinch without letting the clump roll.

5. Add the remaining upper volume at that same point.

Finish one placement before beginning another.

6. Use one securing wrap through the completed stack, then place locking wraps on clean shank directly in front.

MEMORY SEQUENCE Clean. Orient. Three loose wraps. Position. Press. Cinch. Complete the stack. Lock. Pack. Advance.

What Completion Looks Like

There is no bare seam around the shank. The belly has enough volume to support the head. The top is full without becoming top-heavy. The entire stack moves rearward as one unit, and the locking wraps sit on bare shank. Do not advance the thread until those conditions are true.

From below

What A Balanced Stack Shows: A filled belly with no exposed seam and enough volume to support the underside cut

From above

What A Balanced Stack Shows: Upper clumps centered over the hook without one color or side rolling away

From the front

What A Balanced Stack Shows: Hair distributed around the shank, not piled on top or thin on one side

Under the packer

What A Balanced Stack Shows: The complete stack moves rearward together and stops against the material behind it

Packing, Density, And Space Management

A head is built one completed stack at a time. The hook eye is saved the same way.

Pack Before Advancing

Packing closes the space between tie-in points and turns separate clumps into one structure. Complete the section, lock it, hold thread tension, and push straight along the shank. Stop when the stack has the density the fly requires and remains stable. Inspect for unintended gaps. Then advance only one to two thread widths. Whitlock used firm packing on spun bodies, while Cohen's Fugly Packer is designed to apply greater pressure to dense sculptural heads. The packing principle is longstanding; the finished fly decides how far the packing should go. [8,9,13]

Dense and Open Are Both Correct

Not every deer-hair fly should be packed extremely dense. Density is a design choice. For a fly that must float high and recover quickly, pack the hair firmly and leave enough buoyant volume to support it. For a fly meant to sit lower, suspend, or admit water, use less hair and less packing pressure. Dense hair holds carved planes and resists collapse. A more open structure sits lower, breathes, and moves with less resistance. A high-floating bass bug, a suspending deer-hair fly, and an open streamer collar should not be packed to the same standard. Density belongs to the action of the finished fly. [14-17]

Float high and recover quickly

Build This Way: Use clean, buoyant hair, complete stacks, narrow tie-ins, and firm packing

Sit lower or suspend

Build This Way: Use less hair and lighter packing so water can enter the structure

Hold a firm face or diving plane

Build This Way: Pack firmly enough for the trimmed plane to keep its shape

Wake softly

Build This Way: Reduce frontal area and preserve a smooth taper

Breathe and collapse

Build This Way: Set and flare a lighter collar; preserve natural tips and intentional space

Carry a color boundary

Build This Way: Stack deliberately and balance lower and upper volume before packing

Preserve the Eye from the Rear Forward

Keep every tie-in point narrow. Spread wraps spend shank faster than hair does. Pack while the stack is still under control. A loose stack steals room twice. Reduce clump size toward the eye. The final clump should be the most deliberate, not the largest. Stop the foundation and body where the head is supposed to end. Leave only enough bare shank for a compact finish. Too much reserve makes an empty nose; too little buries the eye.

Read the Rear Dam

The first stack needs something square and firm behind it. A compact body tie-off, collar base, or prepared thread dam keeps the stack from sliding into the tail. If the first stack leans, inspect the transition behind it before adding more hair.

BENCH RULE Packing cannot repair underfur, an oversized clump, a wide thread plane, or space already spent.

Trimming, Head Geometry, And Water Function

Find the eye, establish the top, and keep the color pattern adjustable until it is right.

Find the Eye, Then Trim the Top

Begin by finding and clearing the hook eye. I usually use a razor blade, but a sharp pair of scissors will do the same job. Then trim the top. This reveals whether the stacked colors are centered while the fly can still be rotated in the vise and adjusted. Cut the underside flat first and that reference is fixed; rotate the fly afterward and the belly will be out of square.

Broad Planes Before Details

1. Locate and clear the hook eye with careful razor cuts or a sharp pair of scissors.

2. Establish the top plane or curve in relation to the hook, the color pattern, and the intended retrieve.

3. Check the colors from above and the front.

If they are uneven, rotate the fly until the division is centered; then cut the underside flat and confirm the hook gap remains open.

4. Cut the side profiles symmetrically, alternating sides instead of finishing one side at a time.

5. Define the rear width and the transition into the body, collar, or tail.

6. Shape the face last.

Work from the perimeter toward the center so a quiet wedge does not become an accidental cup.

7. Use curved scissors for corners, color edges, and small corrections.

Stop, rotate the fly, and look again before the last cut.

Bullet or cone

Water Result: Lower frontal resistance, quieter entry, easier pickup

Wedge

Water Result: Directed displacement and a steady push

Broad wedge

Water Result: Stronger surface signal and a fuller pressure wave

Cupped face

Water Result: Pop, spit, and pronounced disturbance

Diver plane

Water Result: Dives on the strip and recovers on the pause

Open streamer head

Water Result: Admits water, collapses, breathes, and sends a softer signal

Steam Once, Then Read the Hair

One controlled steam cycle may reset fibers compressed by packaging or tying. Steam the untrimmed head, let the fibers stand, then cut. Steam does not fix a weak tie-in, missing density, or poor symmetry.

Top

Final Check: Are both side profiles equal, and does the head narrow on the centerline?

Side

Final Check: Does the face, crown, belly, and rear transition match the intended retrieve?

Front

Final Check: Is the face square, angled, or cupped by intention rather than accident?

Underside

Final Check: Is the plane flat, the hook gap open, and the lower color or volume balanced?

HOUSE CUTTING RULE Find the eye. Trim the top. Correct the color alignment. Set the belly. Then cut the sides, transitions, face, and final details.

Legs, Eyes, Finish, And Durability

Finishing should strengthen sound construction without disguising it.

Choose the Leg Method for the Pattern

I sew rubber legs through the finished head on many flies, but not on every one. Sewing works well when the final shape must determine the exact leg position and length. On other patterns, the legs may be tied in during construction or installed by another method that better suits the head and intended action. When legs are sewn, trim the head first, establish the entry and exit points visually, pass the legs through sound hair just above the hook shank, and balance both sides before cutting them to length. The method is a pattern decision, not a rule applied to every deer-hair fly.

Seat Eyes on Sound Hair

Dry-position both eyes before opening the Loctite Gel. Make a clean seat without hollowing the head. Press a small amount of Loctite Gel into the body of the hair, then set both eyes at the same height. The gel is used for the eyes. Adhesive placed only on loose surface tips will fail in casting, cover, or a fish's mouth.

Work Finish Into the Structure

Whitlock's durable warmwater construction relied on penetrating finish rather than a hard shell painted over the outside. After the eyes are secure, use a bodkin to coat the entire finished body with Dave's Flexament and work it into the deer hair and thread planes. Keep the hook eye clear, avoid a glossy skin, and allow the fly to cure undisturbed for about 24 hours. [8,9]

Tail and back

Pass Standard: Centered, secure, and free to move

Hook

Pass Standard: Eye and gap fully open; point protected during trimming

Head

Pass Standard: Symmetrical, firm, and matched to the intended retrieve

Legs

Pass Standard: Secure, level, balanced, and installed by the method chosen for the pattern

Eyes

Pass Standard: Matched in height, seated in the head, and held with only the adhesive needed

Flexament

Pass Standard: Coats the entire finished body, penetrates the structure, remains clear of the hook eye, and is fully cured

Durability Is a System

Press both sides of the head. Pull gently on the tail, back, legs, and eyes. Look through the hook eye and under the belly. A finish can reinforce clean work, but it cannot replace a stable foundation, direct thread contact, balanced stacks, firm packing, or a square trim.

HOUSE STANDARD Finish confirms construction. It does not excuse weak construction.

Diagnostics: Read The Fly Backward

Find the first wrong decision. Correcting the last visible symptom only repeats the fault.

Hair will not flare

Likely Cause: Underfur remains, bundle is too large, patch is too firm, or pressure arrived abruptly

Correction: Clean and reduce the clump; reassess the patch; increase pressure smoothly

Hair cuts under thread

Likely Cause: Thread is corded or force is concentrated

Correction: Flatten the thread and widen the pressure band

Clump rotates

Likely Cause: Locating wraps were loose or torque was not anticipated

Correction: Reposition before the cinch and use the thread path deliberately

Gap between stacks

Likely Cause: Previous stack was not packed or thread advanced too far

Correction: Repack, lock on bare shank, and advance one to two thread widths

Head lacks density

Likely Cause: Clumps were dirty, undersized, incomplete, or weakly packed

Correction: Use clean hair, complete the stack, and pack immediately

Eye is crowded

Likely Cause: Wide wraps, loose stacks, or an oversized final clump spent the space

Correction: Correct earlier spacing and reduce the front clump

Underside is thin

Likely Cause: Lower clump was undersized or thread never reached the shank

Correction: Add lower volume; keep the next belly cut shallow

Head tracks crooked

Likely Cause: Tail is off center, stacks are unbalanced, or one side was over-trimmed

Correction: Reestablish the bottom plane and correct the fuller side gradually

Face becomes a cup

Likely Cause: The center was cut too deeply

Correction: Trim from the perimeter toward the intended face

Zonker back twists

Likely Cause: Rear or front tie-in is off center, or the hide was under tension while secured

Correction: Release tension, recenter both tie-ins, and check from above before tying down the back

Rib is uneven

Likely Cause: The dubbed body was lumpy or the tinsel spacing changed as it moved forward

Correction: Smooth the dubbing first, then wind open, even turns over the dubbing before pulling the Zonker forward

Eyes will not hold

Likely Cause: Adhesive bonded only to loose surface tips

Correction: Create a clean seat and press gel into the body of the head

Surface-only Flexament

Likely Cause: The full body was not coated

Correction: Coat the full body and work it in with a bodkin

Three Rules for Correction

Material before force. A bad patch is not improved by pulling harder. Construction before finish. Adhesive cannot replace direct thread contact or complete packing. Space is managed throughout. The hook eye cannot be reclaimed cleanly at the last clump.

BENCH STANDARD A mistake is useful when it is named, traced backward, and recorded. Keep failed flies in the bench library when they teach a repeatable correction.

Condensed Reference At The Vise

Use these tables after the full sequence has been read once.

Hair Selection

Dense carved head

Look For: Long, stout, clean fibers; strong controlled flare; close packing

Avoid: Brittle shafts, heavy curl, short working length

Open collar

Look For: Sound tips, moderate flare, lively fibers

Avoid: Hair so soft it collapses into the body or so coarse it becomes a solid band

Color block

Look For: Consistent dye, clean boundary, repeatable shaft diameter

Avoid: A patch whose color changes with fiber length or working zone

Small front clump

Look For: Shorter usable length, clean butts, predictable pressure response

Avoid: Large bundles used merely to finish faster

Thread and Stack Sequence

Clean

Bench Cue: Butt ends exposed; no underfur or short waste

Orient

Bench Cue: Tips, color, and intended profile settled before thread arrives

Locate

Bench Cue: At least three loose wraps together at one plane

Press

Bench Cue: Pressure increases smoothly while the hand controls the clump

Complete

Bench Cue: Lower and upper volume surround the hook without a seam

Lock

Bench Cue: Securing wrap through the stack; locking wraps on bare shank

Pack

Bench Cue: Completed stack moves rearward as one unit

Advance

Bench Cue: One to two thread widths, then repeat

Shape from the Retrieve Backward

Quiet swim or wake

Geometry And Density: Low frontal area, smooth taper, moderate density

Firm surface push

Geometry And Density: Broad wedge, enough density to hold the face

Pop or spit

Geometry And Density: Controlled cup and dense walls

Dive and recover

Geometry And Density: Clean diving plane with buoyant volume behind it

Breathe and collapse

Geometry And Density: Open head or collar that admits water

FINAL REMINDER Do not ask the razor to repair a head the thread never built.

Video resources

Ahrex Academy: Select, Tie In, Trim and Cut Deerhair. Andreas Andersson.

Ahrex Academy: Tools and How to Cut and Prepare Deerhair. Andreas Andersson.

Master the Deer: Deer Hair Techniques. Andreas Andersson.

Final Bench Checklist

The patch was inspected, handled, and matched to the job before the fly began. Every clump was cleaned, oriented, and sized for the available shank. Loose wraps located the hair before full pressure was applied. Each stack was completed, locked, and packed before the thread advanced. The hook eye and gap remain open, and the profile matches the intended retrieve. Legs are secure, level, and balanced by the method chosen for the pattern; eyes are level and secured with Loctite Gel; Flexament coats the entire finished body and penetrates the structure without forming a shell.

Bench Record

Pattern, date, and hook

Hair source, grade, color, and working zone

Thread, clump size, stack count, and packing note

Head geometry and final dimensions

Construction change made at the vise

Field result and correction for the next fly

Research, Construction, And Tying Sources

Numbering corresponds to citations in the main text.

[1] Andersson, Andreas. 'Ahrex Academy - Select, Tie In, Trim and Cut Deerhair.' Ahrex Hooks, YouTube, April 24, 2026.

[2] Andersson, Andreas. 'Ahrex Academy - Tools and How to Cut and Prepare Deerhair.' Ahrex Hooks, YouTube, May 8, 2026.

[3] Andersson, Andreas. 'Master The Deer - 85 Minutes of Deer Hair Techniques.' Fly-Dressing, YouTube, June 8, 2022.

[4] De Marinis, Anna Maria, and Alessandro Asprea. 'Hair Identification Key of Wild and Domestic Ungulates from Southern Europe.' Wildlife Biology 12, no. 3 (2006): 305-320.

[5] Lee, Eunok, et al. 'Species Identification Key of Korean Mammal Hair.' Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 76, no. 5 (2014): 667-675.

[6] Woods, J. L., et al. 'Morphology and Ultrastructure of Antler Velvet Hair and Body Hair from Red Deer.' Journal of Morphology 272 (2011).

[7] Pennsylvania State University Deer-Forest Study. 'Guaranteed to Last' and 'Deer in Winter.' References on guard hair, underfur, and seasonal insulation.

[8] Whitlock, Dave. 'The Most Whithair Bass Bug.' Fly Fisherman, originally published 1976; digital edition, October 21, 2024.

[9] Whitlock, Dave. 'Fly Tier's Bench: Tying the Most Whithair Bug.' Fly Fisherman, digital edition, October 28, 2024.

[10] Rowley, Jeff. 'The Mason Hard Mono Foundation: A Dave Whitlock Innovation for Durable Fly Construction.' J. Stockard Fly Fishing, September 17, 2025.

[11] 'Featured Fly Tyer: Pat Cohen.' Flylords Magazine, January 16, 2020. Interview covering bottom-to-top stacking, clump reference, color balance, packing, and trimming.

[12] Cohen, Pat. 'Stacking vs Spinning Deer Hair.' Ole Florida Fly Shop / YouTube. Demonstration of controlled stacking for dense heads and bodies.

[13] Wet Fly Swing Podcast, Episode 107. 'Fly Tying with Pat Cohen - Deer Hair Poppers, RU Superfly, Fugly Packer.' November 12, 2019.

[14] Galloup's Slide Inn. 'The Best Deer Hair for Streamers: Varner's Big Bug Hair.' January 20, 2025.

[15] Galloup, Kelly. 'Grading and Selecting Deer Hair.' TheSlideinn, YouTube.

[16] Galloup, Kelly. 'Tying with Deer Belly Hair.' TheSlideinn, YouTube.

[17] Galloup, Kelly. 'Creating a Functional Deer Hair Head.' TheSlideinn, YouTube.

[18] Galloup, Kelly. 'How to Make a Deer Hair Head around Dumbbell Eyes.' TheSlideinn, YouTube.

House Material Preference

For L.H. Blanton Benchworks deer-hair work, Josh Varner and Saint Maries Flies are the primary preferred sources when a suitable patch is available. A good supplier narrows the search. It never replaces inspection, cleaning, handling, grading, and a written material record.

CITATION STANDARD General anatomy is supported by scientific hair studies. Bench methods are credited where the technique is used. House adaptations are identified as House standards.

Dave Whitlock: Fly Tier’s Bench, Tying the Most Whithair Bug.

Dave Whitlock: The Most Whithair Bass Bug. History and fishing purpose.

Continue at the bench

No. 1: Introduction to Deer Hair

No. 2: Backwater Retriever

No. 3: The Most Whithair Bug