trappers supply wool

[redear]

thanks redgun!! we really don't need very long wool at all for these crappie jigs, most wool Iv'e seen is way too long anyway. redgun, did you get any of the rippled looking little locks of wool in your bags? very interesting stuff. I have a cloth bag that is a nylon knit and plan on using this to contain the wool while washing. If it was still on a hide I would just wash it and dry it and brush it out with no worries but being as it is off the hide already I have to be careful not to break the locks up while washing and brushing etc. trying to think of what to use to brush it out, maybe just a cheap dollar store hair brush, but I'm gonna try to hold the locks by the butt ends while brushing to prevent pulling the locks apart.

 

[Fatman]

redear - try some velcro the sticky side just go easy, you'll get some fibers but it should help get any big knots out. I've done it to some patch's of fur and it works good.

 

[redgun]

redgun, did you get any of the rippled looking little locks of wool in your bags?

I honestly have not looked. When I read the original thread about the wool/satin jigs, the main things that made sense and stuck in my head were:
A) The raw wool has a scent to it (and might hold a liquid scent pretty well also)
B) The wool makes a jig slow-fall and has a very attractive "action" to it.

Then after seeing the satin pictures under the blue light, I just had to try them. I tied a few up & tested them in water. They looked great to me!!!!:icon14:

 

[redear]

washed up some wool today and learned alot. first off was after pulling the wool out of the plastic bag I realized all the wool was the same, it was all a creme colored wool with dirty matted tips, so I picked groups of little locks and got a handfull and cut the matted tips off with sisscors, I repeated this till I had my cloth bag kinda full of the wool locks. took a kitchen trash can and used it to wash the wool in. I knew I would have to use hot water and plenty of dawn if I was to get the dingyness out of this wool, I washed it for a while using heavy rubber gloves and I could still see the stained tips thru the cloth bag so I added some oxy clean type powder that is used for adding to laundry loads, this really helped. after I was satisfied with the way it looked thru the wet bag, I dumped the water and added new hot water to start rinsing, I did this several times.

 

[redear]

when all was said and done I rung the water out of the bag of wool and took it to the shop to dump it all out on a peice of medium density type fiber board, would have preferred plywood, I was hoping the locks would have remained separate from each other but that was not to be, all this wool was intertwined together, and the ripple effect of the locks was pretty much gone. I know I washed all the lanolin out of this wool with my agressive washing because it was sqeeky but with the dirty tips I had no choice. I found an old hair brush out in the shop and began to work with the wool, some of it is brushing out nicely, and a few clumps are sp matted that they are beyond using because they are matted so tight, so I did have to put some work into this wool but there is plenty of good stuff there after brushing. as with anything you do the first time, ya very seldom get it right the first time. I will try to take some pics.

 

[redear]

washed some raw wool today and brushed some of it out and laid it out to dry. some of it was lost due to matting up real tight when washing, so may have to fugure out something else to remedy that, right now I don't have any ideas on how to remedy that.

 

[Fatman]

Looks good redear

 

[papaperch]

I have not washed my raw wool. What I do is after tying wool on jig I use an old tooth brush to comb out any foreign material or dirt. Put a little shine to it along with pulling out loose and stray fibers. Takes a little extra time per jig. But I think its the simplest solution.

 

[redear]

yeah, I think it's the amount of washing I had to do with this that matted alot of it, if I had cleaner stuff I wouldn't have gotten so aggressive with the washing, but what did brush out is pretty. the stuff was pretty rank when just removed from the package, smelled just like a livestock stable complete with urine smell, but all that came right out. I guess alot of wool has the ripples in it before washing and brushing, would have loved to have saved that.

 

[Fatman]

Redear - That's one of the questions I was going to ask what it smelled like coming out of the bag. But it really cleaned up nice.

Wonder if one of those ladies hair crimpers would put the crimps back in it???

Perch did you get yours the same place as redear??

 

[redear]

I think I may have done better if I had just threw the locks in the bag every which a way instead of putting handfuls of them in there all lined up side by side, which may have made it easier for them to tangle. at any rate I have some wool that I didn't pay alot for. papaperch are you using this same wool? the raw wool ia totally different than after you wash and brush it, it changed the texture and color and of course the smell. I wouldn't think all raw wool would be this smelly, just think it all depends on where they are laying down.

 

[redear]

just got back in from the shop out back and was brushing the wool out again, everything was dry from yesterdays washing except the tangled matted wool clumps that couldn't be brushed out. I got quite a bit more to brush out since it has dried out and I am happy with the way it looks too. just for kicks and experimentation I took a raw wool lock out of the bag and laid it down pinning it to the board by the butt end and with a few strokes of the brush it brushed right out, and after doing so you couldn't see the dirty tips nearly as much, you could have tied it right up! It had a shine to it because of the lanolin, and my fingers were a little oily but not gross or anything like that. the odor wasn't bad either when I git it away from the whole bag of raw wool. I think so much raw wool penned up in that plastic bag where it can't breathe has alot to do with how strong it is.

 

[redear]

So I am thinking there will be some trial and error in what works best in a fishing situation, as to which one the fish want to hold onto better the washed wool or the one with some lanolin in it. also thinking about the difference in how they take in water, so need to do some messing around with them in the pool out back.

 

[Fatman]

Lot's of great info that will cut down on what people have to learn about it.

 

[redear]

I am thinking I could just take a paper towel with a little alcohol and just rub it down towards the tips while holding it down on a cardboard box and that would clean it up enough to satisfy me, that is if the lanolin is beneficial to catching fish, as far as scent and water absorbtion goes.