Bear Hide

[gaspumper]

A friend of mine has a tanned black bear hide that has been hanging on his rec room wall for probably 25 years,it's starting to fall apart ,he asked me if I wanted it to tie jigs with.Question I have will it work for jigs it has some fairly long hair.All I tie is bucktail jigs for walleye,how would the bear hair work ?

 

[StumpHunter]

Bear make some nice jigs and the hide may be worth trying but I would wonder about the hair being brittle since the hide is falling apart. Hair will dry out hanging in the open and have no use .

 

[Jay Wirth]

Bear works great. I have a big piece of black bear and have made some real nice jigs.

 

[Fatman]

Love bear hair - it makes great jigs. If you take it you could cut it into pieces and steam the hair over a tea kettle but just a little it will add some moisture to the hair if they're dried out. And being a whole hide trade for stuff you don't have. If you tie flies when you use it for jigs comb the underfur out and save it for dubbing flies it's nice stuff.

 

[gaspumper]

Just talked to my buddy again,the hair is a honey blond on the back and sides,the legs are reddish brown, not black as I thought being it was a black bear.The hair is fine and very soft about 4 inches long.It was shot in 1970 in Alberta.

 

[hookup]

I'll take some ....

Yes, it works nicely

 

[Fatman]

Have black, brown, grizzly and polar bear - but no shades of blonde or reddish brown

 

[StumpHunter]

All my black bear hair is closer to a brown also. The blonde would make some very nice jigs.