Author Topic: Round Rubber Ribbon Material (for making fishing lures)  (Read 3470 times)

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Round Rubber Ribbon Material (for making fishing lures)
« on: March 19, 2017, 05:10:26 PM »
The first time I encountered this type of material was in Germany where I found it on the rack of a local hobbyshop in Wisebaden.  It was from Verlinden and was an overly expensive detail item for model building.  It looked a lot like a ribbon cable found in computers and other electronics equipment but the individual strands of the rubber ribbon material are of a much smaller diameter and not made of wire covered in plastic.  It is rubber material and it does have some stretch to it but the one feature I really liked was the way the individual strands once separated would lay naturally without any prompting to retain a specific shape or pattern.   

I found a similar material in the elastic band material that makes up the top of most under garmets that is hidden away beneath the cloth band, it is a PITA to remove from that type of clothing and I do not recommend it unless you are a cheap bastard with a lot of time on your hands.  I tried it once on an old pair of briefs that had become shredded from too many washes and the rewards were minimal for the effort and the amount of round rubber reclaimed was just not worth the effort as I soon discovered, 

So it was with great joy that I recently discovered another source for this material while I was wandering around aimlessly in the local Sportsman's Warehouse here in Silverdale and realized it was the same material that Verlinden used to flog but now in a multitude of colors and several different sizes/diameters. 

Fishing  >> Fly Fishing  >> Fly Tying  >> Fly Tying Misc >> Wapsi Round Rubber Ribbon Material for making fishing fly lures

Image showing the product from the link above:



Wapsi has a web page and an on-line catalog that is in some kind of Flash format and is a bit wonky to navigate.  The Round Rubber material is found on pages 46-47 of the on-line catalog but is really on pages 43-44 of the actual catalog.  There are other some other round rubber material items shown in the catalog that consist of two alternating color bands on the same length of amterial.  I have seen this on the shelf at the local Sportman's Warehouse store but could not determine what I would use it for in model building unlike the solid color material which has a number of useful purposes in depicting cables and hoses the multiple color material might also work for that purpose if you are so inclined. 

Link to Wapsi web page: http://www.wapsifly.net/wapsi-catalog-2014/ and another link for the   
Wapsi on-line catalog

While this is sold in a package containing a length of the ribbon material that is 2.0'/24.0"(60.96 cm) which does not seem like much until you consider that there are around 40 individual strands that make up the ribbon so that gives you around 80.0'(24.4 m) so you are getting a lot of material for your money.  I am not sure where you can find this item or something similar outside of the US/Canada but with an image and the description of the product you should find something similar in your own local sporting goods store. 

Without using a micrometer I would hazard to guess that the diameter of the individual strands are approximately 0.5mm (Extra Small), 0.75mm (Small), and 1.0mm (Medium).   
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Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Round Rubber Ribbon Material (for making fishing lures)
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2017, 09:36:02 AM »
In addition to the colors shown in the OP there are several varieties of this rubber cord that come in a combination of two color bands along the entire length of the individual cords.  Attached images show the one of these items that I purchased over the weekend to experiment with.  It is a OD/Green and Yellow banded cord.   
"Every day we hear about new studies 'revealing' what should have been obvious to sentient beings for generations; 'Research shows wolverines don't like to be teased" -- Jonah Goldberg

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Round Rubber Ribbon Material (for making fishing lures)
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2017, 10:28:59 PM »
Don't blame me if fish start trudging over from the nearest waterway & making off with your models, Mr Fontaine! ::)
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