Question.....backing with hairs?

[campx]

My buddy gave me two grocery bags full of alpaca hair, for tying flies with.  Since my flytying and steelheading has now taken a backseat to bowbuilding, I was wondering if you could back a bow with it.  Some of this hair has got to be over a foot long, and, well, it seemsto be tough stuff.   Just wondering if it has the properties needed to properly work.......

[Lee Slikkers]

Sorry, can't offer any help on an opinion as a backing but I am a fly-tier as well...Steelheading is just warming up here.  How did you like the alpaca for tying?  Did you use it as a dubbing or for hair-streamers?

[loefflerchuck]

would be better on the belly

[blackhawk]

Sorry, can't offer any help on an opinion as a backing but I am a fly-tier as well...Steelheading is just warming up here.  How did you like the alpaca for tying?  Did you use it as a dubbing or for hair-streamers?

Well,well,well....looky who's back out to play

No clue for a backing,but if a backings needed there's a lot of other "cheap" proven materials to use. What do you have that you think needs backed?

[Del the cat]

Hair should be similar to sinew. Medieval seige engines had their skeins made of twisted sinew, horse hair, or in dire circumstances the hair of the town's beseiged womenfolk!
Del

[Dictionary]

i'd like to see a bowstring made of hair 

[tattoo dave]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. It's not going to have the same effect as sinew, so it would probably be strictly for looks. Maybe offer a little security for lifting splinters. It probably would look and feel similar to a flax backing. I have flax backed a couple bows. I'm just guessing though, might look kinda cool. If you have that much why not try it.

Tattoo Dave

[Newindian]

Hey what's that on your bow? Why it's human hair took me 10 hair cuts to get this done.

[campx]

Lee;  I've used it for dubbing, and I have also dyed some of the lighter stuff in Kool-Aid to get some purples and oranges, for streamers.  I live on the world-famous Thompson River- I should be out there with my spey rod swinging for steel, but I'm still trying to get me mule deer!
I'm working on a plank maple molle right now, and some of the grain on the back is 'iffy'.  Just wondered about an alternative, just for the sake of being different.  I can't find flax around here, may need toorder some.