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A lot of synthetic materials are presented either in hanks or bunches of materials secured in the middle or at one end with a clip, a cable tie down or by heat fusion.
When a fly recipe calls for the use of synthetic materials presented in this form if you just cut the bunch of material off the end of the hank by the time you have tied a few flies the hank or bunch of material will be in a terrible mess and a lot of material will finish up being wasted. It is much better to cut the required amount of material off close to the securing clip, tie down or where it is fused together and then fold the material a number of time to get the volume and length that you need. Sure, you do need to do a little mental arithmetic to determine the number of strands that you should cut but that is really pretty simple.

Process

A	Select the material.

B	Decide how ling you want the fly and how much material you want to tie in. Then for example if the hank or bunch of material you have is 4n times as long as the bunch you want to tie into the fly cut 1/4 of the amount off the hank or bunch. Make sure that you leave yourself a little excess material to work with as you can trim a little excess off when the fly is finished but you cant add a little extra on.

C	Double the mater up that has been cut off.

D	Cut the material at the top of the loop.

E	Double the material up a second time.

F	Again cut the material at the top of the loop.

G	If you have done your calculations right you should have the volume and length that you needed. Practice makes perfect.

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