Yup, it is the Wapsi stuff I use except mine is in a white stick and has Orvis written on it.
Cobblers wax is something I only tend to use on pure silk and I will keep it in a bag in my pocket for a while first. Tacky wax such as Wapsi is too tacky for touch dubbing with mole or similar and does not have the same effect as cobblers on pure silk spider bodies.
Adam,
Get some tacky wax, Orvs, Wapsi, whatever but it should come in a tube that looks like prit stick. Don't bother with seal sub, when buying seal make sure it is genuine baby seal and make sure you use a lot of it, preferably a whole seal at a time and tie in dozens
Cookshill seal is about as good as you'll get.
Dubbing for crunchers? I always thought the recipe called for pheasant tail fibres wound for the body but don't really think it matters much. Get a hares mask dyed in each colour you use and dub that. Hare is very easy to work with and you can get a lot of different textures of dubbing from a mask.
For the hackle I'd probably get a hen cape and use that, you'll get a nice one for about £6 or £7. Hen will do spiders fine too although I like game feathers such as partridge if the pattern is anything other than black. For black spiders I use either black hen or magpie scalp, you get a whole head (still with beak attached) for about £3 and there is loads of hackle on it. Probably to softest most mobile black hackle I've come across, very thin stem which requires some care when winding. I tend to keep cock hackle for dries only and then it would be Keough, Metz or Whiting saddles rather than necks. For palmered wets, Kates, Zulus etc I use a cheaper genetic cock neck (Veniard, Keough tyers grade) or a decent Indian cape then put a head hackle on with hen.
Cheers
Ben
