Kapok
Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) has been available for many years growing throughout the tropics where it is cultivated for its fibres. Kapok is a moisture-resistant, quick-drying, resilient, and buoyant fibre and weighs only one-eighth as much as cotton. Kapok has been used in life jackets and life boats, supporting as much as 30 times its own weight in water. Additionally with Kapok buoyancy is lost slowly, we have left it for days in test baths and it very slowly over days absorbs water.
Traditionally Kapok is very difficult to dye however the team at Semperfli have been working with computer based dying machinery which has enabled it to bulk dye Kapok with repeatable colours every time. Working with their Pro Team they defined a range of very natural / earthly dubbing colors to produce the best dry fly dubbing available in the market.
Individual Kapok fibres are on average 1.8cm/0.7”, with diameters of 30 to 36 micrometres (a micrometre is about 0.00004 inch) making it finer than even the smallest superfine dubbing, indeed HALF the thickness of superfine dubbings.
- Kapok has a natural buoyancy so floatant is not necessary
- Use for bodies or thoraxes, perfect for any dry flies