Hackle Making

[Limey (Mark)]

So when i started out making my wookiee costume, i thought i wouldn't possibly need a hackle. Now that i have one, its turning out to be soooo useful!

And like so many of you out there, i like to make these things myself. When making this one i thought i'd take photos to help someone else.


I happened to have quite alot of plastic in my garage from a few years back, so i cut myself out a good sized rectangle, about 12"x5".



Then its just a matter of drawing very straight lines, and in this case i marked the dots on each line 1/2" apart.



The second row of dots were 1/4" offset from the top holes, making them nice and staggered.



Then it was off to the drill press. Oh and be sure to clean off that plastic burr on your drill bit as soon as you can. Once it cools and hardens, it can be a real pain to get off.



I tried a couple different types of nails. These ones are 'finishing' nails with the oval'ish heads. Only problem was finding a way to stop them wobbling around when i fixed the hackle to a base



In the end i went with "Bright Box" nails which have a flat, round head. These would make a nice snug fit too



As i was putting the nails into the hackle, i noticed that when i cut the plastic it had chipped and roughened up the edges (guess i need a new saw bit too), so i used my sander to create a nice smooth bevel along the top edge with hopes that it won't catch too many hairs.

The image isn't too detailed, but you can just see the small bevel


After that it was simply construction time! Putting the nails into each hole started making the hackle pretty heavy, i think in total i used about 90 nails.



Oops, forgot to remove the protective blue coating on the plastic.

originally i was going to fasten this part of the hackle to another piece of plastic, like a sandwich. But after glimpsing a perfect piece of 2x4, i suddenly had a little inspiration. Bear with me here!

So, my thoughts were this. If i sandwich the nails between two hard pieces of plastic, chances are there'll be lots of wobble in the nails. But if i fasten just the top part with the nails to a 2x4, that should smush the nails into the wood, creating a more solid hackle. Still with me? LOL



I went with the 2x4 and it worked as good as i expected, and it provided me with clamp points to fasten it to my worktop while i used the hackle! Bonus! One very solid hackle!

Now its time for testing. YAY.

I grabbed two colors. #280 and #44. I'm guessing i have about twice as much #280 here than #44 so it should give me a nice transition shade for those darker patches.



I'd previously watched a good youtube video on wig making, which had a good example of how to use a hackle. The video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxWs79J4pUY

After about 40-50 swipes with the hair, and varying techniques (none of them very efficient yet) i started getting into the swing of it and my final results were pretty good! I had a nice evenly blended shade of hair!



Looking at that photo though, it looks like i have streaks of light and dark, but trust me, its actually blended pretty nicely!

Of course, you'll have alot of hair stay in the hackle itself. the weak hair, as well as knots and stuff like that. i'm guessing i lost about 20% of my hair.



But overall i am very pleased with my hackle. Its functional and works exactly as i'd expect a hackle to work. i'll certainly be using it more and more, especially as i work on the shoulders and thighs.

btw, OW! Nails are kinda sharp! I just accidently brushed my arm against it and bam, nice bloody scratch.



Scarred for life!!!! Oh the agony, the pain!! (yeah yeah, i hear you say LOL)

Oh wait, whats this, another handy piece of 2x4. That'll do nicely! a quick tap-tap with the mallet and i have a nice protective cover




So thats it my fellow hair blenders. My home made hackle. Sure there are a couple bent nails, but it works and with a bit more practice, i think i'll be blending hair in a matter of minutes.

Oh, and i do have enough plastic to make several more hackles. So if you need one then let me know. I'll put all the holes in and they should mail pretty easy (minus the 2x4's and nails of course)


Hope this helps someone!


Limey

[dartoftruth ()]

Hmmm. considering I don't have plastic or a drill press...I might steal one from you.
thanks for the tutorial!
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[GotWookiee (Matt Pfingsten)]

Awesome tutorial.

About your scratch: You are not a real costumer until you have drawn blood in the pursuit of your hobby.
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[Nikkos Khann (Conley Nichols)]

[SoloYT1300 (Robert Kohn)]

Request to have this posted in the tutorial section for its awesomeness!

Nice work, it should help a few people out for sure!


Bob Kohn
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