Dying-One More Time

No pun intended. I have had some success, as far as I was concerned, at dying different furs with several different types of dyes. However, I do not considerable myself knowledgeable on the subject.

There has been previous discussion by some that say vinegar will cause a color to set and then others say it really isn't a dye set. I know that there is general popularity with Alum. I also read recently that Ginger is a color set due to it having sulfur dioxide added.

For you folks "in the know", if I was dying a piece of fur, say 2'x2", in a pan with approximately 1 qt of water, and one teaspoon of dye, how much Alum should be added to the mix for the set?

Please explain in laymans terms?:oops:

I have never used alum, I use table white vinegar and it works fine for me. I usually do any dying in larger lots to make it work the time and effort. I have an old sauce pan from Goodwill that I use. I add the water, heat it to a low boil, then add the dye and vinegar and let it cool a bit. If you add the material to be dyed with the water too hot, the hide will shrink badly. I put the materials I want to dye into the bath and stir slowly. Depending on how dark I want it to be, I leave it anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. Then I take it out and rinse it well in cold running water, blot dry with paper towels and place them on a piece of cardboard hide side up to dry. Just one person?s way to dye materials.

Jim Smith

Thanks Jim,

That is pretty much the technique I use as well and felt happy with the results. I guess I just don't have the mentality for the chemistry behind it all no matter how many times it is explained. It probably doesn't matter as long as I am happy with the results.

You might check out "Dying and Bleaching Natural Fly-Tying Materials" by A.K. Best. He uses mostly Rit dyes and household ingredients.

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Originally Posted by rookie

No pun intended. I have had some success, as far as I was concerned, at dying different furs with several different types of dyes. However, I do not considerable myself knowledgeable on the subject.

There has been previous discussion by some that say vinegar will cause a color to set and then others say it really isn't a dye set. I know that there is general popularity with Alum. I also read recently that Ginger is a color set due to it having sulfur dioxide added.

For you folks "in the know", if I was dying a piece of fur, say 2'x2", in a pan with approximately 1 qt of water, and one teaspoon of dye, how much Alum should be added to the mix for the set?

Please explain in laymans terms?:oops:

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Hey Jim of Dubbing Block fame. Henry K here. I got the upgraded knob and it works fine.

Here ya go. The amount of alum (mordant) depends on the amount of fiber you dye. Looks like you need a postal scale.

http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/...um_mordant.htm

http://www.earthues.com/aboutmordants.html

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/gcarnegie.../art1alum.html

Here's the Google search string for "alum mordant"

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Thanks Silver. I was kind of hoping you would pop in here.