Dye Question
When attempting to dye deer hair with Rit, does one pretty much follow the same instructions for dying hair as the instructions indicate for fabric?
I have read most of the articles I could find pertaining to dying of hair but just wondering the above question.
Any help is very much appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
Fishing the Great Beyond
Thank you JC. I had followed that thread closely and I guess I am just dense enough to need step by step instructions. I believe the hide is clean enough to move to the next step, I just don't know what the next step is.
Steve
Fishing the Great Beyond
Give it to someone you don't like! My project failed. Really, I am sure there is something that can be done. I actually tried to 'tan' mine. Just drying it probably works. Scrape it, nail it out, and hope for the best. Other than that,,, hope someone in here gives you the real answers.
Rookie:
Deer hair has to be one of the toughest materials to dye. The hair is waxy and really resistant to taking dye. It definitely needs to be washed thoroughly first and I use Dawn dishwashing liquid which helps to cut the grease.
The problem I always had was in order to get the color dark, I had to keep it in the bath long which would sometimes ruin the skin and the hair would fall out. Other issues were the hair ALWAYS looked a lot darker than it ended up after I rinsed it off and set the color with Acetic Acid.
As a result all of the deer hair I dyed was subtle shades of the real color I was after. As a result now I buy my deer hair already dyed. Maybe it's me or maybe it's the Rit but I could never get the shades I wanted without over cooking the hair and I was working with a tanned hide.
Fishing the Great Beyond
Thanks boozle,,, glad I am not alone in this club...
I think I might be getting my heart broken here. I did prepare the hide pretty well and as suggested, washed it several times using Dawn. It is an excellent hide and if necessary, will just keep it natural and buy the colors. It's too bad there isn't an easy solution.
Thanks JC and Bamboozle.
Steve
Steve, I'd just keep it natural and your efforts won't go to waste....you can pay attention to the qualities of the hair from the different parts of the hide and you'll have hair from spinning to comparaduns.
Hello rookie, I don't know if this will work or even help, but when I tye a black AP nymph I just take a black sharpie to it once it's tied and it doesn't wash out when fished. Hey, you could always try tying a stimulator or a fly you had in mind for the deer and swab it down with a sharpie in the color desired and see what happens. You never know !
Holiday Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Hi Rookie,
I don't recal ever dying deer, but have dyed caribou. To do a good job, and get a bright color, you have to start with very light color deer hair. Either deer belly, or very light color deer that is then well bleached is good. If you start with medium gray deer hair, then the best you will get is gray deer hair that is strongly tinted. The only exception is if you dye it a much darker color such as a dark brown or black.
If I bleach hair, I use a very mild bleach. Some guys use pretty strong bleach. If it won't respond to what I normally use, then I am just out of luck and give up on the it rather than fight it and buy expensive bleaches. What I use is a 50/50 mixture of household ammonia and household hydrogen peroxide. (Some of the ammonia now has a fragrence added...don't use it.) It may take a day or even two for the bleach to do it's job. I only bleach at room temperature. This bleach is pretty good for feathers, and some types of hair. In other cases the best you may do is take medium dun hair a couple of shades lighter, but it may still be a dun color.
The hair must be oil free to dye well. If it is oily the dye will be repelled by the oil and won't sink into the hair. This also goes for the hide. You must get the oil out of the hide. This can be done with several treatments with borax.
I have also used paint thinner to "dry clean" the oil out of it. If you do "dry clean" it, the hair and hide must be thoroughly clean from the thinner. I do this in the summer, and set it out to dry in the sun until the thinner odor is completely gone. If you don't get all the thinner out, the thinner itstelf will repel the dye just like the natural oil or fat in the hide or hair will.
Once it is thoroughly oil free, it can be dyed. I generally dye only small pieces at a time, because I don't generally need a lot of hair. I only use it for wings, hopper heads and bodies, etc., and don't use it to spin large bass flies. Small pieces are easier to dye than large ones.
If I use Rit, which is usually the case, I make the dye solution much stronger than the instructions say for cloth. Up to 10 times as strong.
I then heat the hair in the dye solution for what ever time is needed. Two hours would not be unusual. It may take quite a bit longer than that.
I do not heat it very hot, no hotter than hot to the touch. I want it at a heat that is such that you can put a finger on the container for 3 or 4 seconds with out it burning you. Very hot, but not so hot you can't touch it. You want it hot enough that you can't hold your finger on it continually though, and after, again, the 3 or 4 seconds and then the heat will drive you to pull your finger back.
"Hot" is the enemy of the hide, cause it to get hard, wrinkle, and shrink up. It will do some of that anyway, but too hot will really work on it, and can cause the hair to turn brittle.
Rit is not a harsh dye. I have never had it cause brittleness, if it is not used too hot.
You will have to check the progress of the color from time to time. The hair will always appear much darker when it is wet, than after it dries. Thus, I pull one of the small chunks of hide/hair out and then wash all of the free dye out. This is done by putting it in a bowl of water and squeezing a few times, replacing the colored water with fresh, and then repeating the squeezing until it finally comes clean...several water rinses usually. (You can also do this under running water, but beware of splattering dye in the kitchen...a good way to get in big trouble with the better half.)
Once you have the free dye out of the hair you need to dry it. I do this with the lady of the house's hair blow dryer. Heat the hair by repeatedly moving it in and out of the stream of hot air...this takes a while. Once dry you will be able to see the true color of the dyed hair. If not dark enough, back it goes into the dye vat. If dark enough, I remove all of the pieces.
There are limits with this method. The hair will only take up so much color, and then the color does not seem to get any richer. You can help matters by adding more dye. (The hide and hair absorb a lot, and the dye fluids can still look plenty strong, but in fact have lost most of their capacity to dye.)
Usually the hide will be fairly hard and shrink on drying. This can be counteracted to some extent by stretching and nailing it stretched to a board. At any rate, no leather likes to be "cooked", if you will, in a container of hot water.
After taking it out of the dye vat, thoroughly wash and rinse all of the un-absorbed dye solution from the hide and hair by the above mentioned rinsing method.
I have had the best luck by dying small pieces, ie: a couple inches square at most. However, I use a very small dye vat, ie: a small beaker, which would be at most a pint or so, and usually only fill it half full.
It is also necessary to stir the hair from time to time so that the dye will work it's way into the root area of the hair.
There may be things I haven't remembered to add about how I use dye, but these are some of the basics.
There are much better dyes than Rit, but they are also quite a bit more expensive and are not as easy to come by. I do also use Coolaid, but have only used it on feathers.
Regards,
Gandolf
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