More about dying?

[rookie]

Sure didn't sound good did it?

I have had the opportunity now to dye a good many furs but never feathers. I wanted to post this to get the opinions of those who do dye feathers and get some constructive criticism and feed back. The color is supposed to be scarlett.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Rookie,

Looks scarlet to me, or at least a very nice red. What did you use to dye the feathers?

REE

[rookie]

Ron,

I used Rit. I did use a mordant this time which I don't normally do. I do believe the mordant made a difference in the color.

Did you ever get a chance to dye any of those hare skins? Mine for the most part have been sitting in a drawer.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Steve,

About the same with mine. I have used some of the body hair for dubbing wet flies. Much better than anything I've bought prepackaged. I hope to get the dying process started this month and into February. We'll see hhow things turn out.

REE

[kengore]

Those look great, more color saturation than I have been able to get with RIT dyes in my experiments. Please give us more details on your proccess, what did you use as the mordant?

[rookie]

Hi Kengore,

I will try to step by step this without screwing up.

I use a cheap 8 qt. stainless steel pot.
Mix a hot (Tap water) sudsy pot with a good grease cutter. I use Dawn dish detergent. Put your feathers in for about 1 Hr. stirring them and moving them around frequently. Remove and rinse thoroughly under hot tap water. Just set them aside.

I put about 1 to 1-1/2 gal. of water back in the pot. I use an electric stove. Bring the water to a boil and then I back the dial down to 4. I am a believer in Rit dye. I have used the powder but have switched to their liquid which I like better. I put in 1 to 2 teaspoons of dye depending on color I want and quantity of material. You just have to do this to please yourself. Stir the dye in.

I place the feathers in upside down and let in the dye bath for 1 hr stirring or moving the feathers around about every 15 minutes. At the end of the hour, I take the feathers out and set them aside and add the mordant. In this case I used about 1/4 of a teaspoon of Alum. You can get this at the supermarket in the spice section. Stir it in good. Place the feathers back in, upside down, for about 15 minutes. For this last fifteen minutes, I move the feathers around gently about every 3 to 4 minutes.

After 15 minutes, remove the feathers for rinsing. I like to run them under hot tap water on the first and second rinsing and then move to cold water. At this point drying can be done by just laying them on paper, using a hir dryer on warm or cool setting, placing books on them to flatten them out, probably any number of ways. I just used the hair dryer.

Hope this helps. I know there are a number of ways to do this and I know Rit isn't necessairly the favorite by many. It's just this has worked for me.

I had never used the Alum or any other mordant until this time. It really does help set the color. I am now a believer in using it.

[wsbailey]

Here is some helpful information on using RIT dyes: http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/allpurposedye.shtml AK Best's book on dye gives instructions on using RIT from a fly tyer's perspective. These next dyes used to be like RIT but now the wool dye is a separate item from the cotton dye: http://www.wcushing.com/acid_dye_color_card.htm Great fly tyer colors. Silver gray green and bronze were two of Polly Rosborough's favorite colors. Bill

[rookie]

Thanks bill for the links.

A former member, Mike Connor, has written numerous pieces on dying and in my opinion, is one of the formost authorities on dying. If you can ever get your hands on any of his work you will have a gold mine of information.

[wsbailey]

Mike and I are familiar with each others work. Bill

[rookie]

Bill,

When Mike decided not to put his web site back up, he sent me the entire site which I have saved, at least to the best of my ability. I still haven't read everything.