Dyeing with Picric and Onion skin.

[Donald Nicolson]

I have been reading Skues 'Nymph Fishing' and he mentions the old tricks of dyeing with picric acid and onion skins in vinegar to give heron or goose herl very nice olive colours. Does anyone still try this, especially the onion skins in vinegar?

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Donald/Scotland

[Hans Weilenmann]

Donald,

I have dyed the following in picric acid with superb results:

mole
hare
rabbit
hen necks and saddles
partridge
pine squirrel

I would not know how to get a better olive on a variety of materials. Especially magic on mole and pine squirrel.

The downside is that picric acid is not available over the counter, on account of it being explosive when in crystaline form. I no longer have access to it these days.

Cheers,
Hans W


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[RonMT]

I to dyed with picric but you can no longer get it. At least around were I live?

I have dyed with Onion skins for many years. They will get the best woodduck color that you can get. Just boil them hard in water. I put them in an old leg of a panty hose. That way they all come out at one time. Boil them For about 35 or so minutes, take out the skins and put in the feathers or fur that you want dyed. Make sure that you have first washed and rinsed the material you are dying. You can add a teaspoon of Vinegar to it to help set the dye. Take the materials out and check the color to see if it is what you are looking for. I just take out one feather and rinse it and dry it in a peper towel. Then blow dry it with a hair drier. It is quick and I can see right away what the color is when the material is dry. If it is to light put it back in. Some materials take dye faster than others but with Onion skins there isn't enough dye to worry to much about it.
If you need to use a material right away after dying it just use the Blow drier to dry it and you can be using most materials in about 15 minutes after dying them. Ron

[Jim Cramer]

To add to what Ron has written here is my input.
To make the dye add a double handful or more of yellow onion skins to one quart of water and a cup of vinegar. Cover and let the mixture seep for several hours over very low heat. Strain off the skins and test the dye with a few test feathers. Wash your materials in a light detergent suds and rinse thoroughly before dyeing as they must be free of oil and any dirt. The dye should be quite warm but not so hot that it might damage the feathers. Do some trial runs with a few feathers to determine how long they should remain in the dye. I can?t advise you on this because it depends on so many factors. The fortunate thing is that it is hard to go too wrong, almost any shade you end up with will be useful. If you rinse the material briefly in a mild salt water solution it seems to set the dye. Follow the salt water rinse with a good rinse in fresh water then pat it dry between some paper towels or absorbent cloth and set it aside to air dry.

I prefer the lighter shades of grizzly as they seem to show off the effects of my labor better. The light grizzly dyed a woodduck lemon makes an absolutely beautiful mayfly. The dyed grizzly also makes a good substitute for cree hackle which is sometimes hard to find in the better grades.

Now one would wonder that if yellow onion skins make a useful dye, what would you get with red or purple onion skins? The answer is nothing, nada, zip. Like many of my fly ideas it seemed like a good idea but it just didn?t work. If someone else has had success with the red skins I would like to hear of it. I also think that one could obtain some great browns using black walnut sawdust in the same manner as the oinion skins.
Jim

[JAd]

picric acid
Related: Organic Chemistry

(pĬk?rĬk) or 2,4,6-trinitrophenol , C 6 H 2 (NO 2 ) 3 OH, a toxic yellow crystalline solid that melts at 122?C and is soluble in most organic solvents. Picric acid is a derivative of phenol . It reacts with metals to form metal picrates, which like picric acid itself are highly sensitive

explosives that can be detonated by heat, flame, shock, or friction. The high explosives lyddite and melinite are composed mostly of compressed or fused picric acid. Picric acid is often used as a booster to detonate another, less sensitive explosive, such as TNT ( trinitrotoluene ). Although picric acid can be synthesized by nitration of phenol, higher yields are obtained if chlorobenzene is used as a starting material; the latter method involves several steps and the formation of several intermediate products. In addition to its use in explosives, picric acid has been used as a yellow dye, as an antiseptic, and in the synthesis of chloropicrin, or nitrotrichloromethane, CCl 3 NO 2 , a powerful insecticide.

For thoes who care is this the same acid. John

[JAd]

You might want to read this to.
[url=http://www.people.memphis.edu/~ehas/news/aug98/:ee54c]http://www.people.memphis.edu/~ehas/news/aug98/[/url:ee54c]

John