Cleaning Calf Tail

[Peter F]

Calf tail, though hard to stack, is easier done when it is clean. With this in mind, in the spring I washed (cold water and woolite) two tails (flour. pink and a flour. orange). Unfortunately they ended up light pink and rusty orange, as a lot of their color washed right out. My guess is that was not caused by the woolite (please correct me if I am wrong!) but because the colors were not "fixed" during the dyeing process. Anyway, I now have purchased two more flourescent tails and want again to wash them. How can I be sure the colors are fixed. Do I soak them first in a diluted mixture of vinegar? Something else? Do I use warm water to make the mixture? What ratio of water to vinegar? Thanks.

[Al Beatty]

Hi Peter,

You are right, the Woollite was probably not the fault and the dye bath wasn't fixed as it should have been. Peter, I know of no way to go back and refix. I've washed the dyed product and if it faded, I re-dyed/fixed it. Be sure to get rid of as much of the bad dye job before redoing the material. Good luck! Take care & ...

Tight Lines - Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[Bob S]

Peter:
I would wash the calf tails in liquid soap like dawn and cold water. I think that would minimize the loss of color. I wash black marabou this way. Alot of black comes out, but alot of black is left too.
Bob Scheidt

[Normand]

Ive always combed out the bunch of calf tail I'm gonna use before I put it in a stacker and it always works for me. Gotta clean out all of the shorties and other junk before combing.

[Jeremy]

Peter...you may want to consult your friend Rob K. on this too. He's very knowledgeable, as we both know.

Jeremy.