To A. K. or any other experts: Did you ever dye a muskrat pelt? I’d like to dye an olive cast to part of a tanned pelt. Have you ever attempted this? Some of our sow bug/ cress bugs here in the East are about a medium to dark gray with an olive cast. Of course their colors vary from tan to dark gray. I realize I could mix some dubbing to get the color I want, but I felt like an experiment would be fun over the holidays. Am I wasting my time?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I have never dyed tanned muskrat, but I have dyed hard dried muskrat. I have found that treating the hide with hair bleaching solution makes it easier to get the color you want. The gray underfur turns a light cream color that is easier to color with lighter dyes. The guard hairs will not lighten as much as the underfur. The guard hairs don’t seem to take the hair bleach as well, as the underfur. The bleached color is quite nice all by itself. It makes an excellent dry fly dubbing for the yellowish-creamish "sulphurs " we have here in northern NY. I have never tried to dye the unbleached stuff with olive. I will have to give that a try.
Saggitarius62: I guess I’ve misussed the word tanned. I buy my furs from Coffin Creek Furs and they’re always great. I guess you would call them hard dried pelts. I really like the various shades of gray on a muskrat for my cress bugs. A shade of olive added to the fur might be waht I’m looking for.
Thanks
I have dyed the bleached pelts olive, and they get a nice even olive color. The gray will take color, I have tried a dark green that came out dark green. The underfur right next to the skin will sometimes have small areas that don’t take the dye, muskrat underfur is very thick as you know,(or maybe I just don’t do a good job), so there is some variation of color. Alternatively, I would consider mixing some dyed and some natural.
Might I suggest cutting the fur off of the hide and then dyeing it with yellow commercial dye like RIT or Veniard. Another ‘dye’ you could use would be Koolaid ‘Lemonade’(unsweetened).