Dye for deer/elk hair.

[Flyfishing Lady 0]

Im a hunter and I have saved all my deer and elk hair for fly tyeing. I have been asking the ? for a while on other sites but knowone seems to know how to dye it. I have tryed the cloth dye and all it did was dye the hide, not the hair. I asked a hair dresser here in my town that dyes for a taxadery (sorry not the best speller) and she just uses hair dye just blond. But Im look to dye mine olive, gray, blue and some other colors. Can any one help me out? Thankyou for any info. :help:

[Guest]

Dyeing deer hair is tough and takes some time(never tried elk) but it can be done once you get the process down.

 

Personally I use Rit dye that you can buy from most craft stores, it's cheap and they have several colors to choose from. If they don't have the exact colors your looking for you can mix the dyes. for example if you mix the Kelley Green and Brown colors you will come out with a nice Olive.

 

The process is simple. I take an old cooking pot and fill it with enough water so that whatever you are dyeing can be fully submerged and then I will add my dye. Keep in mind the more dye that is added to the water the darker the colors will come out. I read to always add a cap full of vinegar to the bath so I do that as well.

 

Then put the pot on your kitchen stove and turn it on low(you don't want the water to boil). Now depending on how dark of a color you want would depend on how long to leave it on the stove. Sometime it can take a very long time to get a dark color so don't be afraid to leave it on there a few hours if necessary.

 

Once your happy with your color rinse it out completely and then I will tack the skin onto a piece of plywood, if this is not done it will curl up while drying.

 

You could always use a dye like VENIARDS, it's more expensive but they have more fly tying friendly colors and I'm sure it is much better.

 

Good luck!

[SkinnyPole 0]

Maybe I can help you with your deer hair dying problem. I also use RIT dye, and this is the process: First soak the hair in warm soapy water forabout 2 hours. Depending on the amount of hair to dye, mix up 1/2 to a full package of RIT into 1-3 quarts of water and bring to a boil then cool to 180 degrees and maintain that approx. temp. Add the deer hair and stir every 3-4 minutes. As the deer hair starts to take on color, add 1 cup of vinegar for each quart of water. Stir until you attain the color you want and then rinse in cold water.

 

I hope this improves your successes!

 

 

[Flyfishing Lady 0]

I tryed the rites too but it just didnt seem to work. But I didnt boil it at the same time. I think elk hair is more hollow then deer hair. I also was wondering if maybe I should try bleaching just the elk hair? What do you guys think? Thankyou for the info.

[Fla. Panfisher 0]

I had good luck with hot water and red food coloring... now I just gotta figure yellow out for some bees.

[SkinnyPole 0]

Try this.

http://www.btsflyfishing.com/Tips_Tricks/T...ing%20materials

[Flyfishing Lady 0]

Thankyou this should help out a lot.

[ratfacedmcdougal 0]

RIT dye is a good cheap dye thats readily available at most supermarkets. There is a dye which i buy from england thats really good that i use on feather but i dont know how it would do on hair.