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bullhead

red marabou not totally colorfast

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I have a quantity of red marabou that bleeds out when wet. The dye colors the other material such as white chenille and rabbit. This is fly tying material, not craft fur stuff. Is there a way to "set" the color?

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i would wash and rinse the entire batch of marabou to get rid of the excess dye

 

poor dye job would be my guess

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Dont think Ive ever worked with hair or feathers dyed red that didnt have some bleed out... and its very noticeable when you have white next to it...

 

In my opinion you have few choices. You can thoroughly rinse out the red dyed material until it quits bleeding, then dry thoroughly and then use (but the color will fade in the process...). Or you can quit using the red entirely... pink, even fl. pink never bleeds at all in comparison.

 

You could always know when I was tying tarpon flies with red collars since my fingers just stayed red...

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I have found most colors of Maribou that I buy will bleed.

The processor has not washed and rinsed them after dying to save them time and money.

I dye my own furs for fly-tying and always wash and rinse them afterwards to remove excess dye.

 

First wrap tying thread around the stems of the feathers to tie them together and make them easier to handle.

Then wash them with dish washing liquid. When a good lather is formed (don't over do it) it's time to rinse them in cold water.

Don't worry if alot of color comes out, this is to be expected.

Dry with a paper towel then dry either by blow dryer or sitting in the sun.

I have not noticed color fading doing it this way.

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arent they already tied together?

 

Most times they are fine, but some times many feathers are separated from the stitching. Thought it was worth mentioning.

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Youll find that the color fades very noticeably when you rinse red (or black) feathers... I believe that some dyers deliberately rinse those colors lightly so that the end product looks at its best...

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A trick suggested to me is to add vinegar to a warm water bath then rinse and dry. did a test tie with chenille and maribou and it seems to work. I heard that women used to do the vinegar trick to keep colors on new clothing from bleeding.

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Vinegar might do the trick - the dye should be acid dye for feathers - if insufficient acid added the dye will bleed. If it still bleeds in cold water, I suspect the dye was not an acid dye so will only weakly bind to the feathers.

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