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PeterSL

Dyeing deer hair

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Looking for advice - am trying to dye a bleached deer hair hide olive. Have used Superfly dye formulas and procedures but although the hide itself accepts the colour, the hair will not. Have cleaned the hide thoroughly and tried different temperatures and lengths of immersion but all with the same result. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Peter

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I just researched this today as I have three hides to work with.

 

Look into Jacquard acid dyes, they're supposed to be pretty good for fur/hair. Their site has tips and techniques.

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Jacquard is good dye. The acid dyes are used with vinegar, that's the acid they refer to. Think you're on the right track.

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I have dyed deer hair using koolaid, and the vinegar step is crucial with it as well. After the hair and hide have been in the dye solution for a while, adding a small amount of vinegar seems to force the dye to adhere to the material. So much so, in fact, that the water almost turned clear again as the color was all forced onto the fur. I had quite good luck making a patch of bright red deer hair using strawberry koolaid.

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Do you have to mix anything as part of the dyeing process? if so be sure that you do not use disposable cups with wax coating.

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I have not noticed a color bleed on any of the flies I have tied with koolaid dyed fur, however I do tie all winter and fish in the summer so any flies I fish have been sitting for many months before I get them wet. They may bleed if the dye was a little fresher, and my red isnt as bright as some of the very bright colored fur I have bought, YMMV

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I am a true amateur when it comes to dyeing materials, but my experience has been that hair (bucktail, specifically) took a lot more dye than feathers/fur/dubbing. I was using Rit liquid dye. It did eventually work, but I had to use a lot of dye and a lot of time in the solution, with vinegar being added. It took 25 or so minutes for me to dye each bucktail, as compared to a few snowshoe feet or feathers taking 3-4 minutes to get the desired color, with a LOT less dye.

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I am a true amateur when it comes to dyeing materials, but my experience has been that hair (bucktail, specifically) took a lot more dye than feathers/fur/dubbing. I was using Rit liquid dye. It did eventually work, but I had to use a lot of dye and a lot of time in the solution, with vinegar being added. It took 25 or so minutes for me to dye each bucktail, as compared to a few snowshoe feet or feathers taking 3-4 minutes to get the desired color, with a LOT less dye.

 

This is exactly the answer. Hard proteins (deer hair) on hide = more dye needed.

 

J

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Some good and not so good information here. Use a good acid dye to start. Also, you have to prewash the hide with a detergent and make sure that all the hair is completely saturated. This is especially true for feathers. Fat, Grease and dirt are you biggest enemies because they block the dye form being absorbed. The cleaner and more relaxed the fibers and the cell walls are the better your dye will be absorbed. Before you wash it, you should weigh the dry deer hair or the item you are going to dye. Most acid dyes you will use 1.5% to 3% dye per pound of material. For deer hair you can get away with a dye bath at about 140F but higher is ok and sometimes necessary for difficult colors. You should also add about 3% to 5% salt to your bath and that is also true for your acid. Pre mix the dye in a cup or two of hot or boiling water and then add it to your bath. Add your material to the bath and keep an eye on it and stir it often. A well run dye bath can take 15 minutes up to a few hours to complete. I like to add my acid about half way through the dye bath. If you are doing dark colors, you may have use about 5%, but any more is a waist. Also, be patient and let the dye do the work. Most dies are mixtures of other dies. Some colors will take up faster than others. So you may start off with your material looking gray and then yellow and then the final color. You know you are done when you reached you desired color or the dye bath is clear. Also, your material can only absorb so much dye so adding more dye will not make it darker in most cases. Adding more acid at the end of the bath after you are sure the material has absorbed as much as it can will often help it absorb more color. Also, sometime you just have to turn off the heat and walk away and let it cool down. Black you an let it sit overnight after you turned off the heat. Clean materials and a clean dye bath are important. Although people like Cool-Aid, I avoid it like the plague. All the other additives and flavorings are getting in the way of the dye particles and you are overpaying for the minuscule about of dye you get in the pack. Last note, just because a dye is labeled one color, does not mean that is the color you will end up with. Trial and error and taking good notes of your weights and measures is what it takes to get a good dye job. Black and Olive are very difficult for many reasons to get to come out the same every time.

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I've got ten or so blue eared pheasant feathers that have been died gray, but I want them black for a hairwing salmon fly swap I'm doing... any tips? I've been advised by my trusted local shop to mix brown and black rit dye with white vinegar, but I thought it worth checking in here first. Looks like I should also wash the feathers well with detergent before dying them, but any other advice is much appreciated. Last time I died anything was a tie died tee shirt as a kid in the 70's.

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I have tried black Rit dye and the result was a blue grey (Rit is not an acid dye).
The best dye to use with protein based material (fur & feathers) is an acid dye.
Don't be alarmed the acid used is white vinegar.
I have had good luck with Fly Dye in several colors.

As far as black I haven't tried it again, but plan to later this year.

Dye Sources:
Dharma Acid Dyes (dharmatrading.com)
Fly Dye Acid Dye (lureparts online)
Jacquard Acid Dyes (dharmatrading.com,Wallmart,Amazon

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@fshng2

Thanks for the heads up. My shop guy says he got the same blue gray with black rit, but that he got feathers black by mixing brown rit and vinegar in that pot together with the black....

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