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Fly Tying
richmce

dying sheep wool on thehide

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i have a huge bag of long hair wool on the hide,scraps from a coat and rug company . ive heard of using koolaid, food coloring and rit dye .   i have alot of white  and would like more yellow, brown green and black . pieces  are 4x8inch   what works best?

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I've got about 7 bucktails sitting in my freezer waiting to be dyed, so looking forward to some answers to you question. 

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I've never dyed wool but suspect unless it was commercially tanned you may have an issue with the lanolin, still cleaning degreasing (soap & water soak) I have only used Rit and Jacquard Acid Dyes (white vinegar for acid) but would not know where to start a recipe (amount of dye, water, temperature, and soak time) for wool. I will say that most recipes blend more than one color of dye to achieve results and I almost never have been able to repeat the same exact color twice.    

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On 12/7/2022 at 10:58 PM, richmce said:

black

rich the best black is usually overdyed from dark brown or dark red (my experience) never tried Kool-Aid waiting to see results.

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tried 3 batches  all with white long wool 3x3 patches .

1st was 2cups of hotwater with 1/2pack of yellow rit powder definitey yellower  tips are darker but that may change when dried. also added a white bucktail. was in the pie tin for 40 mins. bucktail is not as yellow as wool

2nd was 2 cups of hot water and 3 caps of liquid rit in gray  t stirred for 40 min     nice medium gray ,tips darker  i liked this the best

3rd was 2cups of hot water and two full packs of kool aid in grape and black cherry.      same timein solution  but didnt cover the middle and base of fibers  tips were ok

i will wait till they are all dried and combed out to make my final decision.    i will  try sharpie or prismcolor markers   saturday

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m ore comments    after drying overnight i brushed them out as they were twisted and tangled.  brushed with toothbrush,velcro and plastic comb.  no matter what i used it came out frizzled.  fibers feel softer.  tried using prismcolor markers on new white fibers  seems to work nice.i think the dyed fibers may work better on smaller crappie size flies and jigs  . i will tie several up and see how they do when they get wet again.  the rit liquid did turn out best colorwise, koolaid the worst and it also smelled like black cherry.

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tested them again monday     the fuzzed out flies do go backto the straighter shape when wet. and they dry that way too.did notice that once they got wet they sank slow  but after another cast you had to wait again for it to sink.   sounds like some weight is needed     flies colored with a prismcolor marker stayed vivid. 

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Just my two cents, but the best dye for protein fibers (animal fur and feathers) is either Veniard dyes (specially blended for tying materials and no mixing to get the right color) or Dharma Acid dye. 
make sure you get the wool clean and natural oils are off (synthropol or dawn).
Acid dye requires heat and a fixative such as citric acid or vinegar. You’ll find both easily in the grocery store. Citric acid doesn’t leave a smell. You only need a small amount of the dye pigment to get your desired color. 
If you want bright colors (hot orange or chartreuse) you need higher heat. 
Not that Koolaid or Rit are bad dye mediums, my experience has been they bleed out their color when fished. Especially blues and reds. 
feel free to contact me if you want to get in depth. 

Semper Fidelis

Jim
 

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