Dying Thin Skinned Fur's

[BassMouth87 0]

I have played around with dying my own furs in the past and had moderate success using kool aid and vinegar. This weekend I tried using some fabric dyes that were supposed to be similar to rit and found the results were garbage. The jet black dye turned the white arctic fox I was dying grey...a cool baitfish color but not the black I was after for winging steelhead flies. I noticed on this batch that I have had some issues with the skin ripping and breaking apart causing the hair to separate from the skin in places. It does this on the red fox pelt I have and the arctic fox, both are very well skilled and dried, looks like they used sawdust, and no fat is left on the pelt in the majority of places.

 

I have a coyote pelt and another red fox pelt that have more fat left on the hide leaving a thicker leather that holds together better when dyed in hot baths and handled.

 

My question is does anyone have any ways to dye these more fragile pelts without causing the skin to rip apart and mess up the fur? Has anyone come across this problem before?

 

I want to have another angle before I go and purchase acid dyes to get the job done properly, a friend and myself have a $100 acid dye order planned that will be split in half, 2oz's of 11 different colors to play with.

[BassMouth87 0]

Some of the SD blue arctic fox created with Kool-aid...you can see on the last picture what I am talking about with the skin breaking and separating...the fur is only being held on because of the dense under fur...if I moved it around to much or tried to brush it I can guarantee it would all fall apart at this moment.

 

[joseph russell 0]

Looks great I have never did a pelt only experiments on my dogs fur and other stuff . I just used food coloring and vinegar. These are the colors I have made and one is her natural color I will have to give a pelt a try and see how it works.

[BassMouth87 0]

Hmmm food coloring might be a good idea as well...Have been slicing small sections of pelts and dying in small batches...the kool aid is very limiting but gives some nice vivid colors.

 

The acid dyes are fairly cheap, its the import fee's and shipping from the U.S to Canada that kills me every time. The order I have my eyes on is $60USD for the actual dye, works out to $108 after shipping taxes and duties is applies though.

[Stevester 0]

Just an off the top of my head guess but it is possible that the acid in the vinegar is causing an issue with the proteins in the skin of the pelt. Can you try shortening the time you expose it to the vinegar?

 

Steve

[BassMouth87 0]

Very possible...could always switch to citric acid to see if that makes a difference.

[joseph russell 0]

I only used a cap full of vinegar but this is to set the color . Maybe limit the time and rinse it sooner maybe

[joseph russell 0]

The food coloring was only like $2.00 I think I have never used cool aid but there are more cool aid colors that's for sure.

[BassMouth87 0]

Now that I think about it the vinegar does not play a part in the skin falling apart, I ran out and this batch was done without any vinegar.

[Piker20 0]

Did you soak the skin in cool water first before the dye bath? I have just washed two thin red fox skins that were perfectly cured, no hint of fat left but the fur was not washed. They had no problems in a hand wash hot bath with some washing up liquid. Wondering if you just placed your skin into too hot a dye bath. Maybe rehydrating the skin a little first in cooler water???

[Stevester 0]

Can't hurt to try Pikers procedure, although I think he meant rehydrate not dehydrate. You should keep a record of the time, temperature and dye amounts used for each batch. I is hard to repeat results just from memory.

 

Steve

[Piker20 0]

Doh, edited my post to replace it.

[BassMouth87 0]

Usually do a hot tap water soak with some mild soap for 45 minutes or so, then rinse the materials and into the dye bath.

[Piker20 0]

Don't know then. You'll have to try stevesters idea on keeping record of temp and soak time and dye amount to see if you can find the ruin point. Cut a small length from a pelt and then cut that into small squares to test.

[BassMouth87 0]

I think the degeneration is happening even after the soak, not sure exactly what is going on but by the time its been soaked, dyed and dried its all falling apart.