Best Dye !

[Moshup 0]

I need to dye a grizzly saddle to chartruese ! Anyone have a recommendation of what maybe the best dye to use ? Thanks.

[FIN-ITE 34 0]

http://www.jsflyfishing.com/jacquard--products-acid-dye

 

If you want a really good dye, skip the fruit punch, food coloring and Rit.

[rockworm 0]

I haven't used Jacquard, but Veniard's gives excellent results.

[Mike West 0]

Ive always used Veniard in the past also

[mvendon 0]

Cushing's acid dyes are another option too .

 

Regards,

Mark

[tidewaterfly 0]

I buy acid dyes from Dharma Trading Co. They have their own brand & they sell Jacquard. I've used both with good results. The Jacquard brand is more costly, but for some colors I prefer it. As far as chartreuse, it's not a difficult color to dye, but depends on the shade you want. I like both those that are more to the yellow side & those to the greener side for some flies.

 

https://www.dharmatrading.com/dyes/dharma-acid-dyes.html?lnav=dyes.html

[Moshup 0]

Thanks for all the info guys.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

A minor point to remember about dyeing materials... With your chosen dye you may come up with great results - the hard part for me was always doing a second batch and getting the exact same shade that I got the first time.... As a result I always did quite a bit more than I needed that first time (so that I'd have a supply when customers re-ordered that particular pattern over the years..). Eventually I quit dyeing anything and relied on great suppliers to provide that exact shade over and over again... None of this a problem for a recreational tyer, of course - just something to keep in mind if you ever need to do a particular pattern in quantity and then repeat it with the exact color that the first batch had...

[tidewaterfly 0]

Great point Capt Bob! If you want consistent repeated results, be precise & write everything down. A good scale (for small batches a jewelers scale works well & are not expensive & can also be used for checking fly lines) & measuring cups/spoons helps a lot. I keep these separate from any used for food prep, because dyes are chemicals, and not worth the risk of making someone sick. Also measuring by weight or by volume can result in variations in the final color so again, it's best to write down what you're doing.

 

I've found that colors like chartreuse are not difficult to repeat if you're using the dye as it comes, but if you start mixing to get specific shades or some other colors can be more difficult to repeat the results. Different dye bath volumes & the materials makes a big difference in the results so try to be as consistent as possible. For example, if you dye a whole neck, then dye bucktails or even strung hackle, with the same color dye, the resulting shade may not be exactly the same especially if you don't know how much water or dye you used in each bath. Get a good thermometer too, for monitoring as dye bath temp can be important for consistency.

 

Again, a color like chartreuse may be close enough, but not all colors will. For personal tying, it may not matter to you, but it never hurts to write it all down for future reference.