Material Dye Questions. Dyeing Feathers and Hair

[strousek]

This is a fly fishing or more specifically fly tying question' but I figured some guys here might have some advice. Does anyone have experience with dying deer/elk hair or feathers for fly tying? Between my son and I we generally end up with a couple whitetail, an elk and a couple mule deer a year. I hate throwing away all that good fly tying hair but there is only so many patterns you can tie with natural colors. I would really like to start dying some patches in bright yellows, greens, red and so on for bass poppers. We also have buckets of pheasant and turkey feathers I have saved through the years. I am interested in dying those as well for different items. Anybody know of good dye that wont fade off when fishing? I would assume I would need to bleach the hair out first and then dye it to get a good bright color like the fly in the picture below.

 

[Turkey-duke]

Slightly different application but I have had good success dying feather fletchings in Kool-aid. I typically mix about 2-3 cups of water (warm or hot) with 2 packs of Kool-aid (the old school packets not the premixed stuff). I’ll add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the mixture then add the fletchings overnight. Colors do not run when wet so I think it would work in this application as well. I’m not sure on hair, probably would work on bucktails.

 

[JeffP_Or]

Standard old RIT dyes is all I have ever heard people use; but limited success as you have mentioned [fading; but really, how long does a fly last with fish slamming it all the time! ].

Acid dyes are mentioned as 'the key' - name of "Jacquard acid dyes". Also "WashFast" by PRO Chemical. Vinegar [like for Easter egg dying] is the catalyst. Look up also 'Synthrapol'. All this and it still needs to be "set".

If you go the Kool-Aid route for bright colors and ease; there can be inconsistency. Also, go with unsweetened as that is acid based as well.

 

[EdP]

Dyes are formulated for the material being dyed. There are different formulations for vegetable based material such as cotton fabric vs protein based material such as wool or hair. You could try using hair dye. It used to be available only in natural human colors but no more. Now you see women with their hair dyed red, green, orange, purple, blue, etc. All available at your local walmart I suspect. Another option might be the process used to dye porcupine quills for quillwork. There is lots of info on that on the web, some of it using Koolaid as mentioned above.

 

[strousek]

Thanks for the tips guys. I will give the Kool-Aid a try on some random feathers and report back.

 

[Grassymike]

Dyes are formulated for the material being dyed. There are different formulations for vegetable based material such as cotton fabric vs protein based material such as wool or hair. You could try using hair dye. It used to be available only in natural human colors but no more. Now you see women with their hair dyed red, green, orange, purple, blue, etc. All available at your local walmart I suspect. Another option might be the process used to dye porcupine quills for quillwork. There is lots of info on that on the web, some of it using Koolaid as mentioned above.

My oldest daughter is a hair stylist. I am going to talk to her and try to get my hands on some salon grade dye now. Thanks for sharing the two types of dye info.