Just a note: I had some time last fall to spend a couple days at the Spirit River plant and warehouses in Glide, Oregon.
The Spirit River dyeing plant is overseen by the EPA, as their dyeing process uses chemicals that are not available to most people. Every step is monitored by the EPA. We are talking hazardous stuff here. That's why it is so hard for the every day fly tier to get dependable results that match the store-bought dyed products. What was amazing is the quantity of feathers they go through to maintain stock. The most difficult thing is to match the colors in the official company color charts. I came home with two gallon volume worth of mis-dyed marabou in all sorts of colors. Literally stuff put into the waste bin from the tying room operation because it did not match the color on the quality control patches. Dyeing results and colors will differ according to how much oil the material has in its feathers or fur, the age of the pelt, or what portion of the hide (back, belly, side) is being used to dye. All these variables is why most fly tiers do not get consistent results while dyeing. Wes On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 1:38 PM, Chuck Alexander < chuckalexan...@centurylink.net> wrote: > Thanks a lot. I love anything by A. K. Best anyway, and didn’t even > know he had this book. Chuck > > *From:* aflyt...@comcast.net > *Sent:* Tuesday, November 18, 2014 1:27 PM > *To:* mail, vfb <vfb-mail@googlegroups.com> > *Subject:* Re: [VFB] Dying feathers with Rit dye ??? > > Chuck > Get a copy of A.K. Best's book DYING & BLEACHING Natural fly-tying > materials. Feathers and cotton do not dye the same way. Best has full > instructions and will take you through it step by step. > Gary s > > ------------------------------ > Folks: Can anybody give me the “secret” to dying feathers (and/or > fabric) with Rit dye?? What happened is that my son had some dark purple > demin material he wanted dyed black. He added TWO boxes of Rit dye to the > three gallons or so of water as he had four yards of material to dye. Adde > the salt but not the vinegar as it said to only use the vinegar with salt > if the material is silk or wool and not cotton. Brought the water to a > boil, then let it soak all day. Still just came out a darker purple and NIT > jet black like the dye is. > > Now is my problem in that. He saved the water as I have a ton of grizzly > feathers, but hardly any black, so I was just going to sye a grizzly neck > in that same dye water mix after he finished. But I don’t want the grizzly > to go from black and white, to purple ad white. Any tips?? Should I add > vinegar?? Thanks, Chuck > > > > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" > group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VFB Mail" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to vfb-mail+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" > group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VFB Mail" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to vfb-mail+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" > group. > > To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VFB Mail" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to vfb-mail+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VFB Mail" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vfb-mail+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
