Adventures W/ Dying Polar Bear Fur

[alhuger]

Over the winter I spent some time dying polar bear fur. I dyed a series of smallish tufts (although a little does go along way) into a variety of colors. I used Veniard dye and RIT fabric dye and was generally pretty pleased with both. Veniard is more expensive and difficult to find but it does have some more unique colors than RIT. I ended up going with my own method for dying based of conversations with Veniard and trial and error. Veniard sent me the following instructions for using their dyes, which was quite helpful (my dye had no instructions):

 

 

. ◦First clean the feathers by soaking in any good detergent (Venpol for preference), or a quality soap powder for a few minutes.(Waterfowl feathers must be soaked considerably longer to allow penetration of the natural oil coating). Rinse in cold water. 



. ◦Dissolve approximately a quarter of a teaspoon of dye in about a litre of boiling water and stir until completely dissolved, then add one table spoon of Acetic acid (if available) or Vinegar. (To fix the colour)


. ◦Black and all other dark shades should have a much stronger dye bath with more acid or vinegar.



. ◦Put in the feathers to be dyed and return to the simmer keeping the plumes moving all the time.



. ◦Most dyes are a mixture of three colours so it is essential to allow time for all the colours to penetrate to obtain the correct shade. They do not fix at the same rate so withdrawing the feathers too soon could result in the wrong shade. You can get a good idea of what the final shade will be by watching the quill or by holding a single feather up to the light. (bear in mind the feather will look a lot darker when wet).



. ◦Remove all feathers from the dye bath and rinse well in cold water. Press the feathers between cloth or paper to remove most of the moisture. Allow to dry naturally.



. ◦To bring hackles back to their natural brilliance they should be partially dried and then placed in a cardboard lid blown with a hair dryer and shaken gently until dry.



. ◦These directions also apply to furs and wool’s etc. 


 

I ended up using this process more or less except I used palm olive (which works well) and white vinegar (which also works well). I cut the fur to the lengths I desired and then put the dye in the (Sunterra) tupperware containers. I followed this by pouring boiled water from the tea kettle on it. I would then stir it until the color was consistent and leave it stirring it every now and then. I would generally leave them over night and then remove them and thoroughly rinse them in cold water. After I removed them I air dried them for the day. If when they were dry and the colors were not deep enough I re-dyed them. I found that I got some great colors like a frosty grey/black by under dying a shank of black fur.

 

 

My first pass looked like this:

 

 

I plan to dye some longer shanks soon and I will write up the details when they are fresh in my mind.

 

I actually just read an excellent post on Speypages in reference to this topic. Here it is:

 

http://speypages.com/speyclave/showthread....+best+way+to+go

 

Absolutely worth a read.

 

My favorite colors so far are below. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Kingfisher Blue

 

Hot Pink

 

Gold

[trailhead]

You killed a polar bear? Man PETA is gonna nail yer ass.

[cheeler]

I used kool-aid for polar bear as well (same process with the vinegar, heat etc) and had good results, getting a bright orange.

[alhuger]

You killed a polar bear? Man PETA is gonna nail yer ass.

 

 

Seemed like a better alternative than trying to shave it...

[SteveM]

Seemed like a better alternative than trying to shave it...

 

:laugh: :laugh:

Classic! LMAO

 

[pkk]

well done. those are some good colors. koolaid also has some good colors. set it the same way as a dye.

PK

[Fisherwoman]

Seemed like a better alternative than trying to shave it...

 

 

Hi, To bad all these animals couldn't be shaved, that's a good idea.... someone sent me a vidio of animals being skined alive, that nearly killed me seeing that.

[cuttbow]

Go kool-ade

Have a recipe from a old flyfishn mag has 4 or 5 shades of olives and the other colors. Cant be beat and 3 for a buck. Cant do the polar bear but i love the seal fur, Ouch sorry lynn.

[SilverDoctor]

Thanks a Lot a Lynn now I have a vision of naked seals and polar bears running around the north sea ice. Humm, I need some deer hair I wonder if I grabbed my electric shaver and found a deer.......

 

 

[Fisherwoman]

Thanks a Lot a Lynn now I have a vision of naked seals and polar bears running around the north sea ice. Humm, I need some deer hair I wonder if I grabbed my electric shaver and found a deer.......

 

 

Hi, good Lynn is like that too.. When I first started fly fishing I asked where the fly tying supplies came from.. the deer hair and seal dub now polar bear..... god.. well I then thought, Well~ It's ok, ok it's ok, I'm sure these animals are not suffering from a visious kil.. like the dogs I saw on a vidio.... it was awful what I saw. If anyone wants to go and see it's on the internet! look up animals skined alive.

 

Today, I went out to get some seal dub for my fly swap I'm in, I only need enough for 3 more flies, Nope no one has any.. Now I'm thinking am I a hipercrit! I know I am not, so I will stop now and continue on making my fish flies.

 

Thanks..

[cuttbow]

Should be able to find some , They just shaved 150,000 of them. But i do have a couple year supply. Just dont take your seal leaches to the USA its a big no no.

[bhurt]

Last time I played with dyes, I died my hands blue for 3 weeks..........