How to Dye Fly Tying Materials - Saving Money with DIY tying materials
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- A primer on how to dye fur and feathers for fly tying. It really is not as complicated as you may think. Not only can you save money by only dying what you need, you can explore different colors and mixes to get exactly what you want.
The dye used in this video: amzn.to/3mBgoWa
Savage Flies is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River. I've been uploading at least three new videos a week (usually Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday).
Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know in the comments if you have any tying tips you would like to share or if you have any patterns you would like to see tied here. - กีฬา
Thanks for the video. I would love to see you talk/demonstrate the bleaching process and how it pertains to tying materials.
Matt, thank you i have always wanted to do this but did now how.
I am 79 year's old and have fished and hunted most all my life, in Washington, Alaska and Canada. I have a lot of fur and feathers. So I will be tying this.
Thank you.
Thanks Al! I appreciate it my friend. One note... I didn't make it to the post office yesterday (the line was out the door) but will have your vise in the mail Monday. Cheers. -Matt
Thanks Matt, you made it look simple enough but what a time consuming process. Thank you for sharing and looking forward to the next.
Thanks man. This dyeing was kind of a pain and unless I get better at it, I might not do it too often!
Just the video I was looking for.
Thanks good demo, very helpful
Sounds fun👍
wow looks cool may need to try this some time
I’ll have to try this!
You definitely should! I'm hoping my next batch or two of dyeing will turn out better. :-)
I think that someday I’ll have to try it!! Thank you Matt
You bet Rodolfo! I appreciate it my friend.
Very cool demo! Thx Matt
You bet Clyde, appreciate it my friend!
That is something that I have always wanted to try
Thanks Matt
Thanks Dave! It turned out to be a fairly time consuming process so probably not something I'm going to do too often. But it was fun to give it a try. :-)
Some great info. I recently got that book myself, I love it.
Wow, I thought I might be the only one with this book! Cool to hear that you have one too. Did you notice Leiser stores a lot of his materials in air-tight jars? I thought that was a pretty good idea, but would probably take up a lot of space.
Great video. My first materials dyeing experience 25 years ago was wool from a friend's sheep. I used cool-aid. As a result, I had a dubbing that looked like a rose-orange pink and I make some no.14 sized caddisflies that caught everything but TROUT LOL THANKS for a GREAT VIDEO. I like the see and do approach to FLY TYING. You inspire me to keep on experimenting don't wait "JUST DO IT" as Nike says.
James- great note and thank you! Now make sure to watch the last video. Looks like I made it just for you. :-)
FANTASTIC topic, VERY glad to see you tackle this subject and great video it is. MANY thanks !! L 👍🎣👍
Well thank you Leonard! I think this was the longest video I've made on the channel. It certainly took me the longest to make. I've got another dying/dubbing video bouncing around in my head, just need to carve out a full day to make it. Have a great weekend my friend. :-)
Sir Matt that was an amazing video sir. Alot of work, just like creating flies it's even more satisfying knowing you use materials that you dyed yourself. I know I'm not there yet but maybe someday... And thanks to you I'll know how to do it now. Your teaching is incredible thank you
Thanks Edward! Always appreciate it my friend. And you'll be there before you know it. :-)
Great job
Thanks George!
Funny, I took a crack at this for the first time last week. I used unsweetened kool aid packs. 3/4 green mixed with 1/4 orange makes a decent yellowy olive green on grizzley saddle hackle. Left in longer it does render a much deeper color. Loads of fun!
I've heard of using Kool Aid! I might give that a try too. Thanks!
I’ve been looking for something like this thanks
Thanks Josh! Appreciate you watching. :-)
Thanks Matt great demo. I’ve never tried anything but Quills for quill bodies.
Thanks Chip. This batch of green was kind of a mess, but the yellow I did turned out okay. Just trial and error I guess. :-)
good job Matt
Thanks John!
Cool I have some snowshoe hair to dye. It is nice and white
Awesome That is gonna help alot! Thanks
Thanks Richard. Good luck if you try it yourself. I've only made a few batches successfully. Some of mine end up being a huge mess. :-)
Great video matt, very informative. Will be trying this soon as I get a good supply of fur. You rock Matt. Keep it up brother
Thanks Michael! Appreciate the support my friend. :-)
Thanks for this video and demo. I have been wanting to try dying my own materials but I thought it was more difficult.
If you give it a try let me know how it works! Or if you learn any tips for me too. :-)
Looks like a lot of fun. I will have to try that down the line. Wife wants to know about food coloring. Thanks again Matt
Thanks Butch! I don't know about food coloring. I'm sure it would work, but would probably be just more expensive to dye a big piece of material with it. (And sorry I'm just responding! I just realized there is a comment section called "Held for review" and some comments that TH-cam thinks are links or hashtags end up there. Some do not but this one got stuck there and I just now saw it.)
@@SavageFlies Thanks Matt. I did some tinting on windows on RC airplanes . I used Rits dye in hot water.
Am glad I saw this video. I've dyed feathers and fur. I've seldom destroyed or dyed in failure. I agree white fur or feathers our best to start out on. One thing to note is if the fur is not natural. Meaning if the fur is already dyed. You can usually tell but sometimes ...it can be hard to tell. Everyone follow the steps in this video. I also agree the color of the materials is important. Natural grey dyed yellow makes a good olive. Natural white can be dyed any color. Natural Ginger/brown/ tan dyed yellow makes a golden yellow. If you payed attention in art class you wont have to many problems.
Thanks Colin! Great tips. We definitely want to pay attention to the color we start with. I'm going to have to practice a bit more before risking making a mess out of nice $30 cape. :-)
Real nice follow up video to the DIY dubbing video.
Thanks Nathan! Now hopefully the dubbing I make out of this dyed opossum turns out okay. :-)
thanks Matt
Appreciate it James!
Cool video
Thanks Mike; appreciate you watching!
Good job on this one,Matt.I have used several types of dye,both hot and cold.Cold just takes a lot longer.The only thing you missed was that dye material darker than you want because when it dries it will be a whole lot lighter.Problem comes up when using them is there are times that they don’t darken back up when rewetted.You may notice that some tan materials when dyed green become a dun shade,play with it,very useful.
Thanks Michael and yes, the green looks like it's going to take a lot longer than the yellow, or even the purple. I guess I could leave it in the warm dye bath for a few hours if needed. (And sorry again for the late response! YT thought this one had a link too.)
Thanks for the video, I’ve always wanted to try dying some squirrel tail
I actually did a squirrel tail in the yellow and it turned out okay. But only the white in it turned yellow, The grays and blacks pretty much stayed gray and black.
Thanks Matt, Great job. I have tried pheasant tail feathers with horrible luck. You are right with already dark colors it doesn’t take color well.
Yeah, we might be able to dye brown feathers a black color, but anything else we probably need to start with a white. :-)
I love your flag!!!
Well thank you Andrew. Judging by some of the hate mail I got on that, you and I might be the only ones in this community who do. :-)
Hey Matt - While I don’t generally sub to channels, I do generally watch and “like” all your videos. I subbed today to offset at least one potential “hater” who left you over a flag. Happy to leave politics out of fly fishing/tying, but when people give you crap for being in your own damned living room, well … I guess haters are gonna hate. Keep up the great work and stay true to you! We all appreciate it!
Hey John, I really appreciate that my friend! And yeah, I've learned a lot about what people will get on you about these last couple of years. But by and large, the commenters on here are overwhelmingly positive. And that certainly makes it easier to keep going. So thanks again for this note!
@@SavageFlies I died my first buck tails red with rit they turned out amazing!
Matt, I applaud your courage at doing this in your living room. Also, nice work on the camera views. Just like on a tv cooking show which is most helpful.
p.s. if you use chopsticks, I’ll bet they would work well to pick up materials from the pot.
Bob- chopsticks are a great idea! And believe me, this wasn't in my living room. It's the sitting area just outside my man cave in the basement. I can get away with a lot down here. :-)
Enjoyed the video. Found the process interesting but I don’t think I want to tackle dying materials for the next while. Good reference video if I decide at some point to give it a try.
Yeah, I'm not sure I'd recommend everyone do this either. It was a lot of work for just a little reward. I might try it again, but don't think I'll be doing it too often!
VERY INTERESTING MATT...BUT I THINK BEFORE I TRY THIS I WANT TO GET TO KNOW MATERIALS BETTER...AND GET MORE MATERIALS FOR TYING BEFORE I BUY THEM TO DYE...BUT I STILL ENJOYED WATCHING...AND AS ALWAY I WILL BE WATCHING....THANKS MATT VERY COOL...HAVE A AWESOME NIGHT...SEE YA JOE.
Thanks Joe! Yeah, I don't think I'm going to do this too often either. It was fun to try, but I'll probably only do it if I really need to. :-)
@@SavageFlies UNDERSTANDABLE....I THINK IT WOULD BE FUN TO TRY ALSO...BUT I NEED TO GET MORE MATERIALS FOR FLY TYING......GETTING CLOSE TO WHAT I THINK I NEED FROM STUDYING EVERYTHING I MAY NEED ...AND OF COURSE... AS I GO LIKE I BEEN DOING THANKS MATT FOR ALL YOUR HELP I REALLY APPRECIATE IT...
Nice tutorial, Matt. If those feathers took any dye, they could end up a decent light olive. At least that was what I achieved with a similar buff feather.
You're exactly right Jim... when they dried they did have a fairly unique olive/brown color.
I know absolutely nothing about fishing, but I need to dye a rabbit fur coat blue so here I am
Must be a Halloween costume! I would get a bucket big enough to hold enough water to completely submerge the coat. Then add water to it, and then pots of boiling water until you get it up to the right temperature. Then follow the steps here. And of course, you would need to use more dye than I used in here. For how much to use, I would just follow the instructions on the package of the dye you are using. And when you're done, probably take it outside and rinse it with a hose and hang it to dry. I think it will work fine, I would only caution to not let the water get too hot. You don't want hair falling out and causing it to be a patchy looking coat. Good luck!
Love the flag!
Hahaha! I appreciate it. And oh how this country might be different if Bernie could have pulled it off. 👍
@@SavageFlies It definitely stings to think about. Hopefully some change for the better can come around sooner rather than later. If I remember right I think you said you were getting ready to visit Iceland in your last few videos. Take care, and enjoy the trip!
@@tstthomason Thanks! We just got back this weekend. Overall it was a great trip. 🙂
@@SavageFlies Glad to hear it! As a knitter, flyfisher, and overall nature nerd Iceland is definitely on my bucket list.
I love the idea of using roadkill. The possum hair seemed to take the dye really well. I’m also thinking there’s probably not a better way to get fawn hairs and tails than scavenging road kill. The same probably goes for elk yearlings.
You know Mark, I hadn't thought about that but you're right. I see fawn roadkill around here in the mid-Atlantic states all the time, but you're never going to see patches of their hair in fly shops. As far as elk yearlings, we don't have elk here in Maryland so I'll have to take your word on that. :-)
Hey Matt. Now this is a different type of video. I had to split this to view the whole video in 2 days. Started yesterday but finished today lol. Very interesting. My only experience doing this was back in the time when I wanted to dye my old favorite jeans. Everything looks good, but that plastic spoon.... :)
Hey Otto my friend... please don't feel obligated to watch these way long videos! I know my average view duration will go down on these, but I tend to ramble on. I wish I could have made this video HALF as long. But... I'm experimenting with shorts. Take a look at this one, it's not public, so still a draft: th-cam.com/video/IqYDtJisza4/w-d-xo.html
@@SavageFlies not obligated at all. They are fun to watch. It's just my attention time on videos are around 10 min. Anything on any channel higher than that which is not an actual show or similar I tend not to finish. If it's something that it's interesting or if I'm learning something new I usually split them up. And the story keeps going on lol
@@SavageFlies ok watched. Interesting to capture more viewers. But just like I told Sarge, these kind of shorts don't get featured as shorts. This is like the community tab, which gets activated at 1000 subs. The short upload tab gets activated at 10K. For me (Myyyyy opinion) is that there is a time and moment for each of these features. I have never seen any shorts from smaller channels on my shorts list. Except one time, which I'm guessing was completely random
@@OttoJulian_ Good points! And you're probably right. But I'm curious how the shorts that show up in my feed get there. Most seem random, but I do see a fly tying one right now and it's a small channel so it makes me wonder. I don't think many fly tiers make shorts. (Most of us are too old and not tech savvy!) I think I might try one since it only took about ten minutes to make. So... let me know if it shows up on your "short shelf."
@@SavageFlies I will let you know! How many subs does that channel have? The way they are supposed to show up are if people use the shorts tab. But if you or sarge find something different doo let me know. Fun fact, I am subscribed to just a handful of channels, and the chances of me seeing something like this on my feed is supposed to be higher (I see the shorts of channels I'm subbed to, and similar channels but they are never small channels)
OH AND THE BOOK IN THIS VIDEO IS ON AMAZON....SO I WILL PROBABLY BE GETTING IT ....THANKS AGAIN...SEE YA JOE
Go for it Joe! I saw the other books in your collection, and for $8-10 you can get this one, I think it'll be worth it. :-)
Nice Fly, easy tie. I like the locking tip for the elk hair. Looking at the Tupps irresistible. Do you have any recommendations for the what I would call the exotic materials used in the 1890S? I have been blending some dubbing to get the pinkish look but at this point I’m just guessing.
Funny you mention that Mark! I was just reading Mike Valla's "Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies" over Christmas break and he has great instructions on how to make a substitute for a Tups (page 186 if you have the book). If not, it's basically equal lengths of red yarn and cream wool (or wool yarn) and orange wool yarn. I also found a link in a forum where Mike answers this as well. www.sparsegreymatter.com/viewtopic.php?t=10363
Thank you for this vid! Very informative! What I get out of this is that I will rarely dye, but still need the experience period. I have soooo much yarn I need to use so I’ll use that for now but I do have A LOT of white acrylic iced yarn since it’s a neutral color so it goes with everything. Hence the need to dye. Now that I’m looking at my colors... there’s a lot of bright colors... wtf is wrong with me...
Great review. Tools are very personal. But we all can always use extra tools. Thanks for the review. #BUNNY
Richard- you left this comment on the wrong video! (This was probably the one that auto-played next so it might have gone to this right before you left your comment.) Just make sure you go back to the Umpqua one to leave the hashtag and you'll be good. :-)
Great info. But I wouldn't be allowed to dye in her living room! 🤠
Ha! I couldn't dye in our living room either! I've just got this couch down here in my man cave. And my wife rarely comes down here. :-)
Great video! Was curious since I collect alot of my own materials how would one go about bleaching materials not alot of information on youtube about this. Mostly interested in ratio of bleach to water etc.
Great question Steven... one thing I did learn. Do NOT bleach feathers. They completely disintegrate. I also tried bleaching some mink and muskrat and they didn't do well at all with full strength Clorox. Leiser's book mentioned it a little, and said you could use it straight from the container, or dilute it a little. The deer hair bleached okay, but the smaller mammals didn't. I think we'll have to dilute the bleach at least by half and can't leave it in very long. I'm going to practice bleaching with a few scrap pelts so I'll let you know how it goes.
If you can find a copy, get AK Best’s Dying and Bleaching Natural Fly Tying Materials. From his book:
Mix six scoops (a small plastic scoop comes in the Clairol can) of Clairol Basic Professional White, Extra Strength Powder Lightener with a little hot water to make a paste. Keep thinning this paste until you have a two-cup container of a thin milky solution. Pour this solution into your dyeing pan. Then:
Add one cup of forty percent volume peroxide and mix the two ingredients thoroughly.
Add one half cup ammonia and mix thoroughly.
Add four cups hot tap water and mix thoroughly again
@@themazamen Outstanding! I'm going to look for this one...
Love the video and you have an awesome collection of furs. I noticed that after I dye my furs, the hides get super hard and brittle. Curious if you know what I’m doing wrong.
I'm not really sure why yours got hard and brittle The ones I did yesterday are mostly dry now and none seem too hard. But I'm certainly no expert!
I'm dyeing for other than fly tying, so not sure if you'd have the same kind of issue, but what do you do about the dye rubbing and how do you keep the hide from being stripped of oils when washing it out after dyeing? I was doing a bit of goat fur on the hide this week and trying to get enough of the excess, unset dye out of it, you know, the extra that comes off rubbing on things (crocking), and I just wound up killing the hide itself, just stiff and completely unpliable.
any recommendations for treating something like a pheasant body and feathers? My brother got my a mess of pheasant while hunting but im not sure how to prep it for tying. Love the channel!
Lucky you Andrew! You do have to be a little more careful with a bird skin than say, a rabbit or fox pelt. You can't just turn it upside down and scrape the heck out of it. I'm sure there are professionals who might have a better method, but I would simply tack them to a big board upside down (feathers toward the board and skin side up), then coat the skin literally with salt. The salt will act as a desiccant and draw the moisture out. I'll let them sit like this in my garage for a couple of days. If you see a lot of grease or oil puddling up, you can brush the salt off and apply another application. But you may not need to. They are going to dry fairly hard but if you have them tacked in enough places, they won't curl all up on you. Good luck!
Koolaid packets work as a dye as well.
I’ve heard that from more than a few people here. I’m going to have to give it a try!
Any tips for bleaching material? I have a ton of natural squirrel zonker and want to try turning some of it white. I've dyed materials to various colors, but haven't tried bleaching before.
Thanks for the question Pat! Bleaching can be tricky. I've had moderate success with some hairs (like deer and elk), but have never tried squirrel. You'll want to use peroxide, but not necessarily full strength, if what you have is already 20%. Maybe dilute it by about 1/3 or 1/4 with water. You might have to leave it in longer, but it should lighten up a noticeable amount. And note, some furs could take hours, even overnight to get the lighter shade you want. But you also risk weakening the hide the furs are on the longer you leave it submerged. So it's kind of a trial and error. And note, some hairs just don't bleach very well. And by "bleach" I really mean using peroxide. You really don't want to use something like Clorox as that is very caustic and actually burns materials. If you use Clorox on feathers, you'll burn off all the fibers and only have stems left. Which his actually how a lot of people make their quills for quill bodies. I hope this helps!
@@SavageFlies Awesome thanks for the detailed reply! I couldn't really find much online other than recommendations for AK Best's book on dyeing...but I didn't want to spend $50 at Amazon just for some white squirrel lol...I'll try a diluted peroxide bath overnight. I've "burned" feathers before using too much heat and/or acid and even if they take the color well, the natural materials get damaged too much.
Interesting exercise in color adjustment. Lots of easter eggs, tie dyed shirts, handkerchiefs, a few pair of shoes, a dress or two, a couple pair of pants, in our house my wife is the expert.... fun video. Maybe the mink had aged too long.
I'm not sure Lee. The mink felt pretty solid before putting it in the bath, albeit the hide was thin. Maybe mink dubbing will have to be cut in with synthetic yarn to get the colors...
Well Done Video!!! I've been dying materials for a few years now with good results using paste style food coloring "Wilton" brand. It works well with most colors using the same method you have shown here, but I have not had much luck with a good deep black. Any tips would be welcomed.
Thanks Richard! I haven't dyed anything black yet but will let you know if I do and have any success. This weekend was my first attempt at it dyeing anything and I've still got some practicing to do. :-)
Excellent video on material dying! I tried dying a small patch of fur. The color came out fine but the hide broke apart into 3 pieces as I removed it from the dye bath. Any thoughts on what I may have done wrong?Thanks for all the tips in this and your other videos.
Sam- this has happened to me as well. And I *think* there are three main causes. 1) the water could have been too hot. 2) we could have left it in too long, or 3) it may have been an old patch of fur that was just too brittle to stand up to this fairly caustic dyeing process. As for the time in the dye bath, this is hard to judge how long is too long. Because if you don't leave it in long enough, the fur won't get to the shade you want. In this case, our best bet is probably to lower the temp and leave it in longer. As far as using old patches, I think they just aren't going to work very well. I dyed some mink that totally fell apart on me. The patches were probably 20 years old, but fur was still perfect and I could easily make dubbing from it. But after twenty minutes in a dye bath it had fallen apart into a bunch of pieces no bigger than a dime. And I had some muskrat start to fall apart on me too. And that felt like a pretty fresh pelt so I think I just had the water too hot. I guess it's just like Eric Leiser says in his book, that a lot of it is a trial and error process. Good luck!
@@SavageFlies I think you nailed it! Looking back I did find the patch very stiff and somewhat curled. Thanks so much.
when you use "found" hides do you tan the skins or use / dye them "raw". Thanks.
I've just done them "raw" but tanning them before would certainly be the better option. If for example, you had a roadkill raccoon or opossum you'd have to really scrape all the fatty tissue from the underside of the hide or some of that oil will come off in the dye bath and anywhere it lands on the hair, the dye won't take very well. I suppose what you could do, and I haven't tried this is to put the hide in near-boiling water for a few minutes (maybe 180-190 degrees). Then scrape it again to try and get all the fatty tissue off before putting it in the dye bath. But honestly, the only thing I have dyed since making this video is some pelts that I bought that were already tanned. They're just much easier and come out much better than raw patches of fur.
Does it degrade the floating ability when you clean the furs?
That's a good question Jim, and my guess is that it might for oily feathers like CDC, but just from playing around with the deer hair, I don't think it will effect its floating ability.
Soak your materials a good floatant,silicon spray works well too.
@@epsieblaine9558 thanks another good idea 👍
Love the video, Matt. Maybe one day I will try too. Love the “Feel the Bern”!
Thanks Gian! Appreciate the note my friend. :-)
If I debonair and salt my bucktails to preserve them and come back to dye later, will that lead to them rotting?
Not necessarily Lee. Just try to get as much of the fatty tissue off the underside as you can or it'll make a mess in the dye bath. If you have globules of fat floating around in the water, it could get on the hairs you want to dye and could make them a bit splotchy. I learned that with trying to dye raccoon or fox that I skinned myself. I'd think bucktails would be less of a problem though. And you can always put more salt on the underside after dyeing which should help preserve them longer.
I have always wanted to try it but just never done it!
Give it a shot Franky... I'm sure it'll turn at as good or better than the ones I did!
Anything that saves money I am in full support. Nice 1. Like32 let's grow. New here and support you
Wow, Jim Cornette has really let himself go. 😳👍🤣😁
I am DIY my UV Resin. I get standard uv resin at $20 a quart. I then use dye for colors for hot spots. I then will thin it down and put in empty nail polish jars. I am also adding silica to thicken and silicone to make it flexible. I also put the resin in needle applicators.
All this and cost less then one large bottle of loon uv resin.
Wow Marcm that is quite a DIY project! I was just about to recommend getting some of the needle applicators. I bought a bag last year with probably a dozen in it for really cheap. Thanks for the great comment!
I'm sure, if you get realy into these processes, you will quick move to the kitchen.
Ha! Maybe if I'm at home while my wife is out I could try it in the kitchen. :-)
Good instructions. The only bad part was the Bernie Sanders flag on your wall. Socialism is a dead end, a killer. Thx.
Well, I appreciate the note my friend. 👍