Dying fur

[Dougie Smith]

I have wanted to try dying fly tying material for a while now, and finally got the chance last night (because my wife is out of town for a few days!). It's surprisingly easy, so in case anyone is interested I thought I'd tell you how.
1. Make sure the wife is out for a few hours or, in case anything goes wrong, days!
2. Clean the fur to get rid of any oils in it. I used washing powder, some folk use shampoo. I used a rabbit pelt that had been air dried whilst tacked to a board.
3. Put the dye in a litre of hot water in a saucepan. Use a saucepan that your wife either doesn't use often or doesn't even know exists (honest, I'm not under the thumb!). I used Veniards dye, which says to use a quarter tea spoon of dye per litre of water. Since I was dying the fur dark claret (for DHE's and DHS's) I doubled this amount.
4. Add a tablespoon of vinegar - this sets the dye so that it doesn't run. Again, I doubled the amount recommended to two spoons.
5. Return the liquid to a simmer, add the fur and simmer away gently. I picked it out occasionally to see how things were, but since I wanted the fur as dark as possible I just left it for about ten minutes.
6. Rinse the fur in cold water and dry it.

It's easy, and the results are good. As a bonus the pelt has shrunk a bit and the leather is much softer. I find rabbit fur much easier to dub than seals fur (although that's not too hard). I have ready access to pelts, which is why I thought I'd give it a go.