Preparation

[Traditionalist]

Ok so we have managed to collect vast amounts of various furs and feathers either cheaply or for nothing by the various means at our disposal, how do we sort it out, how do we prepare and use it ?

One of the best and simplest ways of improving some furs and feathers for use in fly dressing, including the purchased ones, is simply washing them in warm soapy water, rinsing well to remove all traces of soap and then blow drying with a hair drier, without letting the material get too warm. Many cheap capes look very much better after this treatment, and certainly improve in value and use potential. Hair and fur also invariably benefits from this treatment. I like to wash nearly all my materials anyway purely as a matter of hygiene.

Some materials benefit considerably from a wash in hair conditioner, or fabric softener, this makes them more pliable usually and easier to handle. You will have to experiment here with small amounts of material. This is still in the experimental stage for me. It is not of course desirable to soften dry fly hackles!

High quality capes from Whiting and other firms have already usually been treated to their maximum potential before sale, and should not be given any further home treatments, this is more likely to damage them than improve them.

Fur to be used for dubbing should be washed on the skin, as described, and when it is completely dry, either stored complete, or removed using a beard trimmer or similar and blended according to taste before use. The methods for doing this were described in an earlier lesson. Putting the fur through a blender makes it slightly easier to handle and gives it a much nicer appearance. A coffee grinder of the type shown here is excellent for this purpose;



but any food blender will also work. The type with rotating knives are the best, and the main advantage of a blender over a grinder is that you can blend wet. This makes a better blend usually.  DO NOT use water in a grinder, it will short circuit.

The best way to store loose fur is in zip-lock bags of the appropriate size. Label the bags with a marker as to type colour etc before storing. For operational quantities on the tying bench I like to use the small airtight plastic film containers. Most photographic shops will quite happily give these away if asked. Some boxes I use are also shown below.

Dyeing is also a way of improving our materials or making them more suitable to our requirements. Most feathers and furs will take dye well, the results may however be somewhat surprising if you use coloured base material to start with, although this may also be desirable in order to achieve certain colours.



The absolutely iron rule for obtaining pure bright solid colours is to use perfectly pure white material to start with. The material must be thoroughly degreased, free from soap or other substances , and completely and thoroughly wet when it goes into the previously prepared dye bath. I have used many dyes over the years, even some complicated and exotic recipes from older books on fly dressing.



For a long time I used Veniard´s special fly dressing dyes almost exclusively. I could obtain nearly all the colours and shades I wanted with relatively little expenditure of time effort and money, the results are excellent, and may be reproduced at will if a little discipline and method is adhered to when dyeing. These dyes are for hot dyeing in a water bath. In the meantime, although I still use these dyes, because I still have a large selection of them, I have moved on to other dyes and methods for many materials.

There are other methods of dyeing but these are sometimes quite complicated and expensive, photo dyeing is an excellent way of dyeing expensive capes as they are less likely to be damaged than by hot dyeing. In this process the material to be dyed is soaked through with photographic solution, and then developed just like a film. This process is complicated and the chemicals used are very poisonous. Mainly silver salts.

As far as washing goes I usually wash my material in the bathtub, and then rinse it thoroughly in clean water. A solution of ordinary washing up liquid works perfectly, the material, especially feathers on the skin, and bushy fur or hair should be soaked for a while, ten minutes is usually enough, and then gently swayed back and forth in the solution to ensure complete penetration of the detergent, avoid bending or squeezing capes and other feathers, it may cause feathers to fall out or be otherwise damaged. Do not leave materials in water too long, the hair or fur will start to fall out ( known as slip ).

Heavily soiled or extremely oily raw material such as bucktail or similar hair and fur may need degreasing with something a bit stronger than washing up liquid. For this I use a solution of so called "biological" detergent as used in a household washing machine for soiled clothing.

I have never found the need to use anything else, although some special products are offered for this purpose, notably Veniards "Venpol". A thorough rinse off is essential here. Tanned skins just need a quick wash in a light solution of washing up liquid, and then thorough rinsing, mainly to wet them thoroughly before placing them in the dye bath.

Do not start your dyeing experiments using expensive capes. In fact it is better to start dyeing fur and cheap hen capes etc, until you get the hang of it. It really is very simple indeed and the results can be magnificent. One can achieve remarkable effects with even very cheap materials, some very rare combination dun colours can be achieved, using certain necks as a base, and insect colours matched very closely indeed. For dyeing small amounts of fur and feathers you will need the following equipment.



A large enamel pan. Do not use aluminium saucepans or other naked metal equipment. It can affect the dye bath, and the acid used in the process will attack aluminium and some other metals. Stainless steel is usually OK. The pan in the photo is brown, a white one is better if you can get it. I place a white tile in the bottom of this brown pan in order to be able to see some colour changes etc.

A metal sieve or collander, preferably stainless steel, but chromed steel will do, which fits the pan fairly well. An excellent piece of equipment is an old chip pan! (Mine is shown on the right) Some plastic or stainless steel tongs for handling material, rubber gloves, a measuring jug, and plenty of old newspaper.

The dye in the colours you wish to dye, and a bottle of vinegar. Either malt vinegar or wine vinegar is ok. This is a relatively mild acetic acid necessary to the dyeing process. It helps the dye to "bite" and fixes the colour as well. For some processes other acids are used, but vinegar works well for most things.

Your tools and equipment should be plastic or stainless steel. Wooden tongs and spoons must not be used they will soak up dye and are impossible to clean properly, and may contaminate your bath. A few small plastic spoons for measuring the dye powder will also be required.

I use a camping stove with a gas cartridge for heating my dye bath. An electric heating ring may also be used, but I prefer the gas as it gives more immediate control. If you wish you may use a cooking thermometer to control the temperature of your dye bath.

The procedure is quite simple, a measured quantity of water ( I invariably use exactly one litre or multiples thereof ), is poured into the pan, brought to the boil and the measured amount of dye is added ( this depends on the colour you are dyeing and the results you wish to obtain, instructions are included with Veniard dyes), and well stirred.

The vinegar is then added (one or two teaspoonfulls is usually sufficient, for dark colours and deep shades you may use more) and also well stirred , the bath left to cool for a moment (it must not be boiling!) check the temperature, and the clean thoroughly wet material is then added to the bath, results can be checked by using a small piece of the same material as a monitor, removing this from the bath from time to time and rinsing it under cold running water will show you exactly how things are progressing, and when your desired shade has been reached.

Some shades are achieved almost immediately, others require quite some time. If the shade is not deep enough even after a while in the bath, then you may add more dye and vinegar, but only after first removing the material from the bath.

Do not add dye to the bath while material is in it. The results can be disastrous as far as the final colour is concerned, and streaking or spotting may also occur. Do not be tempted to put more dye than necessary in the bath, this is wasteful, and unnecessary.

A set of instructions comes with each pot of Veniards dyes. Mr. Veniard also produced a very good pamphlet on dyeing some years ago, and most Veniards stockists should have it or be able to obtain it.



You should do your dyeing in the garage or an outhouse if possible. These special powder dyes are extremely powerful and will colour anything with which they come into contact. Your family harmony may be severely strained if you colour your new fitted kitchen work surfaces in all the colours of the rainbow, in fact one colour will usually more than suffice! A spilled dye bath or a few coloured patches in the garage is a nuisance, but if it happens in the kitchen it is a major catastrophe! Basically the same applies to the bathroom.

When dyeing feathers and other delicate materials you must not boil the dye bath. The material will be damaged. It is also best to prevent the material touching the sides of the bath if possible, in a very hot bath this will cause feathers to curl or singe, which makes them useless for tying purposes.



These dyes are combination dyes, this means several dye colours are combined to produce a certain colour, just as an artist mixes primary colours to achieve various tones and shades, dyes are also blended to achieve the desired effect. The principle is the same, but with one slight but very important difference, different dye colours penetrate at different rates, if you remove your material from the bath too soon it may well be a completely different colour than the one you were trying to obtain, the material must remain in the bath long enough to absorb all the colours present.



Dark colours are much easier to dye than light colours. You can dye practically anything darker than it already is, but you cannot dye a dark colour lighter. Deep shades of light colours are difficult to achieve as well, especially fluorescent dyes sometimes produce only light pastel shades of the required colour, although the material may fluoresce like a firework display when viewed under the correct light.

Theoretically you can dye anything black, in practice this is really quite difficult as a large amount of dye is needed, and the material has to stay in the bath a long time at the hottest possible temperature, without actually boiling, to achieve a really deep black.

This is not such a problem as at first might appear. We are attempting to colour materials so that we can more closely match insects with the result, most insects are translucent and made up of several colours as well, so a light black, really a dark grey with a bit of brown or blue shining through may not be a bad thing at all. Depends what you are trying to achieve.

If you want to experiment with mixing dyes then I would suggest buying a "colour wheel" at an artists supply store, this helps a lot when wanting to know what colours to mix to achieve a certain shade or colour. Try the single colours first though. Most of my pupils start with "Blue dun" dye and a couple of hen capes just to get the hang of things.

After dyeing the materials should be thoroughly rinsed under cold running water until no more dye comes out, and then laid out skin side down on a few old newspapers until almost dry, and then blown dry to fluff them up.

Remember that wet materials will also look a lot darker than when they are dry. Take this into account when dyeing materials for either wet or dry flies.

Some materials can not be dyed, very many synthetics for instance, if you want to dye things like this try a small amount first to see if it works.

With a little experience you may easily mix dyes to achieve he effects you require, but be careful here. It is easy to overdo things, and more or less impossible to remedy the mistake. A s long as the material is not too dark it is possible to overdye to the correct shade. Or even overdye it a completely different colour. This will only work to a certain degree however, when the basic colour is already dark then this is no longer a viable option.

I like to dye natural hare body fur in a few shades of olive, and claret and one or two other colours, I use this fur by itself and for blending with other dubbing and achieve some excellent results with it. A Blue dun dye on rabbit or hare fur also gives excellent results, for imitating some insects accurately.

The natural colour variations in the fur are complemented and enhanced by the dyed colour, and the result does not look quite so artificial as a solid dyed colour in my opinion. I have also had excellent results dying goat hair which is readily and cheaply available as whole skins. I have dyed a complete range of this hair as it is so useful for all sorts of things. Especially as hair wings for small streamers and tube flies of which I use a lot for sea-trout fishing, and some perch and pike flies.

A cheap source of excellent dubbing material is to buy mohair wool ( it must be mohair, not sheeps wool ) at a wool shop in white, and dye it to the shades you require, it takes dye extremely well, you can of course use ordinary wool as well but this is nowhere near as good. This can be used for blending or on its own.

One decided disadvantage of the hot dyeing method described is the fact that the skin of these materials becomes brittle and stiff as a result of it. There are one or two tricks to alleviate this problem. Rubbing glycerine or a good hand cream into the skin of dyed capes will make them a little more supple and easier to handle, and will prevent them cracking up.

Hair on the skin should be cut into fairly thin strips before dyeing it, this makes it easier to select the hair later when tying. The skin may be cut by using a scalpel or very sharp craft knife from the skin side and holding the material taut. There is very slight wastage sometimes as one or two hairs may be cut, but this is negligible. You need someone to hold the skin for you while cutting.

Thick bushy tails from arctic fox or similar animals should be pulled into pieces before dyeing. This is quite easy to do usually, just grip the tail firmly where you want to divide it and pull hard. This also aids the dying process as the dye can penetrate small pieces better than large bushy ones.

It is better to dye small amounts at first, and try to gauge how much material of a certain type or colour you will use in the course of the next few months or years. I remember a pupil from one of my classes coming in with a whole Icelandic sheepskin which he had dyed a lovely bright shade of hot orange. He was very proud of it as it was one of his first attempts, and the whole class was very impressed, I remember how crestfallen he was when I asked him during the coffee break what he was going to use it for, he had become so fascinated and carried away with the successful dyeing that he had somehow lost touch with the purpose of it.

Remember you can dye half capes or even a few dozen selected feathers if you wish, or small patches of fur, it is not necessary to dye whole animals, even if your chip pan is big enough!

I have tried on several occasions to bleach materials using various methods, but have now ceased experimenting in this direction as the results were all fairly lousy , and I would not like to ruin good material. I will leave this to the commercial suppliers in future. There is some literature available on bleaching, if you want to try it however. I found it too much of a mess about.

Be careful when you find apparently cheap sources of ready dyed feathers and furs. It is by no means certain that these will be colour fast, one of my pupils came to a class with a large quantity of feathers in all the colours of the rainbow, which he had bought at a shop selling red indian headdresses for children, these feathers looked great, but the dye was not fast, and actually came off on your fingers when tying. Soaking the feathers for a while in water reduced the colour to almost zero! not much use for fly dressing.