FLYMPH FORUM

Yesterday morning I had I woke up bright and early, and decided today was the day to experiment with dying parts of a muskrat hide I had been given by our buddy Doug (DOUGSDEN). I took pictures along the way, in hopes of sharing them on the forum. Anyway, here is the process I used to dye a series of shades of muskrat fur using Rit liquid dyes.



Process begins by washing each patch of hide with soap and warm water (removes oils and helps prepare the fur patches for the dye bath).



While I was washing the fur patches, I heated a stainless steel pot of water to a boil.



Washed fur patches.


I then sorted the patches by shade (darkest on left/lightest on right). I decided to start the dying process with the lightest colors of fur, then work up to the darker pieces, increasing the amount of dye with each batch.



First batch was done with 1/4 teaspoon of dye (in this case "Apricot Orange") color.


After dying the first batch, I rinced out the fur under cold running water, squeezing out any excess dye. Once the water ran clear, I squeezed out the excess water then headed off to the bathroom to find my wifes hair dryer (shhh..don't tell her).

Checking the color of the first patch.



The guard hair and tips of the under fur seemed to take on the color most. This first batch had the colors of a honey dun hackle (golden orange tips, fading into darker dun (gray) in the under fur. Lovely.



I continued the dying process, increasing the amount of dye between each batch. Rince repeat....


The patches were then all spread out on the dash of my car, to bake in the heat of the sun to finish drying. It's amazing how effective this is at drying out the leather patches. The are bone dry after an hour or two.



Finished shades of muskrat (varying amounts of dye and blending colors)



Darkest Shades (equal amounts of Apricot Orange/Tan/Cherry Red)


Spectrum of finished patches:


For comparison - The two lightest patches are undyed sections of the belly fur (really nice pale watery dun).


I had an old Hungarian Partidge skin, which I cut up and added to the dye bath.


Give it a try. It's a lot of fun.

That turned out well, Ray! I was thinking that you could make some awesome Casual Dress flies with that color. I'm getting ready to do some serious dyeing but right now it's too hot.

I am very impressed with your dyed Muskrat, Ray. I have a hide the size of a regulation NFL football. Let me know if you would like to trade half of it for a few small patches of your dyed fur.

I've been lurking for a while... I really enjoy this forum, remarkable tying, but this one of yours on having fun dying materials got me on board... It really is very easy and fun. Here are some of my first tries, aiming for a less green bwo body color, experimenting with a variety of natural materials.

Here's the bug color I was aiming for: Here's the commercial "bwo" color on a stripped quill body: Here's my custom "bwo" color even on a substandard quality (hand stripped) quill: Here's the materials: I'm having trouble posting more than four pics in one posting, so I'll follow up with another post showing some of these up close

Chugbug - Welcome to the forum. I’m delighted that you are joined the conversation and posted pictures. Those flies look extremely effective. I am new to the whole dying thing. Bill (wsbailey) is an expert. His dyed Berlin Wool yarn and Pigs wool dubbings are fantastic. I just love playing around and learning new things related to fly tying.

I look forward to seeing more of your posts and pictures in the future. Welcome.

chugbug, Howdy;

Welcome to the forum. Beautiful way to cross the threshold.
Now that you've joined you can find all the stuff we've had tucked away
from the bait topics up above, chuckle.

Looking to some more of those excellent ties. Think you matched the
color you were trying for.

hank

Thank you all for the nice welcome. I just realized the flies I posted were not flymphs...
Either way, here are some close-ups of the materials in BWO color...

Australian possum, one dyed and another natural for comparison: Stripped neck hackle: Deer hair: Saddle hackle #16-20:

And a few more...

Horse tail: Peacock eye quill: The last is a nice orange brown I tried for some rusty spinner bodies and threw in a patch of deer hair to use the extra dye: At some point I'll have to post some flymphs and maybe dye some other fur for them besides the possum. Thanks again for the welcome.

chugbug - Thank you for sharing the additional photos. All of them are inspiring.

ray, the cherry red and tan were what i used on my norm wood specials i did for my first swap. adding the orange looks interesting. i think it might add some depth of color to my calf tails. thanks for sharing another of your secrets.