Picric Acid Dyed Hare's Mask

[tie2fish]

That is a gorgeous mask; I'm guessing this post will prompt some calls to Jim. BTW, John, what is the hackle on your fly?

[hankaye]

WiFlyfisher, Howdy;

That Sir, is a beautiful fly!

hank

[swellcat]

Good looking, and it reminds me of this guy:


.

[Greenwell]

The results of dying materials in picric acid produce wonderful shades of olive as shown by the pictured fly. Unfortunately, picric acid is dangerous to work with, almost impossible to acquire and I believe, illegal to possess.

I have gotten very similar results by using a strong solution of turmeric and white vinegar. Carefully wash any materials you want to dye in Dawn liquid to remove any oils, rinse thoroughly, and let dry. Prepare a dye bath of white vinegar and powdered turmeric, perhaps two cups of vinegar and a quarter cup of turmeric, and bring to a boil for a few minutes. Don't let it boil over! Take it off the heat and submerge the materials in the dye and allow to steep from a few minutes to overnight, checking occasionally for color. The best way to check for color is to take out a sample of the material, wash it in cold water, and dry it with paper towels or news paper. Be sure to use tongs or wear rubber gloves so your fingers don't turn a lovely shade of light yellow.

Furs that are naturally dun or gray in color will turn various shades of olive. Hare's mask, rabbit, muskrat, beaver, etc. all work well. Feathers will show much more of a yellow color.

There are other methods of dying with turmeric available on the internet, some using salt in place of the vinegar as the fixative. I haven't tried them but they do offer possibilities and should perhaps be checked out. (My brother, a very fine dresser of classic streamers, once used Kool Aid to dye a batch of feathers in a pinch. The stuff worked great and the feathers held their color for years!)

Turmeric is inexpensive and easy to find, try an Indian or Asian grocery for the best price.

[wsbailey]

The bottom right of the picture shows some mohair dyed with turmeric. I used alum which makes it more golden. Acid gives a brighter yellow.

[daringduffer]

You can still buy picric acid in solution (which is how you use it). It won't explode when wet. It is a possibly carcinogenic substance (rumour says this was what happened to our friend Lawrence Finney). Some people say that it's irreplaceable, others that this is just a religious belief. In UK, you can still buy fly tying materials dyed in picric acid. I have a piece of Australian opossum dyed by a forum member. I thorougly washed and rinsed it after receiving it.

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/pr ... &region=SE

dd

[wsbailey]

Some people might like the Bay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Irish-fly-supp ... =R40&rt=nc

[wsbailey]

Years ago I experimented with picric acid as a dye. I dyed a pine squirrel skin. I found the color to be garish and unpleasant to look at. As a dyer who uses mostly natural dyes; I still have to use a lot of chemicals. The advantage of turmeric is that it is a food. It doesn't require the use of any chemical but alum gives another color. Alum is very safe and in fact is sold at grocery stores for making pickles. Dyeing skins with heat can cause problems but here are some solutions. Slowly raise the heat to simmer and then turn off the heat. Allow the skin to cool in the bath. After washing, allow the skin to air dry on some paper. As the skin dries; rub in some glycerin several times until dry. Here is Cutcliffe's method:

https://archive.org/stream/artoftroutfi ... 8/mode/1up

[hankaye]

Howdy All;

A few years before his death I had a exchanged a few emails with him.
I had enquired about Picric acid and he strongly recommended using the
Tumeric and vinegar as mentioned earlier.

hank

[wsbailey]

The only downside to turmeric is that it fades very rapidly. No legit textile artist would use it. In the past people would simply re-dye clothing. For fly tying this probably doesn't matter.