1st attempt at dyeing arctic body and keeping the hide soft and flexible

[Fatman]

This started at 930am this morning. I got a buddy on one of my fly tying boards who used to do commercial dyeing and he told me dyeing pieces of the pelt and keeping them soft depends A LOT on how they were dyed (chrome dyed is the best). So I pulled out the dye and did a cold dye (temp of the dye only 80 degrees) on a piece of it and a piece of the tail.

So 9 hours later and I've got the dye jobs done. Did a piece of the body hair and a chunk of the tail - I did find that it's easier to dye with the tail IN but it still worked just have to be careful when you comb it out.

Tail drying and initial brushing


Tail all dried and brushed


Body piece drying and I'm stretching it as it drys, been doing it every 15 mins and so far its still flexible and the
holes were there when I started.


Hair all combed out nice and it's dry, just waiting for next round of stretching


So far so good but till the hide is completely dry is the last step and that it stays soft!

[barefoot]

Beautiful hair! Are you going to do some chartreuse?

[ifish]

Nice Fatman. That sounds like a lot of work but you get what you want that way! Thanks for sharing. What is the pelt?

[Redge]

Looks good, how long did it stay in the dye?

[Fatman]

I'll decide on the chartreuse after I see how the first piece does.

It stayed in the dye for almost 7 hours as it was a cold dye.

Well the hide is still flexible but it's not as soft as it was when I started and I found I missed a step by not putting hair conditioner through it and re-rinsing after the dye job.

Both Pieces all totally dried



Cut up into cross-cut Zonker strips and what was left cut into straight cut zonkers



All bagged and tagged

[Redge]

Zonkers, now I know why you wanted it to stay soft!

[Fatman]

ifish sorry it's arctic fox