Q's For Dying your own bucktail for streamers, and related materials
 

Hello,

I've been tying for several years, but now I'm faced with dying my own
materials for streamer flies, my supplier has gone out of business.
Superfly doesn't carry the colors of material I'm after, I would perfer
to mix the dye instead to avoid buying more material.

First, what flyshop or company sells the various colors of dye?
Note:
I've tried buying Rit Dye today, but most retailers are sold out in my
city.I may keep an eye out for it to see if I can get the colors I'm
after. Red, Green, Orange, and yellow.

Silver Pheasant Crest in small pkgs for the grey ghost, Can you
purchase it without buying the entire skin?

Thanks for help
-Neil

"Neil" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

I've been tying for several years, but now I'm faced with dying my own
materials for streamer flies, my supplier has gone out of business.
Superfly doesn't carry the colors of material I'm after, I would perfer
to mix the dye instead to avoid buying more material.

First, what flyshop or company sells the various colors of dye?
Note:
I've tried buying Rit Dye today, but most retailers are sold out in my
city.I may keep an eye out for it to see if I can get the colors I'm
after. Red, Green, Orange, and yellow.

Dyeing your own can be fun, but unless your planning to produce in thousands
of dozens it just doesn't make much economic sense. Whgatever colors you
are after, odds are that someone out there is already producing millions of
flies......you just have to find them

Rit (and others that will doubtless be brought to your attention before too
long) make a BIG variety of colors......if you can't find them lically,
there is always a way to find them on the web. In the meantime, Kool-Aid
(however it's spelled) makes products in several colors that can be blended
and used failry effectively to dye natural fibers......the reds tend to
bleed a bit. Cheap, readily available, and surprisingly easy.

Silver Pheasant Crest in small pkgs for the grey ghost, Can you
purchase it without buying the entire skin?

Yes, you can, though I haven't kept up with specific sources in recent
years. Most of the big fly tying materials suppliers will have them.
Better yet (if you can find them in your area......not as difficult as you
might think in most places) is to find bird breeders/collectors. I used to
get all the silver, Lady Amherst, golden, manchurian, etc. pheasant (as well
as ostrich, emu, and a host of others) feathers I wanted for free from a guy
who otherwise would have had to sweep them up.

Wolfgang

Neil wrote:
Hello,

I've been tying for several years, but now I'm faced with dying my own
materials for streamer flies, my supplier has gone out of business.
Superfly doesn't carry the colors of material I'm after, I would perfer
to mix the dye instead to avoid buying more material.

First, what flyshop or company sells the various colors of dye?
Note:
I've tried buying Rit Dye today, but most retailers are sold out in my
city.I may keep an eye out for it to see if I can get the colors I'm
after. Red, Green, Orange, and yellow.

Silver Pheasant Crest in small pkgs for the grey ghost, Can you
purchase it without buying the entire skin?

Thanks for help
-Neil


Veniards Dye seems to be a popular choice for fly tiers. I've used Rit
with good results.

brians

Wolfgang wrote:
Dyeing your own can be fun, but unless your planning to produce in
thousands
of dozens it just doesn't make much economic sense. Whgatever colors
you
are after, odds are that someone out there is already producing
millions of
flies......you just have to find them.

mmm.......wolfgang! How about tangerine? I bought it today, Dylon makes
it.A whole 97 cents I paid for it, I have yet to see this color in
flyshops.But honestly, It's gonna look hot on the brook trout streamer.
I found a real easy way to get ANY color you desire for dying. If you
use paint shop pro or paint you can use the custom palette to mix the
right colors. The numbers from 0 to 255 on the custom palette are
converted to percentages to obtain the great color for dying your own.

For example: Chartreus is 2 parts lgt green and 1 part mexican red or
bright red. On the Windows Custom Palette green is 255 and red is 128,
Blue is 0. But you will find the dye isn't that exact, but it's a good
place to start to know how to mix those wild colors for some great
looking flies. Better then a color wheel and easy to use too.

Thanks for the info!!
Neil

Neil wrote:
mmm.......wolfgang! How about tangerine? I bought it today, Dylon makes
it.A whole 97 cents I paid for it, I have yet to see this color in
flyshops.But honestly, It's gonna look hot on the brook trout streamer.
I found a real easy way to get ANY color you desire for dying. If you
use paint shop pro or paint you can use the custom palette to mix the
right colors. The numbers from 0 to 255 on the custom palette are
converted to percentages to obtain the great color for dying your own.

For example: Chartreus is 2 parts lgt green and 1 part mexican red or
bright red. On the Windows Custom Palette green is 255 and red is 128,
Blue is 0. But you will find the dye isn't that exact, but it's a good
place to start to know how to mix those wild colors for some great
looking flies. Better then a color wheel and easy to use too.

Thanks for the info!!
Neil


I think you'll find that dying doesn't follow those rules when mixing
colors together. The colors you mix are also interacting with the
material that you're dying. Dying materials for fly tying is more of an
art than using some mathematical formula.

Willi