I have a bunch of turkey wings to clip and grind and was wandering if any you have been able to accomplish a really bright color when dying feathers. I've used RIT dye and done fairly well with orange green and red, but the yellow seems to come out a little dingy. At my age, visibility means everything and I really love using my wild turkey feathers but I want a brighter finish. I'm wanting chartreuse and as bright orange as I can get.

Using wild turkeys feathers, its not going to happen! How are you going to dye a dark feather and make it lighter????

Bob

My take is Bob is correct. The really bright feathers that you can purchase never started out as wild, but domestic.

I agree. I use my turkey feathers and try and use the ones with the most white in them to dye for my cock feather. That being said, they're still not that bright. I use dharma dye too. But I like making my arrows with feathers off birds I've shot. Jim

I've gotten bright dye jobs on wild feathers with some German powdered dyes.....whose name escapes me!

Pretty much agree with Bob. I did get some very rich, but I wouldn't call it bright, red and forest green (that was supposed to be charteruse) to take on some of my natural barred turkey feathers. I use Rit and the powder that Great Northernused to sell.

Can't answer the question, but back when I did some fabric dying decades ago *aniline dye* was WAAAAY more bright and permanent than any Rit type dye. Night and day difference. The company I got dye from is still in biz:

Dharma Trading Co.

Try washing the feathers first, you'd be surprised at how much dirt they hold. I have good luck with the Great Northern dyes.

Robert, I have the same problem seeing as you. I use maribu feathers attached to the back of my arrows. you can get the maribu in many colors from bright greens to flo pink. I also use koolaid for dying the turkey feathers. Here's a pic or two of some dyed in red using white maribu tracers and a seed bead nock indicator.

DBar

one more....

You can really see these in flight going to the target. Helps me in the animal recovery knowing where I hit the critter. Plus on 3D courses it helps to find the arrow behind the target. :) But it also give the other guys a good target if your in the 10 ring.

DBar

I did a dozen orange and yellow using Kolo Aid as a dye the yellow turns out bright but orange is kind of subdued

Kool Aid that should read lemon lime is the flavor

Kool Aid that should read lemon lime is the flavor

I use dyes for feathers and fur to achieve bright colors. Chartreuse goes well with a dye called Radioactive.

Yellow all the way around on these.

try this site. Moonlightfeather.com

You could do a light wash of bleach water as a test on one. Taking the natural barred areas down a bit. Then rinse and dye. Might help...?

Yes, but need to be careful re how much bleach one uses. I used too much on a few and it basically ate up the feathers. May try it again with a more diluted solution.

Oregon, the green you achieved on your barred feathers looks like what I was able to do with mine. I'd call it rich, but not really bright. The accompanying feathers are bright.

As Bob pointed out earlier, just too much dark in a barred feather for the outcome to be bright. Can still look very nice though.

Cherry KoolAid and Lime KoolAid. Pretty much exactly the colors i was looking for out of these eastern wild turkey feathers.

When I dye natural barreds I hand pick those with more or larger white bars in them than grey. Makes the colors snap better!

Veniard's florescent yellow has worked well for me.

First are you using water in your Rit instead of alcohol. Second have you tried blue. Very visible to me and really takes the dye.

That's it!...Veniards...maybe it was French?

So those of you that are using Koolaid.....do you use it basically like the RIT dye? DBar, I have seen the marabou used and I am considering that option. Wapiti, that yellow is very nice. Oregon, love the chartreuse and the yellow. Thanks for the comments guys.

Don't use chlorine bleach to bleach feathers. You will burn the barbules either completely off, or damage them. Bleach is what we use in the flytying world to burn the barbules off of, for instance, Pheasant feathers to use ONLY the quill.

Get some Clairol or some such Hydrogen Peroxide based bleaching agent like would be used on hair.

For KoolAid, i put the feathers in very hot water on stove with dishsoap for several minutes. Then rinse well in cold water. Then soak in very hot water w packets of KoolAid and 1 TBS vinegar for at least 20 minutes. Adjust time and number of packets until you get color you want. Then rinse in cold water.

I use cold water with the koolaid. Hot water curls the feathers which make it difficult to put on the shaft.

Therifleman, does the hot water curl you feathers? DBar

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here