Bleaching Moose Body

[jifigz]

Has anyone here tried to bleach and/or dye a patch of moose body hair?

I like to use moose body a lot in my dries and in my nymphs but it seems that the only way it comes readily available is in the natural coloring.

Do you think just putting the patch in bleach would make it a lighter blonde? Does anyone have any recommendations for other materials similar to moose body?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RLeep2]

Here are a couple of sources for bleached moose body. I can't vouch for either, but if it took me 2-3 minutes to find them, there are likely quite a few more. FWIW..

https://shop.flyfishsd.com/products/natures-spirit-moose-body-hair

https://flyfishingthesierra.com/shopable/moosebody.htm

 

[jifigz]

RLeep, I found them, too. But I don't want to order one thing from a place I don't deal with. That may seem silly, but, I don't know.

Flyfisher's doesn't have it, TCO doesn't have it, and J Stockard doesn't have it. That alone tells me it isn't in high demand.

But, I guess it is mostly experimenting with more DIY types of stuff. I may just order some, though.

 

[Tiogadog]

I have done it in the past with peroxide. To me, this kept the hair in better shape than bleach. It did take a little longer.

I don't quite remember the particulars of how I did it but Google should be able to help.

 

[RLeep2]

Understood... I guess the only thing I'd say is that one of the links I posted was to a place that had the bleached moose as packaged/sold by Natures Spirit. Natures Spirit is one of the major distributors for tying materials and it is likely that anybody you already deal with probably does at least some business with Natures Spirit and could get the bleached moose for you on request.

http://www.naturesspiritflytying.net/moose1.html

 

[jifigz]

Cool. In the spirit of DIY I might try peroxide.

And yeah, I am certainly familiar with Nature's spirt and have used lots of their products.

 

[Bamboozle]

NEVER use chlorine bleach for bleaching hair or other natural materials as it will make it brittle and it is dangerous to work with.

Household peroxide is only a 3% solution and typically takes a LONG time to work its magic and may only lighten it a shade or two.

Peroxide sold in stores for bleaching hair is a better bet at 6 -10% but the cost of salon grade peroxide or other professional lightening products may exceed the cost of a small patch of bleached moose hair purchased from a fly shop.

That is one of the things about dyeing or bleaching, it often costs more than just buying the color you need unless you tie commercially or sell materials.

FYI - If you use peroxide, wash it first in Dawn to help de-grease it and make sure to thoroughly wash and rinse it afterwards. Believe it or not, using shampoo and conditioner for hair afterwards is even better.

If you are even remotely considering dying & bleaching natural materials on occasion, you can't go wrong buying a copy of "Dyeing and Bleaching Natural Materials" by A.K. Best.

Good luck!!

 

[Baron]

I dyed the first items ever today...Rabbit. Turned from dark brown to a nice black.
RIT worked well.
See before and after photo:

 

[Bamboozle]

Did you put vinegar or acetic acid in the dye bath to set the color?

 

[Bamboozle]

Did you put vinegar or acetic acid in the dye bath to set the color? If not, do it the next time.

Another tip, materials always appear darker when wet so have a hair dryer handy to quickly dry out what you are dyeing to make sure it is the shade you are after.

When going for special colors, I also use white paper towels as a test pallet to see if my mixing has achieved the desired results before committing my materials to the dye bath.