black feather dye

[jeffp51]

I would like to dye some canada goose feathers black.  Any suggestions?

[OTDEAN]

At a guess, have you tried charcoal with a binder?  Just experiment and see what works, that's half the fun.

[jeffp51]

what would you use as a binder?  Water? Alcohol?

[Pat B]

You probably won't get the goose feathers much darker than they already are. I'd try Rit dye and alcohol.

[jeffp51]

Probably not, Pat--but I would like my cock feather to look a little different than the other two.

[le0n]

i can try to brush a goose feather with black leather dye (fiebing's) tonight if you want.

[jeffp51]

that would be cool.  let me know how it works.

[le0n]

i just brushed it on with a napkin and preened it a little with the latex glove.

it took really quickly, but hopefully it doesn't make the feather too stiff.

i'll see how dry it is in the morning.

[le0n]

after a rinse and dry, it came out perfectly:


and it's just as soft as it was before the dye.

i'm thinking of picking up a small bottle of "Dark Red" or "Oxblood" at Tandy.

[jeffp51]

That looks good.  I realized last night after your post that I had some black Kiwi shoe dye.  I tried that, and it seems to work too, maybe not quite as dark, but good enough, I think.

[le0n]

^^ Neat.

[Thunder]

I bet dark red/oxblood would look pretty sweet on those grey goose feathers.

[JW_Halverson]

That is brilliant!  I could see making goshawk tailfeather fakes using this technique!

[le0n]

if you go at it with an actual paint brush vs. a napkin, i think it would be easy to get a pattern on there.

also, the dye did not bleed into the areas outside of where it was applied, which was kind of cool.

[Pat B]

I'm surprised as oily as goose feathers are but I can see lots of possibilities now. Thanks.