Spyderco Forums

Fanks!!

attila wrote:

mad german wrote:

attila wrote:For those who are interested, I dyed my CPM Cruwear Para 3 today. It took roughly 15 minutes to achieve this hue using the Racing Red RIT DyeMore dye. I only used about 1 oz of the 7 oz bottle with just enough water to cover my scales, and the remainder of what I used would be sufficient for dying at least one more item. My first lesson was that a little goes a long way.





Another interesting thing is that the rough surfaces took the dye much better than the smooth surfaces. It came out well, tho, since the smooth surfaces are hidden.

The last thing I noticed was that at first when I didn't boil the solution the dye only penetrated very lightly. Once I simmered the concoction and flipped the item regularly, the dye really took.

I hope this helps someone's decisions as previous discussions helped mine.

That looks great. How close is the final outcome to the color on the bottle of dye? What was your mixture of water/vinegar/dye? Did the scales rest on the bottom of the pot, or were they suspended?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

With regard to the color vs the bottle, here are two pictures to show the difference in artificial light since the sun is hiding at the moment:




Using the synthetic-fabric dye, I aimed to use only about an 1/7th of the bottle (~1 oz) and only added enough Brita filtered water to cover the part while simmering (<2 cups total liquid).

When I dyed the scales, I didn't disassemble the G10 from the stainless liners or lanyard tube because of the flaring of the tube. Coupled with the small liquid volume I chose to use, I simply flipped the scales every 30-60 seconds while simmering to keep the dying even.

I could easily have suspended them if I had used the whole bottle of dye, but then I'd have wasted the vast majority of the dye on one knife. I figured there was a more frugal approach, and it seems to have worked out alright.

I hope this is clear enough to help your project!

Thanks so much. I'm worried about the lanyard tube as well. I hate to mess it up, but I've heard of guys being able to pop it off, it supposedly just takes some work. I'll have to make this a winter project.

How much does the water/vinegar mix affect the quality of the dye job? I've seen all sorts of various mixtures being used.

mad german wrote:

attila wrote:

mad german wrote:

attila wrote:For those who are interested, I dyed my CPM Cruwear Para 3 today. It took roughly 15 minutes to achieve this hue using the Racing Red RIT DyeMore dye. I only used about 1 oz of the 7 oz bottle with just enough water to cover my scales, and the remainder of what I used would be sufficient for dying at least one more item. My first lesson was that a little goes a long way.





Another interesting thing is that the rough surfaces took the dye much better than the smooth surfaces. It came out well, tho, since the smooth surfaces are hidden.

The last thing I noticed was that at first when I didn't boil the solution the dye only penetrated very lightly. Once I simmered the concoction and flipped the item regularly, the dye really took.

I hope this helps someone's decisions as previous discussions helped mine.

That looks great. How close is the final outcome to the color on the bottle of dye? What was your mixture of water/vinegar/dye? Did the scales rest on the bottom of the pot, or were they suspended?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

With regard to the color vs the bottle, here are two pictures to show the difference in artificial light since the sun is hiding at the moment:




Using the synthetic-fabric dye, I aimed to use only about an 1/7th of the bottle (~1 oz) and only added enough Brita filtered water to cover the part while simmering (<2 cups total liquid).

When I dyed the scales, I didn't disassemble the G10 from the stainless liners or lanyard tube because of the flaring of the tube. Coupled with the small liquid volume I chose to use, I simply flipped the scales every 30-60 seconds while simmering to keep the dying even.

I could easily have suspended them if I had used the whole bottle of dye, but then I'd have wasted the vast majority of the dye on one knife. I figured there was a more frugal approach, and it seems to have worked out alright.

I hope this is clear enough to help your project!

Thanks so much. I'm worried about the lanyard tube as well. I hate to mess it up, but I've heard of guys being able to pop it off, it supposedly just takes some work. I'll have to make this a winter project.

How much does the water/vinegar mix affect the quality of the dye job? I've seen all sorts of various mixtures being used.

Forget the vinegar. This liquid RIT DyeMore doesn't call for it.

With regard to concentration, i only did one set of scales and the concentration was fine. My ratio of dye to water was roughly 1:10 to 1:15, so a little goes a long way.

Thanks again for the help. When I get it done, I'll post up some pics of the results. I'm on hte fence between Navy blue and gray for the Digicam dye job.

Thanks to Attila for the instructions and inspiration. I dyed my Cruwear Para 3 racing red last night. Here’s a picture with my M390 PM2. I used a little more dye and left them in the solution for about 30 minutes, but I don’t think the additional 15 minutes made much difference.

Everyone’s success led me to getting it done. Standard green digicam dyed with RIT dyemore Saphire blue. I got it up to around 180F and then dipped the scales in for about 3-4 minutes. Super happy with the end result.

H0bbs wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:52 pm

Everyone’s success led me to getting it done. Standard green digicam dyed with RIT dyemore Saphire blue. I got it up to around 180F and then dipped the scales in for about 3-4 minutes. Super happy with the end result.

Nicely done! I like the digicam turned blue.

I can speak from personal experience, you can truly un-rit-dye pretty much anything in two steps, provided you have not used "Rit ColorStay Dye Fixative" to seal-the-deal...

Step 1. Place the scales in 100% acetone -- you can use fingernail polish remover, it doesn't work as well with the scents & colours added, plain, 100% acetone works the best. Depending on how much dye is in the scales, you will want to dump out the acetone rinse the scales in cold water, then repeat, you should do this at least once, possibly up to 3 times, for I'd say 1-2 hours. By then 80-90% of the dye will be gone.

Step 2. This is the key to restoring your scales to factory new. "Rit color remover" essentially, use 1/2 to the whole packet, put into nearly boiling water and throw your scales in. Note: It doesn't smell awesome, turn your stove/range hood/fan on high & crack a window... let it go to work, check them every 5 minutes or so, it usually takes 20-30 minutes. These two steps will remove 97-100% of any colour of rit dye. One time I had to go back and do one more round of fresh acetone, then repeat step two.... but that was unusual, and I did end up with perfect removal at the end. Happy Rit-ing everyone!

Cheers,

John

H0bbs wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:52 pm

Everyone’s success led me to getting it done. Standard green digicam dyed with RIT dyemore Saphire blue. I got it up to around 180F and then dipped the scales in for about 3-4 minutes. Super happy with the end result.

That looks awesome!

What was the original color? Looks great btw.

Hey Mikey... I like it!!! (Get it ... its Life! :D )

CG

Just chiming in that the knife looks great.