Help with Rit dye

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simioh

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Jan 12, 2012
Messages
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I got my first Spyderco, a Pacific Salt plain edge. I like the yellow handle, but I didn't like the yellow showing in my pocket all the time so I decided to Rit dye it. I would've dyed only the side of the handle where the clip it at so that it would be half black and half yellow, but you can't take the Pacific apart. So, I decide to dye only about a quarter of the handle. When I dipped it into the boiling water, the rest of the handle got splashed so now it looks dirty.

My question: What should I do now?
I was thinking i could dye it further up all the way up until the back lock starts. I don't know if you guys have tried other things, like maybe rubbing something on the handle before dunking it in the dye to get some sort of pattern. I was also thinking that maybe if I rub clay, play doh, or something all over the handle so that all the texturing gets blocked from the dye and I would end up with a black and yellow volcano grip pattern.

Any ideas or suggestions? Here are some pictures of my mistake.


 
Put rit dye in boiling pot on stove toss knife in. Stir it around a bit for 10-15 mins. Pull out and rinse clean under cool water. Air dry it and the lube it. Call it a day. Unless you don't want it a solid color. Blue might be cool with the black




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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.102804,-82.693595
 
RIT sells dye remover which should remove the dye, personally, I'd just dip the entire knife in a pot of bleach.
 
It's a Salt. Toss the whole thing in and stick a fork in it (metaphorically speaking ;) ).
 
I actually thought black and yellow would look cool, but my main goal was to not have a piece of yellow handle sticking out of my pocket. So I still want to keep some yellow on the handle.

I thought about the bleach, but would that just discolor the whole thing or get rid of the dye?
 
I doubt it, but I don't know. The color in FRN is mixed-in with it and is not a coating and FRN does resist fading or "chalking", but that is from UVs, not bleach.
 
I can't imagine that the dye remover or bleach would work. You're either at leave it as it or do the whole thing (which is what I'd doff it were mine).
I'd also ask the knife makers around here if boiling it would hurt the temper. Just my .02
 
Ben B said:
I can't imagine that the dye remover or bleach would work. You're either at leave it as it or do the whole thing (which is what I'd doff it were mine).
I'd also ask the knife makers around here if boiling it would hurt the temper. Just my .02
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't RIT dye remover or bleach work? It's what's used to remove RIT dye from fabric. The dye on the FRN is only a surface coating after all.

You really think a dunk in boiling water will ruin the temper of a knife? Water boils at 212 degrees F, you ever seen a spoon heat to red from water immersion before?
Besides, H1 is work-hardened by cold rolling it at the factory.
 
Well, the OP already dipped his knife handle in dye, so more experiments may be fine as long as he's not expecting miracles. RIT dye remover might work since presumably it would oxidize the bonds that give dye the color. Bleach would too, but it is bad for metal in general, probably not H1, but unless you are sure the clip, any liner and the screws are also H1, why risk your knife?
The temper, probably not. I've heard of people having problems because the knife resting on the metal of the bottom of the pan can transmit heat higher that 212 F to the knife.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I'm going to try to dunk the handle back in Rit dye all the way up to the back lock since that's where most of the splashing is. I'll experiment by pressing play doh on it first. and if that doesn't work then I'll just dunk it completely.
 
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