I tried-tel to dye-tel my zytel

RogueBowie

RogueBowie

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Nov 16, 2011
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After I got off work tonight I decided I felt like a project. Since I got Godspeed!'s sweet orange sheath I haven't had much use for the orange zytel scales (they don't go well with a bright orange kydex sheath, too much orange) so I have been wondering what to do with them. Tonight while I was in the store buying some whiskey I saw the RIT dye section and decided to go with something I'd been wanting to try.

Disclaimer: Not that I figure ya'll the judgmental type but the reason I was buying whiskey on a Tuesday night is that I just got promoted to being a manager at one of my jobs and will now be able to quit my second job which I hate. Felt like a drinkin occasion to me :D

Here are the supplies I gathered to attempt this:

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I start with salt, a big beer (Fosters, $2 a can at my local store on my way to checkout, couldn't pass it up), rubbing alcohol, non-powdered latex gloves, the scales, forest green RIT dye, a pyrex dish, and a measuring cup.

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I put on gloves and wiped down the scales with rubbing alcohol so that the natural oils in my fingers don't disrupt the dying process.

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Into the soup they go.

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This is the color they turned out. It's almost like an ember tinted, orange/black/green color that I like a lot. YMMV.

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What's that? Strip my FPR16 because I'm tired of sitting on a rare model that I don't think will end up being a collectors item? Okay...

You may be able to blame Jim Beam for some of this, but I am getting sick of sitting on my FPR16 just hoping that it will go up in value in the future when in reality the percentage of value that it will gain will likely be insignificant in the future compared to how much enjoyment I will get out of using this thing in the VERY near future, so I have decided to be bad and turn my 'safe queen' FPR16 into a user.
 
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Looks like the dye did it's job. I like it.
 
Hawk590 had some excellent green scales on a Short at the Gathering.
On the way home, I stopped and bought dark green Rit. :thumbup:
Going to try and dye a Beckerhead patch green as well. I'll post pics.
 
Whoo hoo Fosters! Haha, I'm glad they turned out but unfortunatly I gotta say that I cant stand zytel/grivory...All those micarta/G-10 knives have made me stuck up I guess :p.
 
Congrats on the promotion, and choosing the Beam!

That dye-job does look great, If I didnt love my orange so much I would try that.



Biscuit, Im dying my PB scales green too LOL Hawk's looked great.
 
Looks a lot like how my PB scales turned out. It's actually lightened a little with washing and use, so they look more OD, now.

I'm in the same boat as you with the 16. It's doing me no good sitting in a box and if I regret it, I can send another Benjamin to SMKW, since they're still there.
 
mrn8 said:
Looks a lot like how my PB scales turned out. It's actually lightened a little with washing and use, so they look more OD, now.

I'm in the same boat as you with the 16. It's doing me no good sitting in a box and if I regret it, I can send another Benjamin to SMKW, since they're still there.
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I am anticipating them changing color a bit, we'll see how they REALLY end up I guess. I did try to wait until they had fully dried to take the pic so it was as accurate as possible. And yeah, if I get remorseful about using my FPR I'm pretty sure the opportunity to buy another one will be around for quite awhile haha.
 
Dang those are nice! Hmm, do you think it's possible to dye the BH patch silver so it has black text on a silver background? I'm probably gonna dye my PB scales green, or try to make them white somehow....
 
oXide said:
Dang those are nice! Hmm, do you think it's possible to dye the BH patch silver so it has black text on a silver background? I'm probably gonna dye my PB scales green, or try to make them white somehow....
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Silver might be tricky but if it works that would look pretty cool, for both the patch and if you try the PB scales I'd recommend starting with the color remover that RIT makes beforehand.
 
This looks nice! Hopefully if it changes color again it will still look good because I really like it as is.
 
Ah, stripper whiskey and Fosters. Not a bad way to spend your Tuesday night. Congrats on the promotion man.
 
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I was wondering how the color is holding up on these scales.
 
I hadn't been paying attention to the dates -- until I saw a posting from Thrillbilly and almost fell of the back of my chair! :eek:
 
RogueBowie said:
Pretty good! Here's a picture from like a week ago:

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What a blast from the past haha.
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It is holding up better than I would have imagined. Thanks for the information; I dyed my scales last night and wanted an idea of how much the color would come off with regular use.
 
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