Green (kind of) Dragonfly

[jeff189]

After carrying it just a few times my white Dragonfly was looking kind of dirty. I always used to dye my light colored skateboard wheels dark colors so they would look better longer. I just tried that with the Dragonfly. I used the darkest green I could find and it ended up an olive green that I liked after about 15 minutes. I don't know if anyone else has tried this but it worked out pretty well.

[Spyderwings]

Thats pretty cool! What kind of dye did you use? Do you expect it to last, or fade over time?

[jeff189]

Just some clothing dye from the grocery store. I do not know what to expect with frn. Skateboard wheels are urethane and take a beating and I have a few sets that are years old and still have nice dark color. I am guessing it will hold up pretty well, but I really do not know.

[spydutch]

That looks really nice Jeff

[Davis61381]

Jeff,

Did you just drop the knife into the dye for a few minutes and that's all?

I'd like to try this on my yellow salt, put it in some blue and make it a green frn. It's a beater knife anyway.

[MountainManJim]

So, you can dye nylon with RIT dye?? I wonder how long it will last since RIT does usually doesn’t take well to synthetics. And, it fades pretty fast even with cottons.

Please give us more of the scoop. How was it done? The brand of dye? Your experience with how long the dye will last? Will it bleed on to your clothes? etc.

Thanks,

Jim

[jeff189]

I put the powder in about half of a 20 oz. bottle of water and shook it up. Then I opened the knife and put a clamp on the blade. The clamp rested across the top of a little plastic cup with the blade pointing up so the handle was hanging down into the cup but would not touch any part of the cup. Then I poured the dye into the cup. Thats about it. Checked every 5 minutes or so and after about 15 I was happy with the color.
The dye was a little box of powder. I think it was Rit but I am not 100 percent sure. This is the first time I tried it with a knife so I don't really know how long it will last. Like I said earlier, the color lasts for quite on skateboard wheels so I hope it will last as long on the frn. If not, no big deal, I am just trying it out. To try to get it to bleed I just rubbed it with a damp cloth and the color did not come off on to the cloth.
I just thought since I see a lot of requests for different colored knives I would share this. With white knives available you can pretty much make any color knife you want.

[Davis61381]

Thanks for the info. I may try it out myself. All I need is some dye.

[cobrajoe]

That is a really interesting idea.

I never though white knives could be colored so easily.

I might have to get me a couple of ladybugs now

[MountainManJim]

Hey, my wife has corrected me (see my last post on this subject). She’s the expert on all things to do with the fiber arts and dying. See says the Rit dye is formulated to dye just about any thing. The dye does really form a chemical bond to the material being dyed; it's more of a coating. On fabric it tends to fade with washing. But, she thinks that a dyed plastic knife handle should last a while provided it doesn't get wet. If the color does bleed to your clothing, she thinks it should wash out fairly well.

There are dyes that will permanently dye a synthetic material, but they pretty toxic and no often used for home dying.

I would love to try this with my white dragonfly, but it would kill me to change a sprint run knife. It's too bad the white knives are not a standard offering from Spyderco. Heck they could even encourage people to customize the color of their white knives by offering instructions. It could be a whole new direction for knives, personalized handle colors.

I love this idea. Thanks, Jeff.

Jim

[jeff189]

That is interesting, I might let it go through the wash just to see what happens.

[sal]

Very nice Jeff. Let us know how it holds up.

sal

[dd61999]

Jeff any updates on how the dye held up, I have thought about doing this.

[LowTEC]

Yeah, it's been 4 months, and let us know the update

[jeff189]

I will take some pics tomorrow in the sun and post them.

[jeff189]

Still green after a few months with light to medium use.

[dd61999]

Thanks Jeff for the update

Does the dye penetrate deep enough that if the handle gets scratch it would still remain green or does a white scratch appear.

[Davis61381]

I got some dye and I'm going to dye my Salt tonight. I'll take pics and let you all see how it turns out.

[jeff189]

Originally Posted by dd61999

Thanks Jeff for the update

Does the dye penetrate deep enough that if the handle gets scratch it would still remain green or does a white scratch appear.

Mine shows white where it is scratched. I do not know if that is because I left it in the dye for a short period of time or if it would never sink in, even if left in longer.

[Davis61381]

So I dyed my Atlantic salt last night. I used Navy Blue dye on the Yellow handle...............it came out black. I left it in the solution for 15 minutes. Looking back I could have went with a lighter blue dye (Or less of the dye) if I wanted a green hue. Anyway here are pics with my Caly Jr.





I tihnk it came out pretty good.