73 de W4BKR
Not all who wander are lost... - J.R.R. Tolkein
...Besides, if we get lost, we just pull in somewheres and ask directions - Captain Ron
The ever striving gram weenie...always updated with the next trip
What about those black "Venom" straps, does the colour go away as well ?
I don't expect so, but as I mentioned in a post above, they're not well-suited to buckles.
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I approached it with the same attitude. If it doesn't work, so what. I'm out $6 and about an hour of my time. I used a whole bottle (7oz) of black dye. This was probably overkill, but I was already worried that it wouldn't take, so I was kind of hedging my bets. Also, I didn't really have any use for a half-empty bottle of synthetic fabric dye. I did do this over my stove top and I used a non-stick pot because I don't have stainless cookware. I want to say I "simmered" it for a good 45 minutes, then gave it a good rinse with cold water. The bottle instructions say to add a bit of dish soap to the dye/ water solution. I didn't do that and it came out fine. The dye didn't seem to stain my non-stick pot. Good luck
OK, I gave this a whirl today using Rit DyeMore in Charcoal. I simmered about a gallon of water on the stove in a big stainless pot, added a few drops of dish detergent, and put the wet 15' straps in for around 35 minutes. I stirred the mix most of the time, with a few two-minute breaks. Here are the straps after coming out of the bath:
IMG_6384.jpg IMG_6383.jpg
After that, it was into a strainer under cool water in the shower to rinse:
IMG_6385.jpg
Right now, they're in the washing machine with warm water and some detergent. I'll post an update after they come out and load them with hardware, and then hopefully again soon after some use. If this color holds, I'm probably going to wish I went with a dark brown.
Here they are, wet & fresh out of a wash cycle:
Clearly not black, and not as uniform as I was shooting for, but it's a color.
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Maybe a second round will get to black?
I misspoke when I said "black." Oops. The color name of the dye I used was Charcoal, and maybe this is just the color it is supposed to take on... I really don't know. The Rit website has a formula to achieve black, which involves mixing this with two other colors. I wasn't about to buy three dyes when I wasn't even sure that one would work, so, I just went with the Charcoal.
So, maybe an actual black is achievable. If this color holds OK, I'd be willing to bet it is. But this is dark enough for my purposes anyway.
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