Posted: 12/29/2011 10:09:59 AM EDT
 Starting on upper left, a Spec-Ops MOUT rig, originally in ACU. Next is a Spec-Ops AK/SKS sling, originally in light tan. Bottom row, starting on left, No-Name dump pouch originally in ACU. To right of that is USGI E-tool carrier, originally in 3-color Desert camo. Occupying right of pic is USGI Assault Pack, originally in DCU. Method: Heat 3 gals of water to almost boiling, add 1bottle of liquid RIT Dark Green Dye, 1/2 cup of salt, and stir well. Dunk items until they looked right, and rinse. Done. NOTE: these items are a bit darker than most of the picture would lead one to believe. Looking on the left border, where flash effect is lessened, reveals a better pic of the real, darker shade. The intent was to eliminate the light greys in the ACU, and that color is now light green; the other ACU colors were also darkened a bit, although since the immersion time was reduced, the original camo (pixel) pattern remains. I'm pleased, overall. FWIW, the wide jump straps at the top of the pack were originally white. |
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I think that just about anything can be "subdued" with a bath in dark-green dye.
Particularly the day desert patterns. There's still a lot of 3-color and "chocolate chip" surplus out there. And with the war winding down, you're going to see lots of khaki, coyote and ACU coming out on the market. I recall the introduction of ACU when all sorts of Woodland gear was available at liquidation prices. Best BDU pants I have ever owned are two pairs of genuine issue GW I chocolate chips in NYCO. I shagged one pair into shorts and wear both of them as bum around the house/yard pants. They are nearly 20 years old and after countless washings exhibit nearly no fading, shrinking or wear. According to the mil-spec label, they were made by "Wrangler". That's right, Wrangler jeans and in the U.S.A., I might add. |
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I think that just about anything can be "subdued" with a bath in dark-green dye. Particularly the day desert patterns. There's still a lot of 3-color and "chocolate chip" surplus out there. .... This, and I also concur-it's darker in 'person'. It comes out in an almost 'Ranger Green' tint..... |
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Quoted: Yeah, I shouldn't have used the flash in the pic. It really is much darker "in person", as you say, and the ranger green color is entirely appropriate.Quoted: I think that just about anything can be "subdued" with a bath in dark-green dye. Particularly the day desert patterns. There's still a lot of 3-color and "chocolate chip" surplus out there. .... This, and I also concur-it's darker in 'person'. It comes out in an almost 'Ranger Green' tint..... Since this worked out so well, I've bought some other ACU stuff to dye. |
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Quoted: Would it be possible to retake the photo when you get a chance? Thanks. Will do soon. Some stuff has been stashed, but main items are still available for re-pic. This re-dyeing of ACU looks pretty good. Green is GTG. It might easily be possible tu use black dye to create some sort of digital urban camo. |
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Just got done dyeing a DCU molle II ruck today. Its drying as i type. I used 1 bottle dark green, 1 kelly green, and 1 tan or taupe(either works about the same). I ended up with the most gawd awful shitty slightly greenish brown. I know of no better way to describe it, but it is exactly the color and shade i was after. Perfect for the midwest in winter. I have woodland and OD gear for the rest of the year.
I love the fact that you can pick up surplus DCU gear for next to nothing and dye it, vs. Shelling out bucks for multicam or what ever came out last week, and its just as effective. Plus if it doesnt turn out perfectly, its not like you are out a fortune. |
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This is a much better alternative than dusting with krylon.
I HEAVILY dusted black skateboarder knee pads (stretch fabric sides and back with elastic hook and loop fasteners and hard plastic knee caps) with WalMart flat OD and flat "tan" (looks like coyote). The paint was gone after two trips to the range. I've also "dusted" cordura gear and had the same result - it just wears off too quickly (or you have to apply such a heavy coat of paint the fabric becomes too stiff to use as intended). As a side - it takes A LOT of paint to cover some nylon cordura fabrics. I tried dusting a Blackhawk sheath, and it took a full can of CB (flat tan krylon) to do it. It just "soaked up" the paint. |
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CORRECTION: It was a Busse factory nylon sheath that soaked up paint (not a Blackhawk).
I just buy all multicam gear now, but did find that hand painted (acrylic) on nylon works. I presume this is because you can apply a thick enough layer to last. Here are the aforementioned knee pads that weren't able to hold krylon after I painted them with my wife's old college art class paint (applied with a brush). These have been to Two Day class, and kept the paint fairly well: 
They looked a lot more like multicam when I started 
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I've tried to photo what I've done-to NO avail...it's so hard to get my camera to see what I'm seeing-hence the no pics from SCW.
I used the Forest Green with a Splash of Dark Brown on the DCU stuff I dyed. VNam Tiger Stripe is my pattern of choice, and the final DCU dye results are doable for me. My Ranger Green Banshee looks good with the Tiger Stripe too. |
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Nowadays, there's a good deal of ACU and DCU stuff out there, and most of it is being sold relatively cheaply, whether it be GI stuff, or overstock/clearance from civvy mfrs. Dyeing would certainly seem to be a cost-effective alternative. Just keep in mind that when dyeing nylon stuff, what you see at any particular point during the dyeing process is just a tinch darker than what you get when the stuff is rinsed-off and dry. It is definitely possible to leave stuff in too long, in which case it will absorb so much dye that it will become very dark, nearly black. Fine if that's what you want, not so much if you don't want that. Also, it is definitely possible to dye lighter-colored fabric a darker hue, but near impossible to do the reverse. FWIW, dyeing tan items is similar to dyeing DCU, so that is an alternative. Coyote brown is already so dark that trying to dye it with any other color is not worth it, IMHO. I have already sent off for some selected ACU items not found hereabouts, and will be prowling my local surplus stores for cheap ACU and DCU items. |
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This post got me motivated to try and dye some stuff. I dyed two pairs of woodland camo trousers and a gear belt black. The gear belt came out dark black just how I intended. The trousers are a lot darker than normal, but not completely blacked out. You can still see the camo pattern. They look cool, but I'm not sure they have any real practical use. I'll use them while camping most likely.
I'm going to try doing some coyote tan on some light colored khakis next. ben |
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Now that I look at it, I figger my dye job resembled the DW I so-called "Night Desert" camo. This was really an INTENTIONAL mis-naming, because the original intent of the "Night Desert" camo was to defeat then-existing night-vision devices, and had NOTHING to do with night and the desert, per se. Apparently it did quite well at doing so, and IIRC, mebbbe not so bad nowadays, depending on the observing device. Huh! Given the number of NVDs used by possible OPFOR, I might be buying-and dyeing–– more ACU than I thought originally. Thank you for making me think about this. |
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Now that I look at it, I figger my dye job resembled the DW I so-called "Night Desert" camo. This was really an INTENTIONAL mis-naming, because the original intent of the "Night Desert" camo was to defeat then-existing night-vision devices, and had NOTHING to do with night and/or desert. Apparently it did well at doing so, and IIRC, mebbbe not so bad nowadays, depending on the observing device. The grid pattern was designed to confuse the CCD array in the scopes. I'll imagine that the rectilinear properties of the current digital patterns do the same thing. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Now that I look at it, I figger my dye job resembled the DW I so-called "Night Desert" camo. This was really an INTENTIONAL mis-naming, because the original intent of the "Night Desert" camo was to defeat then-existing night-vision devices, and had NOTHING to do with night and/or desert. Apparently it did well at doing so, and IIRC, mebbbe not so bad nowadays, depending on the observing device. The grid pattern was designed to confuse the CCD array in the scopes. I'll imagine that the rectilinear properties of the current digital patterns do the same thing. I think we're onto something here. it's a decent green-terrain camo pattern,––once dyed green–– and maybe a decent NVD camo pattern also. IIRC, I recall modern NVD scopes more-or-less failing against DWI Night Desert Camo in comparison camo tests Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. |
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Now that I look at it, I figger my dye job resembled the DW I so-called "Night Desert" camo. This was really an INTENTIONAL mis-naming, because the original intent of the "Night Desert" camo was to defeat then-existing night-vision devices, and had NOTHING to do with night and/or desert. Apparently it did well at doing so, and IIRC, mebbbe not so bad nowadays, depending on the observing device. The grid pattern was designed to confuse the CCD array in the scopes. I'll imagine that the rectilinear properties of the current digital patterns do the same thing. I think we're onto something here. it's a decent green-terrain camo pattern, and maybe a decent NVD camo pattern also. IIRC, I recall modern NVD scopes more-or-less failing against DWI Night Desert Camo in comparison camo tests Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. Modern CCD's are still designed with the receptors arrayed in a neat grid. Neither your eye nor silver based photographic emulsions are. Film never suffered from Moiré interference patterns with their associated color fringing and other artifacts. The halide particles are random, chaotic and do not posess the regularity to create the interference pattern. |
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Quoted: Stupid question, but is it possible to dye something that is black to a desert color? Can I bleach it and then dye it? Read my previous post. If there is a way to bleach nylon and then re-dye, I am unaware of the procedure, and I've looked around a bit. If anyone knows how to do this, and not damage the fabric in the process, then please chime in. Most folks will dust dark nylon with lighter colors since dyeing dark colors is highly problematic. |
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Quoted: I have had alot of success with leather dye: http://www.fiebing.com/Dyes.aspx I have used it on nylon with no problems, but I don't know if it is recomended or not. Since it use a brush like applicator it is pretty easy to do patterns. I'm familiar with those exact dyes, and have a cheap source locally. Do the dyes stay put after hosing-down and/or rinsing in a washing machine? |
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This isn't gear related––not exactly. I bought some Woolrich Tactical Elite pants, and they remind me of Henry Ford and his coloring of the model A––any color you want as long as....
Anyways, I thought I'd dye a pair brown. What I was shooting for was the Carhart brown. Below is a pair in the standard tan as they came and the other pair is how they turned out after being dyed using Rit dye. The part that stands out is, not one mm of stitching took the dye. I thought this looked pretty stupid, but for range pants and training and such, I didn't really care. I was wearing them around the house one day while my daughter was up for Christmas and she asked me when I was going skiing. I was  She said "well aren't they ski pants?" I said "No", but if they don't look as out of place as I think they do, then maybe I accomplished something after all.
I do have a Blackhawk Phoenix pack that is my new BOB that I want to dye a darker green using this method. I'll post pics when I get it finished. I finished putting it together to see if it would do what I had in mind. Now to disassemble... |
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I would think to 'bleach' that fabric, lay it in the back deck of your car where it can get 'sun faded'. May take a while but it fades the shit out of my black mil-spec boonie hat. I have to re-dye every winter. That works great for cotton, not so much with nylon (takes much longer with synthetics) |
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I have had alot of success with leather dye: http://www.fiebing.com/Dyes.aspx I have used it on nylon with no problems, but I don't know if it is recomended or not. Since it use a brush like applicator it is pretty easy to do patterns. I'm familiar with those exact dyes, and have a cheap source locally. Do the dyes stay put after hosing-down and/or rinsing in a washing machine? Hosing down, pretty well. Washing machine, never did it. I only used it on stuff not normallt thrown into the wash. |
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Quoted: RIT dyes are available at many supermarkets, WalMart, and many material/sewing stores. your pictures are exactly what I was looking for! ACU stuff is cheap and more available by me but I'm not crazy about how it stands out next to woodland camo or in general. More pics please and where do you get rit dye from? Thanks For a further look at some dyeing I did see this thread: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_18/654329_A_New__Small_Pack__PIX_ADDED____PIX_of_Dyed_ACU_Pack_Added.html |