So a few months ago I posted a thread on how to dye a red tiger stripe pattern into polymer furniture/magazines/etc. It turned out well, but I was interested in seeing how it would look with more black than red (in the first edition, it was red with black stripes), and seeing as how I was upgrading all my furniture, I decided to give it another whack. Here's how I did it:

Materials (this is assuming you have FDE parts to work with):

1. (2) 10 cups of water in a large pot
2. Tape, cutting board, and razor (I actually used my Kershaw shallot; it did the job great)
3. 1/2 cup Rit scarlet dye
4. 1 pack of Rit black dye (I also used 1/2 a bottle of Rit dye just to be sure)
5. A cloth that you don't mind getting dyed

First, I put a cloth in the bottom of the pot just to be safe. I didn't want the polymer pieces coming into contact with metal that was being heated by a stove burner (this may or may not be necessary). Then, I put about 10 cups of water in the pot. I set the stove burner to 3, which gets the water hot enough to be quite painful to touch. I then added 1/2 cup of scarlet Rit dye. I put the floorplate of my magazine in first, just to make sure I would be getting the desired color (I let it sit for about 10 minutes). I would recommend doing this so you get just the shade of red (or whatever color you decide to use) that you want. After this, I placed all of the parts in the dye solution.

After 15 minutes, they were all the same shade of red. I removed them from the pot and rinsed them off. I then proceeded to tape them up. This is the tricky and tedious part. You have to make sure that you press the tape down all the way (especially on the textured parts the the pistol grip). I cut the strips into irregular pieces with sharp angles. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to tape all the parts like I wanted them.

I then put all the parts in the oven (ouch!). I set it to 200 degrees and let them sit for 15 minutes. Again, I placed a cloth between the parts and the pan they were on so they weren't coming into contact with hot metal. I then placed all the parts in a the black dye solution (you make it the same way you do in the first part of the process) and left them there for about 20 minutes. I removed them, promply rinsed them off, and peeled the tape off. Here's the result:

Now why would you ruin a good rifle ????????????????????????????????????????????????

Good results!

I don't think you have to worry about the metal on the bottom of the pot.  It is going to be very close to the same temperature as the liquid contents of the pot.

what kind of tape did you use?  I have been planning on doing this with blue tiger stripe on my dedicated 22.  I have the ritdye and all, just building confidence i guess....

Heh, I guess I should've included that detail in my write-up! Anyway, I used regular duct tape from Wal-mart (I think it was "Duck Tape" brand). Be sure to post pics when you're done, I've been considering doing blue tiger stripe but haven't really been able to envision what it will look like and don't feel like risking a good set of FDE furniture to find out!

Excellent job. I really like the way that turned out.

Was there any sticky residue from the tape when you peeled it off?

dumb question:  what's FDE?

Flat Dark Earth

Flat Dark Earth

 

There was one piece of tape that left a little residue. It came off with warm water.

Thanks.

very cool. thanks for sharing your process!

Actually, I like it! It's not like every other camo job out there.



Good job.

how much would you charge someone to do something like that?

60$ is what I usually tell people...

Very nice!!