finishing hides

[Troutslayer]

I have a book called "From Field to Fly" and it has been helpful to me. For my tying I take a look at the hide when I skin out an animal and decide which chunks I like the best based on how uniform and straight the hairs are. Then I might just cut a big square of the good stuff and discard the rest depending on my needs. I don't "tan" a hide that I'm going to use for my personal tying because I don't see the need, just flesh it and cure it. Sure it is stiff but if it's a smaller piece you can still clip hair from it.

I haven't tried dying anything yet but I have thought about it.

[Troutslayer]

Almost forgot, make sure you quarrantine anything you're going to be bringing into your fly tying area or you're setting yourself up for disaster. I usually put things in the freezer for a couple of weeks though I recently heard that this will not kill all fur and feather eating pests.

[Troutslayer]

Found this the other day and remembered this thread.
Dyeing Protein Fibers with Kool-Aid: Basic Howto
This method is cheap and works very well to dye deer hair. There is a color chart on that same page.