What dyes do you fellers who have been around for a while in the field trapping think are the best. Is it store bought or a homemade thing? I heard of one dying method where you take walnut shells and heat 'em up to a boil then put your traps in for 1/2 hour and then take 'em outside and let them air dry. Anyone try it?

I used em' all throughout the years, logwood crystals, walnut hulls, speed dip, etc.

It's really just aesthetics, dies aren't neccesary and some smell like insecticide.

So just wax the legholds. But not the conibears, use a speed dip or spray paint on them, the triggers are sensitive and wax makes them more so.

For wax just buy a block of it from a trapping supply house, heat it outside till liquid and dip your traps in till they've reached the temp. of the wax. Pull em' out and let em air dry for a while.

And be damn careful about it, only dip completely dry traps in hot wax. Every year theres another story of some guy getting burned really badly from a trap waxing gone wrong.

If you've got new traps, run them through the disheasher one day when your mom isn't home, it'll clean off the manufacturing oils, etc.

I ain't got no traps yet, saving up for my first car/truck. And we don't own a dishwasher, any other way to get the factory oil off?

I have used black walnut hulls on many occasions to dye traps. works very well. any kind of bark that has tannic acid will do the trick. Wear rubber gloves when you work with walnuts as otherwise you hands will dye as well.

YOu can wax conibears. Just remove the wax in the place where you will be placing the trigger. I use a cigarette lighter to do that job and it works well.

New traps can be easily cleaned at the car wash. Any dish soap contains degreaser and will quickly cut the factory oil coating, but perhaps the easiest is to simply leave them out in the weather a month or two. Weather will clean em and leave a nice even coat of rust to help the dye adhere. As for dye store bought logwood crystals are great but gotten good dye jobs from walnut hulls and sumac berries as well, although they are a bit messier with their crud in the bottom of the kettle. Added hardware such as swivels that come from the hardware store with a zinc or other plating can be stripped by dipping in muriatic acid then left to weather a few days.

another way to clean traps is to boil them in lye then hang them to dry.after a couple of days alight coating of rust will form and the traps will be ready for dying.

Put your traps in sani-flush and water. Scrub them with a new toilet brush, flush with a garden hose and water and dry. Dye the traps with whatever you like. I prefer maple bark and aspen bark half and half.

Most of my trapping is coons, foxes, rats and mink. I've done the crystals and all that, but I still prefer to boil my traps in lye, then either walnut hulls or sumac berries, then a wax dip. I do it every fall. Of course, I only have about six dozen so it's not such a big deal! but I like the way the natural dyes take and the way the wax slicks them up.

I used oak sawdust to boil my traps in. I had a half of a 55gal drum set on three steel posts driven into the ground. Fill it with water and traps a shovel full of oak sawdust and bring to a boil and leave it till it cooled down and pulled the trap out hang them on the fence and hosed the excess sawdust off them and let them hang till dry. Then waxed them , put them in bundles and left them hanging under the eve of the shed till trapping season started.

375win

My Dad always used black walnut hulls. My job was to gather the hulls from the back of the lot and I was marked for over a week, which he found amusing and my Mom thought horrific. Walnut has a natural concentration of Selenium that will approximate a weak gun bluing. After 60 years I cannot remember if the traps were waxed.
The second task I had was helping with the bait, which was seining catfish fingerlings and storing them in a wooded barrel that had been sunken in the yard, then filled with water. All settings for mink/muskrat were with live fingerlings stuck on a small twig and placed about 2 inches above the water. Dad was known throughout southern Indiana for his annual mink/muskrat catches, and his pelts always got maximun $ on sale days at the courthouse.

Skinner is right.

Waxing is a very good idea for footholds.
NEVER wax a bodygripper.

Dying the traps is just fluff and profit to the seller but not to you.

No problem waxing conibears.As someone else said,just scrape it off the trigger and where it sets.

quote:

Originally posted by DaveP:
No problem waxing conibears.As someone else said,just scrape it off the trigger and where it sets.

Yes, this works very well for those who enjoy wearing their traps.