Using Pantone pens to colour white hackles?

[scubacrazy123]

Hi all,
Is it possible to use a Letraset Pantone pen to colour a white feather to use as a hackle?
Just thinking of getting a white cock neck or saddle, and was wondering whether the pens would work on a hackle feather and whether the colour would "stick" or not.
Anyone tried this? It would save buying loads of capes in different colours just to use on a few flies.

Cheers,
Gary

[arkle]

Probably okay for the odd 1 or 2, but you might find the fibres stick together & the dye flakes off when being wound or handled. Maybe better to do it after the hackle's actually wound.

[Offshore]

I've used a black Sharpie to spot white hackles for a squid pattern... it worked but perhaps a wee laborious for a whole hackle...

[strikealight]

Yes, I use a Lemon (Y747) Letraset Promarker pen to colour up small white feathers from a drake mallard underwing for tying Ollie Edwards's Yellow Spider (the one he ties in his DVD "Essential Skills - Wet Fly Fishing on Rivers"). These make beautiful, flexible spider hackles.

As The Great Man himself says, normal yellow dyed hackles are far too vivid. Certainly can't be bothered to bleach and dye hackles (only go few a handful of these patterns a season), so I just colour a few with a pen.

I just colour each side with single pen strokes. If you want a deeper colour, let the first coat dry and then re-apply a second coat. But for Ollie's spider, a single coat is just right to get that light primrose colour.

You can rinse the feather off and dry it before tying, but I don't bother.

I have a few veteran examples in my fly box which show no fading next to the unfished examples, so the results seem to be pretty colour-fast.

Hope this helps.