Where are my Picric Acid pros?

[VERN-O]

I'm trying to pull together a small article about picric acid and flies tyed with picric dyed materials.

Anyone here have any personal experience where picric dyed materials out fish non dyed materials...consistently?

I've googled plenty of info about the explosive property, the antiseptic use, etc.

Is it really just a nice looking dye color....and that's it? (I can't believe with the potential dangers involved someone would go to that length to catch a fish)

Again any useful tidbits would be appreicated....thanks in advance

[Flyfishing-UK]

Hi Vern,

I use Picric acid to stain various materials - from my experience it is able to stain materials in a way that dye couldn't....in some cases anyway but not all. While it is fairly easy to achieve a colour similar to picric with dye certain materials take to the picric much better IMO - in my experience at least.

As long as the the person using the acid for staining takes precautions with gloves and mask etc and the finished article is rinsed out properly with cold water then the picric stained material is not harmful IMO. I am not a scientist but I did research picric a lot before I starting using it and asked people in the chemistry scene. The picric acid I use is only 5% so with approx 95% water in the bottle it is very unlikely to explode!

Picric is a great way to achieve colours and there are several ways it can be used to achieve colours when staining materials.

IMO its just something different and I like it for that reason, maybe it won't catch any more fish but it just looks real nice.

Interesting to hear other peoples thoughts.

Sam

[Former member]

This link should be of use to you.
DYING WITH PICRIC ACID

Cheers
Gerry

[VERN-O]

thanks guys.....how about this one.....Who, Why, and When was the first person to use picric acid to dye fly tying materilas????

[arkle]

Probably long before this, but I bought a picric dyed grey goose wing quill feather in the late 1960's from Going Bros. in Southend.