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A few people have asked about this so I’m starting a thread on it that can hopefully serve as a reference of shared experiences, please feel free to add.
Procedure for both cloth and cordura:
I generally follow the instructions but #1 is to use nitrile or silver-lined chemical resistant gloves, not just latex or standard kitchen jobs because they aren’t chemical proof and you don’t want your kids coming out as funky hippies or something. (Also make sure you put the used dye down the sink so it goes to sewer and not to storm water which ends up in creeks and rivers without being treated.)
I use RIT brand powdered dye (seems to work better than the liquid), hot water from the tap (not boiled or heated but probably around 60 – 80’C), add a little detergent and salt and make sure it’s well mixed before adding the items (this will help prevent specs of colour). Items are pre-wetted before adding them too. Get a clean stick or something to mix it up and to stir with. Chuck em in and keep mixing for a while. Pull em out when you think they’re done and rinse straight away.
Once rinsed a bit I generally put them through a quick wash in the machine to get rid of the rest of the dye but for hard to dye things that you want dark you might want to try letting them dry before rinsing too much (just don’t let them drip on the dog/veggie patch/toddler/raid pack/etc.)
http://www.ritdye.com/ has some pointers but it’s all in the packet anyway.
Colours / amounts
I tend to mainly use a mixture of dark brown and dark green and less than a whole packet of each. These two will cover the spectrum from light khaki through to coyote and dark olive. I used a whole packet of tan for some cotton pants that were light khaki the other day and they only darkened a little (and went a little yellowish). Just green will end up like robin hood’s gear.
Besides the relative amounts of dye/s remember that the volume of water and material to be dyed will also effect how it turns out. You generally want a little bit of space to mix things around. For a top or pants I use a plastic bucket and for packs etc the laundry trough.
BDUs:
It depends on what material they are. Cotton BDU’S are easy and to dye with good results, ny-co and poly less so and it won’t last as long. With quality BDU’s though you can usually remove most of the new dye (i.e. go back to the original colour) with a chlorine bleach wash or soak so you can play around a bit. Nylon and Poly take longer (maybe 20 – 30 min) than cotton (10-15 min) depending how dark you want it. I did a 6-colour desert top ny-co (50/50) top black and after a few washes it was kinda dark grey (Goth black?) with the darker pattern showing through. I’ve found cloth looks darker in the bath than it turns out.
Cotton khaki to olive is pretty easy but the buttons will still be tan (well, on propper and alpha ones anyway) and the darker part of patterns will probably show through if they are cams. Generally 1/2 to 3/4 dark brown and 1/2 or a bit less dark green will give you a darker olive while both half packets will give a greener version (like faded OD BDUs).
To go really dark for BDU’s (basko) I’d use a whole packet of dark brown and 1/2 to 3/4 dark green and leave them in it for a while. You might try a professional place if you want permanent effects on ny/co (i.e. the old m65 pattern to black thing). Also I wouldn’t spray paint cloth unless you’re a sniper or something.
Cordura
Cordura is tricky because if you go to dark there ain’t no going back. Bleach and colour remover destroys the waterproof backing (I know, I tried…). I wouldn’t leave anything in longer than 10 mins or so unless you want solid black or something. Also, unlike cloth, cordura doesn’t seem to look darker than it turns out so as soon as it starts looking darker take it out. Remember that you can also go darker by doing it again to it’s best to err on the sort side. I’ve also found that nylon webbing can go darker quicker than the cordura so take that into account and interestingly I’ve also noticed that the buckles go darker too. To do pouches from tan to dark khaki/coyote I use 1/2 to 3/4 dark brown and 1/2 or less of green. For a more coyote colour I’d even try very little or no green to start with but keep times short because it’ll go bright brown quickly. And keep times to around 5mins or a bit over. Rinse straight away in cold water etc. as per above.
The other complication with cordura is that the binding may be poly or nylon that doesn’t take dye well (see pic below). You may want to test this first as this hydro pack came out funny (I touched it up with model spray paint ok though).
Hope this helps!