Fluorescent orange merino wool shirt

[DenverCountryBoy]

I couldn't find a fluorescent orange merino shirt, so I bought a natural colored shirt and dyed it.

The dye was Dharma Acid Dye 456 fluorescent safety orange. It is a true fluorescent dye and will glow under UV light.

I used an old roasting oven to heat the dye bath. The fabric went in while the water was still cold so the wool would not felt. A drop of dish soap was added as a surfactant to help the dye penetrate the fibers.

I also tried over dyeing a piece of tangerine orange merino jersey fabric. It came out much more saturated, almost fluorescent red.

The shirt will breath better than a vest on warmer hunts and the jersey merino fabric will be used as a schemagh in cooler Temps.

 

[5shot]

That's awesome. I had a Filson HO wool shirt forever ago, but it shrunk or I grew, and they don't make them anymore.

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[PantherCity]

I would think you wouldn't want the "true fluorescent dye and will glow under UV light."

Deer and other ungulates can't see colors like we do, which is why they don't seem to mind blaze orange, But they do see part of the UV spectrum which is why I'm always careful to only use detergents with no UV brighteners (not hunting specific detergent just sent-free and no UV brighteners, much cheaper than hunting brand detergent). UV brighteners can make you seem to glow to deer.

Just food for thought, If you are a rifle hunter you may not care too much, but thought it worth mentioning. I recently bought some brown RIT dye to dye some light colored garments, so I'm glad to see it worked out well for you.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

you will look like you're glowing to deer with the UV.

Good idea though. I think you can buy some 'uv killer' spray that might help, or don't care, you'll probably kill deer anyways!

 

[DenverCountryBoy]

Blaze orange is a fluorescent color. It just converts the UV to orange. The shirt should still look gray to ungulates and have a low UV reflectance.

What you want to avoid are things that would fluoresce into the spectrum they can see like detergents with artificial brighteners. Those fluoresce UV to light blue.

 

[couesbitten]

Looks good, where did you get the merino jersey fabric?

 

[sneaky]

Blaze orange is a fluorescent color. It just converts the UV to orange. The shirt should still look gray to ungulates and have a low UV reflectance.

What you want to avoid are things that would fluoresce into the spectrum they can see like detergents with artificial brighteners. Those fluoresce UV to light blue.

Your intentions are good, but you're gonna glow in that shirt to an ungulate. None of my blaze orange clothes glow under UV light. If that one does, then the natural UV rays are gonna have you shining like a beacon. Cool that it turned out though.

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[DenverCountryBoy]

I got the fabric from thefabricstoreonline.com

It was a tangerine color. If I where to start over, I would get this instead, Cream Wool Jersey - 62527 Discount Fabrics