Thread: Frederick Reynolds wearing home dyed honey horn scales

I have used hair dye in the past to restore original scales with good success. This is my first attempt on new honey horn scales. On original scales 1 hour is enough to get a nice deep colors. 2 hours lightly etched the scales so that was too long. On new horn after 1 hour I washed off just a small section of the dye and found almost no color. I reapplied to that area and let it set another hour. Washing off the dye after the second hour I found even color but transparent. I mixed more dye and applied and let set for 3 hours more. So a total of 5 hours. The color was dark and smooth with no etching. The scales were finish polished before application of the dye. After rinsing in water and drying the scales they received a coat of Renaissance Wax.
I wonder if the old masters used some process to prepare the scales for the dye to improve penetration. Perhaps the dyes they used were just more caustic.