Like Jonathan has alluded to. Don't know where the dye thing started and it don't really matter now, it's an established method of preperation for trapping for most.

Dyeing the traps now does a couple of things first off it helps to seal the pores of the steel with a light coating of rust already present. How some may ask, by combining on a molecular level and keeping the oxygen atom from combining with the iron atom and resulting in rust which if left unheeded would eat your trap up. Actually it does not eat it up as it's a molecular decompistion of the metal.

Once the dye is rubbed or wore off the trap this rusting process begins once agian.

Second thing it does is help repel a certain amount of scent coming from the steel.

Waxing is a pain that seems to me was invented for pure marketing LOL, I'll never use it and have never even wanted or felt the need to mess with it. Once you mess your wax up it's wasted and you got to start all over again with it and your traps. It causes a storage problem with traps once done and if left out seems to be a magnet for any scent coming incontact with traps done or the wax itself stored.

That being said I do understand the reason why it is used and the help it can lend to a catch. Just not enough for me to mess with is all.

Phil, Nice to know you haven't "died" yet while burying a fox trap.

What is your prerogative of doing stuff in the stance of Buck's question? The younger crowd is on pins and needles to know.

Just wondering.

Jonathan

glenrosebeaver08, I use a kitchen kettle, I have about 20 lbs in it

For me, coon traps get no prep, other than physical adjustment. Coyote and cat--brand new ones get degreased and waxed. I feel it "locks in" any odors and speeds up the trap and protects it to an extent. Then after they are good and used and start to rust from use and catches, they get dyed in walnut hulls and then waxed.

I used to try to rust brand new traps in vinegar or various other ways, then dye and wax, but found it to be too time consuming and then I realized I didn't have any reason to--like you said, they are going in the ground so I don't need camo, except for exposed cat sets, but in that case the dumb cat don't care what the trap looks like, shiny or black. I only dye after rust from natural use after a season or so because I can't stand to have my traps look crappy.

I dip mine, and I do it to protect the traps so they'll hopefully last me many seasons to come. Also, a black trap blends in better from people than a bright orange rusty one. Also, last year I had a 330 that was starting to rust, and I caught a beaver in it. I couldn't get that rust mark out of the beahver's fur, so I don't think I'll be letting my traps rust.

I/ll just touch on the dip being rubbed off by coon leaving bare metal to rust. That happens and I didn't like it as well. I went to dipping coon traps in cheap barn paint thinned with water. That mixture wears alot better than dip and actually protects the trap against rust. Speed Dip is a scam.

Great response Jonathan,

I would answer both except that there is still no other way to get the effects that the 2 provide me and my traps.


Dyeing traps has nothing to do with the color, so to those of you who do not dye them because they will be burried anyway, maybe you should do some research about this thing you call a sport you do cause that has nothing to do with it.

Waxing has nothing to do with odors... except it is a negative thing because wax absorbs any odor that is surronding it. So those of you waxing traps to make them odor free.... yep see above paragragh time for you to do some research and learn a thing or too as well.

Barkstone, I almost waddled with ink in reference to those contentions about dye, trap "color" in the so what? if buried, and the wax sealing in odor. Neither apply proportionately in the drift of my meager sense of what dyeing and waxing is intended for, at least by me - solely to maintain the longevity and life of a trap as a tool because of my investment in them.

I bought them on purpose - to hang out with me until the day that I am planted.

Mine will live beyond my allowed time on this planet.

Jonathan

Tradition, maintaining your gear, it is all part of the ritual of fall trapping. As stated above my traps will be here long after I am gone....Tom

I'll give you a little information about why I am skeptical about dying doing much to prevent corrosion. My background is nuclear, first as a reactor operator in the Navy, then as a commercial nuclear plant operator, and now as an inspector of nuclear reactors, and I've been trained a little on different types of corrosions, their causes, and prevention. But I'm no metallurgist by any means, and most of my knowledge is in the area of stainless steel and the various types of corrosion which affect it.

None of that training included anything about using the types of dyes we use as a coating, so I have no educational background which give me anything to go on as far as its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. But I do know that in order for a coating to be effective against corrosion, it must exclude oxygen and chlorides from contact with the metal. And when you think of chlorides, don't just think of salt from hands or salt applied at a set to keep the trap from freezing. Many materials can transfer chlorides, including the plastic in a tub in which you store your traps.

I also know that generalized corrosion (rust) if it is the right KIND of rust is effective against further corrosion, because it excludes oxygen from contact with the base metal. Many carbon steel components are deliberately "rusted" during manufacture to provide a "good" rust coating, under controlled conditions such as temperature, oxygen content, etc.

I also know about various types of pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion, chloride stress corrosion cracking, intergranular stress corrosion cracking, etc. And a trap is under conditions in which all of these types of corrosion can occur, except maybe the IGSCC, which typically occurs in stainless steel in high temperature conditions.

I have no doubt that dipping can reduce corrosion. It is a solid coating that can exclude oxygen and chlorides. But I'm not sure about dye. The "coating" is so thin, does it really exlude oxygen from contact with the metal? And I'm not sure it fills pores in the metal all that effectively. After dying, you can still see the pores with the naked eye, and the only way it can reduce corrosion is if it is preventing contact of oxygen and chlorides with the metal.

I think the BEST preventer of damage to traps from excessive corrosion is a good coating of "good" rust which prevents contact of oxygen with the base metal. I think it is much more beneficial to a trap than dying. Dying may have some benefits, but it may not, either. Like I said, I'm not sure about its ability to exclude oxygen and chlorides.

I think I can get in touch with some metallurgists whose job is to analyze corrosion and flaws in the materials in nuclear power plants. It might not be real soon, spring at the earliest, but if I get a chance I think I'll ask them how effective the dye is.

Buck you have the product in front of you LOL, one can be a control the other the experiment, one dyed and the other not, you can see which will waste away quicker.

How many here have traps that are pristine as the day they bought them that they never dyed? Compared to those they have not used but dyed and just hung up? Which are worse for wear, without having any wear? Putting them in the ground will just aggravate the condition as well, dyeing some how helps this process slow down.

Don't take a rocket scientist to see something is helping slow the corriosion process!

I don't have near as much background in metalurgy as you do, however I've got enough with my background that tells me the dye is worth the effort and it's showing me that every time I use it.

I'd have to disagreee with a good coating of rust for small things, light wieght things like traps. Where you have a considerable amount of mass that might hold some wieght in the long run, but for smaller things there is enough ambient pressure for the oxygen to press past this coating of rust.

There's a reason that most bridges are coated with heavy encapsulating coatings and where it's wore off one can see how fast rust does it's thing when continuing forces help it.

Myself, I can't see where having a continued amount of rust accumulate on one's traps is benificial in the long run. When it does start to show or stay, once you knock this off you have lost some of your parent material and the process starts all over agian.

Trapping on a regular basis does not lend it's self to building up any kind of protective layering of rust for most active users of equipment. One has to protect the equipment in a quicker and more sustainable manner.

Not trying to make waves or cause anyone greif with this, so don't be taking it as a personal arguement on the matter! But there is something to the dye process that helps corrision resistance for trapping.

Im glad im not real smart, lmao.

While messing around with some traps in the shop just now, I got to thinking about how logwood crystal or hickory nut dyes could inhibit corrosion.

Now, I know that the pH of a solution in contact with metal will affect the corrosion rate. And some soils are more alkaline than others.

So could it be that the deposit of tannic acid on the metal is maintaining a more favorable pH while the trap is in the soil and that is why dying helps inhibit corrosion? Seems plausible to me.

I want to see a MB-550 or 650 in stainless steel! Now THAT would be the ultimate! Why has no-one done this?

Cost!

Anyone who drives a vehicle where roads are salted knows rust does not protect from further rust in those circumstances. Rust spots need to be treated to prevent further corrosion.

Anyone using an untreated trap with any kind of salt antifreeze will soon see their traps rust away.

btw, I find oil based paint works well for body grippers.

I definitely wouldn't use an unwaxed trap if using salt. Wouldn't take long for it to be completely ruined.

That's what I was thinking, lol. Guess my reason that I posted earlier is shot. Oh well, I don't need to get all technical about it. It works for me so I'm sticking to it.