How long do you put it in the boiling water for? Curious your thoughts on this topic.

For a good tannin dye,boil traps in the evening in your drum,let sit in drum overnight,then bring to a boil again next day,and remove the traps and wax immediately.Repeat the process with the next batch of traps.

...remove the traps and wax immediately
Be sure traps are DRY before waxing.

Without a doubt what Boco said will work and may be the best way to do it ! I don’t have the time or the inclination to spend that much energy on one batch ( or one dozen in my case ) in the die pot . I’ve always been told your trap needs to reach the same temperature as the die .

15 min is plenty of time per batch in the boiling dye water IMO.

Im about the same as ADC Im using walnuts for dye.
J

For me if the traps have a good coat of rust on them ,after the water start to boil I let the traps in there for about 1/2 hour and then take them out and hang to dry and have the next batch in the dye and after boil 1/2 hour and take them out and dry. Then another day I will just wax them and make sure the traps are dry before you put them in wax.You will find out fast if you do not.If the traps dose not have a good coat of rust on them I go with what they are and just see how much of the dye they take and then let them dry and wax another time.I been usen maple leaves to dye my traps.I keep the dye after I am done and just add more leave the next time I dye the traps. Did use log crystal in the past then read some where on here you can use maple leaves also.So I have it for free on my own place that is what I use now.For how I do it the coyotes can not tell and dose not dig up the traps also.

From what I remember from a few years ago while using a thermometer off my turkey fryer , the temperature drops quite a bit when the traps are first added.

Wish I could remember the details, but I would bet it takes at least 15 or 20 min. for the temperature to come back up !

That is about right for what you state. I use wood to boil my traps and that about how long it will start to boil.

This. 10 minutes at boil then shut down the gas.
If you have all the time in the world to stand and watch and don't mind the extra fuel, the old timers said bring to boil with traps in , then let simmer one hour before removing traps and repeat. Each time you add traps , bring back to boil will take a good bit of time especially if using wood.
far less time involved to bring a batch to boil and let it set overnight while you go do work some where else.

I boil them hard for one hour hang and do the next batch.Back in the day,I did them as Boco describes.It's a good method but I have more traps now and bigger,so I boil them hot for an hour,and hot,then hang.I should also say,whenever possible,I boil on a hot day.The traps dry quicker,out of the dye and they stay hot longer,out of the wax.This is key to getting a nice,thin,deeply embedded coat of wax.

If the wax coating is too thick,this is usually due to it cooling too quickly and this also means it hasn't fused to the trap well.

I often wax the day after dyeing,but if I do wax the same day,I want the trap to be 90-95% dry before going into the wax.I want the waxing to take place during the hottest 2-5 hours of the day.

I don’t boil them anymore. Just a good power washing, let dry and wax for K9 traps. Everything else is power washed and cold dipped.

I boil mine 150 at a time. So it takes a while to bring everything back up to temp. Usually 45-60 minutes.

Definitely one of the best things I've done in trapping is to stop boiling/dying traps.

Wash and wax only now....Oh the time and energy I've wasted the first 30 years of trapping. Dumb.

^^this, cept I only wasted 5 yrs out of 15 boiling for no reason.

This is the same method I use. I notice a pretty big difference in how well the wax/dye coating holds on traps done in the summer vs. traps done in the cooler fall weather. I've tried several different methods, this is the one I prefer the results of, plus I enjoy dyeing and waxing my traps. For me it's all part of the process of cleaning them up good and checking to make sure they're ready to be dyed and waxed for use.

Certainly nothing wrong with allowing traps to dry before waxing but it's not necessary. If you dip a partially wet trap in wax, the wax will immediately start to boil that water off. Once the trap heats up there we be no moisture under the wax.

That's true if the wax is hot enough ~220F+. But I have a strong suspicion that often trappers don't allow that kind of temperature in the wax or they don't leave the trap in the wax long enough for the trap to get that hot.
If the trap is hotter than 220-230F there is little opportunity for the wax to cool so fast as to leave a thick coating, it will run off like water.
Putting cool traps into hot wax, they need to stay in the wax for a bit of time X+minutes, maybe longer.
A candy thermometer might be good tool.