# J Stern Raffia - Colors



## goosemanrdk (Jan 14, 2003)

StiffNeckRob said:


> Chad used natural that I had mudded. A tad amount of 2 other colors mixed in. It was about 5-6# per blind plus the dog blinds and a separate amount dyed green and mixed with their predyed green for use in hayfields. Takes about 8 hours to do a layout. After 15+ hunts this year and many more out of one last year I'll never go back to the rush of stubbling before every hunt. The blinds I hunted out of last year and during spring snow had been grassed for 5+ years. Those who hunted with us this year saw birds landing at our feet in blinds that had literally nothing added to them in the field. Isn't that the ultimate goal of why we're out there?


My blinds are the ones that Rob is talking about that have been grassed for 5+ years.

Here are some keys/ Tips tricks.
1- Lighter is always better than dark, and the color will get better with age. Lighter blends very well in Corn, Durham, Barley etc. If you have to hunt beans, just place the blinds tight together to look like a clump that naturally occurs in fields and set decoys accordingly.

2- Skip cloths pins, zip ties etc.. Grab long bunches, fold them in half and loop knot them around the stubble strap. They are not going to come off. (yes, some will at first, but once worn in, its not coming off)

3- How do you do the parts that don't have stubble staps(aka along the edge of the door to the first stubble strap). Zip tie in a length of decoy mainline cord and use that as your "stubble strap." You might have to cut some small slits thru the blind material to do this. Now you can literally cover the entire blind.

4-Having to change it up for green fields. We did this as clumps zip tied to cloths pins. We dyed our grass green. We used slip pins for the sides and for the boot bags, and spring pinch pins for the doors. This will NOT come off, during a day of hunting, once placed on blind. Now if I were to do this again, I would get a spare snow cover, dye/paint it green and then attach the dyed green right to the cover using loop knots. This would be so much faster to grass on the mornings it is needed.

5- DYING THE GRASS GREEN--- Start with natural color raffia. Get a 55 gallon trash can, fill with hot water and dump in a dark green packet of powdered Rit dye. Put a blinds worth of grass in and let soak. Have a second 55 gallon trash can with hot water and 2 packets of powdered YELLOW in it. Fish the ENTIRE blind worth of grass from the Green soak, let drain and quickly drop the entire bunch into the yellow and let soak. Doing this will make it green green and kill the blueish hue that the straight green has.

6-Snow covers go right over the grassed blinds with zero issues.

We did this 2 our blinds quite a few years ago, and I have not looked back. We rarely if ever put ANY stubble on our blinds anymore. Only in select rare cases do we.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any further questions.


----------



## Lamarsh (Aug 19, 2014)

Here is my boat done 50:50 with "field green" and "west coast extra fancy".

As far as the comments above about it making a mess and getting tangled, I do not have that problem at all having attached it with the "half hitch" method. Yes, at first, some of the loose strands came off, but after a few drives on the freeway, that stopped happening almost immediately. 

As far as it not looking natural in certain places, I'll say you'd be hard pressed to find a single permanent, non natural brush in material that is perfect everywhere. Early season there's lots of greens, and hunting near cedar there's always greens, and late season in the marsh or managed areas no green all tan, you just gotta match the hatch so to speak. You always need to add some natural stuff if you really want to blend in.


----------



## grassmaster (Jan 10, 2009)

Looks like cousin "IT" from the addams family. google it.


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

So 5 hanks, 10# of natural raffia. $55 OK

Fed Ex Ground from Cleveland to West Michigan. $43.

WTF? No raffia for me.


----------



## Lamarsh (Aug 19, 2014)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> So 5 hanks, 10# of natural raffia. $55 OK
> 
> Fed Ex Ground from Cleveland to West Michigan. $43.
> 
> WTF? No raffia for me.


Hmm that's weird, my order from 2015 for 30lbs was $127 for the raffia, $28 for shipping, but that was shipped to Detroit metro area.


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I tried to have 1#, $4 of springs shipped Fed Ex from Warsaw IN to Holland, MI, and they wanted $17. Screw that too.

I'm going to call J Stern as that doesn't seem correct...


----------



## StiffNeckRob (Apr 19, 2007)

It's not. You saw the shipping charge on my invoice. The reps name is on there too. Ask for her, she was good to work with. The online shipping calculator they have is screwed up. Order it on the phone instead.


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Just going to skip the layout blinds and get some of these suits made instead. Should work great for Shiawassee when the corn is thin.


----------



## jduck (Jan 21, 2000)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> So 5 hanks, 10# of natural raffia. $55 OK
> 
> Fed Ex Ground from Cleveland to West Michigan. $43.
> 
> WTF? No raffia for me.


I Just ordered some more and they had a $15 flat rate shipping option.


----------



## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

jduck said:


> I Just ordered some more and they had a $15 flat rate shipping option.


They also upped the price from 10 bucks to 15 for 2 pounds. Just check the website the good colors are back orderd till September.


----------



## jduck (Jan 21, 2000)

Aaronjeep2 said:


> They also upped the price from 10 bucks to 15 for 2 pounds. Just check the website the good colors are back orderd till September.


Natural is 10.99. Save some $$ and just dye yourself


----------



## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

jduck said:


> Natural is 10.99. Save some $$ and just dye yourself


Didn't notice that nice just placed a order.


----------



## SteelShot (Jan 26, 2011)

jduck said:


> Natural is 10.99. Save some $$ and just dye yourself


Or hang it on your boat or blind and just spray paint with flat colors of your choice. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

Got the 10 pounds I ordered was going to do the base in fast grass and brush it up with raffia. Decided to just go all raffia ordered 30 more pounds. Hopefully that will cover my 16 foot blind with roof.


----------



## jduck (Jan 21, 2000)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> I tried to have 1#, $4 of springs shipped Fed Ex from Warsaw IN to Holland, MI, and they wanted $17. Screw that too.
> 
> I'm going to call J Stern as that doesn't seem correct...


Kevin, Im going to have extra natural hanks if you wanted to try them this year.

Tired dying 5 hanks at once 2 packets of dark green dye in 20g of hot water. Probability needed 3 more packets or only do 1 hank at a time. Kept sirring and let them soak 12 hours. Came out only half dyed and with the blue tint. I had the yellow dye on hand to dip but it wasnt going to change the half that didnt take up color. 
So cheated and ordered a sprayer and green grass dye. One spraying I added some black liquid Rit to get a little darker. I don't get out that much for hunting so should last a couple years. If not I'll get 5 packets next time, or juat rattle can it. 










Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I've got two blinds touched up already and half a box of raffia left over to play with if the color/density isn't right.

That green would be the bomb in alfalfa at MWW.


----------



## Lamarsh (Aug 19, 2014)

jduck said:


> Kevin, Im going to have extra natural hanks if you wanted to try them this year.
> 
> Tired dying 5 hanks at once 2 packets of dark green dye in 20g of hot water. Probability needed 3 more packets or only do 1 hank at a time. Kept sirring and let them soak 12 hours. Came out only half dyed and with the blue tint. I had the yellow dye on hand to dip but it wasnt going to change the half that didnt take up color.
> So cheated and ordered a sprayer and green grass dye. One spraying I added some black liquid Rit to get a little darker. I don't get out that much for hunting so should last a couple years. If not I'll get 5 packets next time, or juat rattle can it.
> ...


Nice. I'd call that "Golf Course Green".


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Alfalfa green?


----------



## TNL (Jan 6, 2005)

^^^We are all blessed that she got her mother's looks.^^^

I did the green RIT thing with natural raffia. It produced a green unseen in nature. Blue/green sorta like that badly dyed relish on a Chicago dog. Tried it on the opener at MWW last year in alfalfa. Even I flared as I was walking towards my layout in the pre-dawn darkness. You've been warned.


----------



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Mom's looks and dad's scholastic abilities. But she got mom's dry skin that is hell on her hands in the winter. And dad's ability to sunburn, on a cloudy day, while inside.

For the alfalfa I like to find a center pivot rut and then get as much of the green weeds / stuff they missed when they cut from the edge of the field, and make everyone suck it up and borrow a Power Hunter.

Kind of like when your guest brings a bed sheet out to hide their blind in the snow and as soon as they set it down it's day glow UV purple?


----------

