If you're lucky, Scott P will see this and re-post an SBS he did on another forum that shall not be named. He's perfected small batch dyeing in the microwave.
If you wanna go big, find yourself a copy of AK Best's Dyeing and Bleaching Natural Fly-Tying materials. He does 10 or 12 cup dye baths on a hot plate or stove....that said, I'm thinking you could do a smaller patch of moose in the microwave but I won't steal Scott's thunder.
I've never done moose, but I have dabbled with rabbit and deer hair using a hot plate & coffee carafe. If your moose hide is tanned, you're probably good to go, but I would still degrease it with some Dawn detergent. Soak the patch in warm to hot water with a bunch of detergent for a while...10 minutes or so. Rinse and then soak it again a new bath but this time add a tablespoon or two of vinegar. Rinse and then dye.
My experience is a good black will require two dye baths....a dark red or dark brown for the first one and followed by the black. For some rabbit I did, I used Rit Medium Brown followed by a bath of Rit black.
My recipe was 10 cups of water, 1 Tblspn of dye, and at least 1/8 cup of vinegar....I've gone as high as a full cup of vinegar....and maybe a tablespoon of detergent. Toss in the hide and let it stew at about 140 degrees until it's nice and dark...maybe up to an hour or more, depending upon how big your patch of hair is.
When it looks good, I'll test it before I dump the dye. Rinse it in cold water to set the dye and then I like to wash it in warm to remove dye that's not fixed and see what I'm left with. If it's too light...back in the bath it goes.
If you're gonna do this in the kitchen....first go buy your wife some flowers for when you splatter or spill some dye...cuz it seems to be inevitable...at least for me
. And when you're at the store, pick up some 409 cleaner...I've found this works well to remove spilled/splattered dye if you catch the spill quickly. Otherwise use a hot plate and an old coffee carafe in the garage.
Have fun...it sure beats the Sharpie method....I've done that, too.
