First Time Vinegaroon Maker ?

[Peter Darby]

I am making my first batch. I took distilled vinegar and put in the steel wool (no soap it is for wood smoothing). Now a week or so later the steel wool has mostly turned into filings so I know something is happening. However the shaken liquid is the color of steel wool, there doesn't seem to be any rusting and turning yellow as shown in the pictures of vinegaroon I see on here. Have I done something wrong or do I just need to wait a bit more for the rust to come since I didn't pre-wet the wool to start the rusting.

[TwinOaks]

You don't need to pre-wet the steel wool at all- you're not after dissolved rust, you're after Ferric Acetate. If the steel wool was very clean to start with, and since you used distilled vinegar.... you may not have any yellowing, so don't let that be the determining factor. What you should look at is how the brew effects leather. If you dip a piece of veg-tan in it and nothing happens or happens very slowly....add more steel wool. The ideal ratio is when the steel has been dissolved and all the acid (vinegar is a 5-8% solution of acetic acid) has been used up. The easiest way to do that without a lot of chemical calculations is to just keep adding steel wool to the solution until it stops dissolving.

The steel wool I used wasn't marketed for wood work, but it DID have a rust inhibitor on it - not soap like an S.O.S. pad - just something to protect the steel wool from ambient humidity. If adding a little more doesn't help, try burning it before adding it to the solution.

[camano ridge]

Like TwinOaks said when it stops disolving steelwool and whenthe vinegar odor is gone or minimal you are probably there. Don't worry about the color I have seen from blackish to amber to brown. As long as it works color of the solution is not important. THe best test is to dip a piece of leather in it for a few minutes if you get color changes your pretty much there.

[Peter Darby]

Thanks, I will check it out.

[Peter Darby]

When I dipped the leather it came out beautiful, wet. However when it dries it has sort of a grey cast to it. It almost looks like it is got white powder rubbed into the black. Is this normal? From the various pictures I thought it would be black without the grey cast to it.

[camano ridge]

SOunds like your not quite ready yet. put a little olive oil or neatsfoot on it and see if it darkens up more for you. Also how long did you leave the leather in the roon? Also different leathers react differently.. Some take longer to color. Some need extra tannins to develop a good black. Dipping leather in a strong tea first can help get the rich color you want. THe tea puts more tannins in the leather, it is the tannins that react with the roon to give the black.

Edited January 20, 2015 by camano ridge

[Troy I]

Mine does the same thing sometimes...put a light coat of oil on the leather and it will become a deep black.

[jrny4wrd]

Question: Is it ok to just wipe the baking soda solution on? Can't dipping it effect the deepness of the tooling imprint? I have never dipped for I mostly color with more than one dye and yet to use roon. Can I dye a whole item red and then block dye the top or paint vinigaroon over after?