The Dirty Little Task Of Dyeing

[thecapgunkid]

The Capgun Kid Rides

The dirty little task of dye-ing leatherwork for the amateur craftsman.

The Year of The Bike. That's what brother Chris and I called the Christmas of 1959. He got a some little Schwinn with training wheels because he was only five but I qualified for the kid hot button in Pine Avenue Grammar School that year...the English Racer. I don't even remember whether or not it had gears, but it was sleek, with thin tires and I knew just by looking at it under the Christmas Tree that it was fast.

The problem was, out there in Suburbia, there were the remnants of about a foot of snow on the ground and nobody was going to ride those new bikes until a body could see the street. Not that we were limited to being housebound in the winter, but there was a limited range of things you could do with your toys outdoors. Indeed, last year, when I got my Mattel Winchester I was horrified at my own thoughtlessness when my new rifle ejected all of its Mattel play bullets into the snow. It took me a half an hour to find them, and a whole season before I brought 'em outside again.

For the most part, unless you could find another street urchin to play with, you were limited to indoor recreation amid the hum-drum of a school year that seemed never to end. But that was still a week away amid the aftermath of another Christmas Morning that the best Santa and Mrs. Santa in the world ( AKA Mom and Dad) worked so hard for. Almost as an after thought brother Christ wandered over to the stockings hanging from our RCA TV ( we didn't have a fireplace until Dad expanded the little ranch) and the prizes they held. Dad had a thing about the foot long candy canes and an orange. He was a depression child, and our grandparents of European descent placed a value on fresh citrus fruits as if they were luxuries limited to the upper class.

He also thought about batteries for the toys that needed them, a Pez Dispenser, a fountain pen and a jack knife. But there, at the bottom of these stocking as long as your arm, was the real treasure of that year...the sleeper that I always treasured even to this day. The Louis Marx Toy Company ( God bless 'em) had figured out that a line of miniatures, sold as a collector series, could feature western cap pistols that had an exceptional detail. Mounted on a card in my stocking was a little six shooter that broke in the middle to accept a cap and was really well detailed to look like a real sixgun with a white, steers head grip. They are all over E-Bay and at Capgun Shows to boot.

It didn't take long to figure out that, if I cut back on Chunkies and Bonomo Turkish Taffy on allowance day I could afford to buy one of these on my own. Moreover, every visit to Grandma Bea's where the overindulgent Grandparent took the little prince to the Five and Dime store with the sawdust on the floor, yielded another addition to my miniature arsenal of Navy Thirty Sixes, Winchester '73s, Sharps Rifles and Derringers. The Pandora's box opened when Grandma Bea showed me a small pile of leather samples from a visiting sofa upholstery salesman that had left behind.

Thus, the world created a monster when I began cobbling leather. I got my grimeys on some toothpicks for bullets, a scissor, a needle and some thread and an old watchband buckle and put together my first rig. I still have it today. My mother did not start working for Tandy for another year or two, and I did not start formal training in disciplines such as shoemaking until years later, but there is something blissfully ignorant when you set to a project and hack out something pleasing without really knowing what you are doing. There is also something dark and brooding when you make a mistake and can't get it back because your resources are so limited.

So, that's why I put this together. It is based on the conversations throughout the shooting year when some cowboy shows me his handicraft, or asks me how to do something. Since there is not a lot I enjoy with my pards as much as chatting about the craft, here are some pointers for the amateur who does not have a lot of tools, or who is starting out and cannot afford same, or who maybe is going to do one project here or there and wandered into this website.

How to dye stuff without getting divorced because of a ruined carpet or table.

You probably will get divorced because you ruined a carpet or table, but at least your work will look better for it and your newly dyed gunbelt can keep you company whilst you try to live out of your car because you got thrown out.

Some guys like to prep their leather with an off the shelf spirit that is a cleaner. Makes your eyes tear and your nasal membranes swell. Some guys will take a spray bottle and mix water with a few drops of liquid detergent. OK. I'm not a big fan of that, but whatever works.

I prefer a small paint roller and a boatload of neatsfoot oil. Roll it on there and glop it on good. Of course, you got a piece of poster board under the piece you are working on...right? Work fast and smooth over each piece with a dry cloth to try to even out the oil. Let it sit long enough to have a cup of coffee. If you are not satisfied with leaving the un-dyed piece in the sun so that the oil darkens the leather to a honey color that is really sexy, then break out the alcohol based dye. Here's a little tip; for a couple of hours, put the dye in the freezer. Yup, that's right, the freezer. It's alcohol based, so it will take a lot to freeze it and separate the color from the alcohol, but you are not gonna leave it in there even close to that point.

Now, here's the other half of the chilled thing trick. I use daubers and those little plastic cups the no-sugar-added peaches come in from the grocery store. You wanna daub the dye in tight little circles, gopping it on good and refreshing the dauber frequently. Oh yeah...I forgot...keep your piece flat and never try to dye something after it has been assembled or stitched. The neatsfoot oil is going to inhibit the dye from penetrating so fast as to be uneven. The dye coming out of the freezer, because it is so cold, will be a little thicker and be slower to penetrate. That'll give it time to sit there and slowly spread evenly over the leather. When you see that the dye is just sitting on the leather and not sinking in right away but rather gradually, you're on track. Remember, you want it to spread evenly first and penetrate second. Leather that absorbs too quickly results in visible dauber marks, ugly lines and overlaps, and otherwise undesirable things that will ruin your piece because this is the finish work...the first part to catch the eye beyond stitching.

You're gonna have to brush the leather when dry to get off the excess pigment. If your leather is of the economy grade, where you have little chance of having everything perfect because you get what you pay for, the worst thing that will happen to you is that the dye will have gradual light spots that look as if the piece is aged and worn from years of use. You won't get this hard lines and swirl marks that display poorly dyed leather.

One cobbler who owned New Milford Shoe Service in New Milford, Ct., used to light the dye with a cigarette lighter on small pieces, but I found that burning off the alcohol also distorted the color...or I am just one of those Klutzes who cannot master the technique and would burn the house down, take your pick. When I shot with The Bluff Head Bushwackers Cowboy Action Club, a really talented leather worker named Frank, AKA The Leather Man, told me that he will daub on in three sets; once lengthwise, once width wise and once in circles to make sure the dye penetrated, so using the chilled alcohol based dye seemed to penetrate well when I took his advice.

Most of the other Craftsmen I spoke to along the way will use either a patch of sheep skin or the daubers that are little cotton balls on a stiff piece of wire. The former gets cut into two inch squares and the latter can be bought by the bag at your local retailer for leathercraft. Almost everybody uses rubber gloves, and I once bought enough boxes of surgical gloves at a local flea market to outfit me for life. As far as tools go, there really aren't any. I prefer using the rinsed out plastic containers that come with fruit cups off the shelf in the grocery store, a spare bottle of rubbing alcohol to thin occasionally, the things mentioned above, and a piece of poster board to act as a mat and protect my bench. I like using a trim paint roller and pan to glop on the neatsfoot oil, that being a staple before putting on the dye with or without a cleaner.

A couple of the craftsmen I spoke with in the last two or three decades will use a darker shade of dye, a cotton glove, a beeswax/paraffin mixture and a burnisher on a fan belt motor to work the edges. Leatherworker.net has an excellent piece by a fellow called Hidepounder that describes a more detailed effort that produces glass edges. It's the best piece I've ever read on the topic. For the guy without tools and little room, follow Dusty Johnson's advice in his videos and wet/color the edge and then rub it briskly with either a piece of denim or a cotton glove. Keep your strokes going the same way and you will be surprised at the outcome.

Get thee to E-Bay ( if you can put up with their anti-gun nonsense) and spend a lot of time here, on Leatherworker.net. If you are serious about starting to expand and sell some leather work, find the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal or one of the other trade journals with a search on the net.

Most of us cowboy shooters tend to gravitate to crafts during the winter as opposed to during the shooting season because clubs tend to shut down over access and driveway issues, and that's when it helps to have your supplies and tools at the ready. Even now, I will break out a special toolbox that I have arranged to work with the little Marx Miniatures Brother Chris and I used to get in our Christmas Stockings. They are antiques now, and I have found that gussying them up and outfitting them with their leather can be a relaxing way to pass the time while waiting for a capgun show or the start of the shooting season.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid