Leather Dying Problems - Comes Out Too Dark

[deborah195412]

I am using Fiebings light brown spirit dye. When applied with dauber it goes instantly to a dark brown. Same results with their purple dye. Is there any way apply these colors and have the desired shade be lighter color ? I am applying it to tooled veg.tan leather.

Edited March 27, 2015 by deborah195412

[TomG]

Cut them 10 to 50% with Alcohol. They are almost always too dark out of the bottle.

Plus, they will lighten up quite a bit as they dry.

[deborah195412]

What type of alcohol should I use ?

[TomG]

I use denatured, but most pharmacies carry the 90% stuff which will work. Some people even dilute with plain old tap water, but I haven't tried that.

Experiment on some scrap first

[deborah195412]

Thanks a lot. I'll give it a try.