Vinegroon- Observations And Questions

[chiefjason]

Since most of what I have been doing is in black, I was thrilled to find the vinegroon info here. I quickly got a batch to start "brewing" and waited. I finally got it where it was a good black and started working with it. It really is great stuff for dying black.

However, I have noticed a few things. First run I grooned the leather by dipping it, then burnished. Yikes! It seems the grooning made it much more difficult to burnish. I also made the mistake of grooning one before molding it. Double yikes! It nearly waterproofs the leather so wetting it was tough. Getting a good mold was non existent. I would consider it "lightly molded." I'm pretty new at all this but it molded noticeably different. Here is a pic.

So next batch of leather for backing hybrid holsters I burnished first. Everything looked good. I knew I would have to touch it up after wetting them. This time I used a wool dauber to groon the leather. Immediately I noticed the burnished edges were not taking the color well. I went back and touched up a couple times after letting it set 15-20 minutes. I even scrapped some of the wax off to get to the leather. I'm burnishing by wetting the edges, running a bit of soap over the edge, then wax, then burnishing. It seems to have basically made a resist in certain areas. Then when I went back to touch up the burnishing either I noticed more, or it became more noticeable. For the hybrids it's not so bad. For a full leather holster I would not be satisfied with it.

So, what order are others doing this in? I think the next one will get grooned first and I'll just have to elbow grease it. I don't want to sacrifice color saturation.

Also, de glaze or not? I've really not noticed any difference but thought I would ask while I was typing.

There's always something to be learned and at least I'm still having fun. I've got one molded and drying in the garage. I hope to groon it this weekend. It molded much better but I am not looking forward to the burnishing. Thanks.

[Bronson]

Try just burnishing with water and friction. After it's taken the color you could always go over it again with the wax.

Bronson

[markush]

The first holsters I did were with vinegaroon so I thought the burnishing and molding were supposed to be that difficult. I only realized how false that was when I made a natural non-dyed holster. The burnishing took half the time and the molding/boning was way too easy!

My process was as simple as I could make it...I dipped in the vinegaroon for 10-15 secs. I let that set and take on it's full blackness for 2-3 minutes, did a baking soda dip, then dipped in fresh water...about 10-15 seconds for each of those dips. If was pretty well soaked after all that so I took that opportunity to chuck up the cocobolo burnisher in the drill press and do all the edges using...nothing else! I could get super smooth edges like that. Vinegarooned leather is pretty tough stuff as you found out so it took a while. If the leather happen to still be too wet to mold I'd just let it sit for a while. But before it was totally dry I would mold and bone. So I accomplished 3 steps in one...color, edges, and molding.

This was my very first vinegarooned holster and all the edges on the holster body, reinforcement piece, and belt loops were done as described above.

Here's a more edge on shot of a mag carrier I did about the same time as the holster above. Cocobolo burnisher in a drill press and leather wet from the vinegaroon process...I saw no need to put anything else on the edges.

[chiefjason]

Thanks for the replies guys. Keep them coming if anyone has more info. I'm doing 2 leather backers and hopefully a full leather holster tonight. One of the backers I grooned, rubbed down with baking soda, and rinsed well. Then immediately burnished. It was certainly an improvement. I'll go back and see if it needs touching up when it dries. I also burnished one first with water only. I'll groon that one later.

I'm glad I decided to buy a new dremel last night. Boy is that 2 speed nice. I was using an old single speed before, but I dropped it last week and messed up the switch. My FIL turned two burnishers for me to use on the dremel and it's been a real time saver.

I'll post some pics when I have them done.

markush, that is one beautiful holster! I've been toying with OWB beltslides mostly. I've not taken on a true IWB yet. My first all leather holster, and the one on my side now, is an OWB with snap loops that I can replace to make it IWB. But that's as close as I have gotten. I'm going to order some lighter leather soon and remake it with some improvements including lining it.