Gosut

Yes. The iron acetate reacts with tannic acid to make the black, and that's why tea is often used as a pre-vinegaroon treatment. It's convenient and low-cost. For blackening leather, the caffeine isn't important, but is still there, along for the ride. My concern is absorption though the skin is a situation where the leather becomes soaking wet, as with perspiration or rain, and is essentially against the skin.

This is odd, but was thinking about tea for a tannic acid bath for dyeing, and happened to think about caffeine. Even decaf tea has some caffeine, so it's not caffeine free. That means a tannic acid solution made from tea will have caffeine. Why worry about it? Because caffeine can be absorbed through the skin. That wouldn't be an issue where the item isn't worn on a person. But there's been times in the summer than my belts have become soaked in perspiration, not to mention leather watch bands back in the day. What would this mean for caffeine absorption through the skin?

Came across this in Department Circular 230, Home Tanning, 1922, published by the US Department of Agriculture, on page 17, under "Dyeing Black." It first lists dyeing with a commercial dye, but then lists dyeing with iron liquor, (vinegaroon). The amounts are for whole hides, but the basics are: Mix iron filing or turnings with vinegar and let stand a few days, making sure there is always enough iron that some is undissolved. Make a tannic acid solution and soak the leather in it for about two days. Remove and rinse off particles from the solution, then mop or brush on the vinegaroon. Rinse off excess vinegaroon and put leather back in the tannic acid solution overnight. Repeat until black in dark enough. What caught my attention is the method ends with the tannic acid bath. That would add more tannic acid to any iron acetate remaining in the leather, but I'm wondering if it's also diluting or neutralizing any free vinegar in the leather. I found the department circular by going to archive.org, selecting texts, and doing a search on USDA home tanning.

Have finally dyed the belt. Unfortunately, it took far more than I anticipated. Most of the dye used went to waste. I applied it with a stain/varnish spouge brush that wasn't as dense as I anticipated. I went over all sides once except for areas that didn't receive dye. I lost way too much dye on the craft paper I'm using as a cover where it spilled from the sponge. Tried to use as much of that as I could, but it was still a waste. No waste on the ground where I applied the dye to the sponge, though. Looking in the small bottle (Fiebing's Dark Brown Pro Dye), I've used way too much of it. I got the small bottle because of expense, but now wondering if dip dye would have resulted in less waste. Looking at how much I used, thought "I'm going to have to go to vinegaroon." Will see how well it evens out. I have a suspicion that I applied it unevenly. Any suggestions on a more cost effective way to apply dye? Already thinking I need to look for a high density sponge if I continue to use this method. Then again, I thought these brushes were high density sponges when I bought them.

Have just run into a problem I should have thought about more. I've made a simple work belt that I intend to dye with Fiebing's Pro Dye. The dye will have to be applied in a well ventilated area. No problem; I've been using the tailgate of my truck as a work bench for gluing, and intended to do the same with dyeing. What I should have considered is where I was going to let it dry. Had intended this as a weekend project and allow it to remain in the bed of my truck. The truck bed is covered and rain wouldn't get to it. However, dew would. Reading online, it seems that I would have to leave the belt flat until the dye dries. That limits where I could let it finish drying in the house. How does everyone else handle this?

Yep, just a strap, buckle, and keeper. I did crease a border. The keeper was a learning experience, but came up with a way that worked for me. Skiving turned out to be not so hard after all, Used the skiver. Glued and saddle-stitched the keeper. Burnished the edges with water. Finished late enough that I don't think I can dye it, as I'd have to leave it in the bed of my truck overnight and there's the problem of dew. And yes, it took this newbie all day.

"It's only a belt," I said to myself. "You have a blank and made a template and aren't trying any tooling. Won't take long at all. Get that done, cut the other project, and dye together." That was earlier this morning. At the moment the belt is cut and punched, the back and ends sanded, but that's all. Still need to slick the flesh side, groove or crease the front side, burnish the edges, and make the keeper. Didn't have any real problems, just it's taking longer than I thought. Making the slot and oblong belt holes wasn't the trouble I anticipated. Just just a punch on the ends of the holes and trimmed. Skiving the buckle end, well, I should have sharpened the skiver first, but I also took it slow because you can always cut off, but can't put it back on. Sort of scraped it down to the required thickness rather than cut because I felt like I don't have that level of control yet. That's something I'll have to practice. The belt keeper is the only part that's giving me pause. Have watched how-tos online and I ordered the blank long enough to make it, but the issue I ran into skiving makes me more doubtful. But a keeper isn't near as wide as the belt (this is a 1 1/2" wide work belt), so I might try a different knife. Maybe, when I gain experience, I can do this faster, but this is taking longer than I thought.

With iron call ink, made from ferrous sulfate and a tannic acid solution, the resulting reaction doesn't immediately turn black. Instead, it turns black over time as it oxidizes. For this reason, some iron gall ink recipes added a coloring agent as a "stand in" until the ink darkened. I don't know if this same thing happens in leather. Unlike paper and parchment, it's likely to be harder for it to oxidize in leather.

A newbie question: Isn't vinegaroon is iron (II) acetate? Doesn't that mean that the issue is more the percentage of acetic acid than the type of vinegar? Just checked a cheap bottle of white vinegar, and it's labeled as 5% (by volume?) acidity. So that would be 5% acetic acid. Wouldn't any vinegar with 5% acidity with the same amount of iron yield the same amount of iron (II) acetate under the same conditions? Iron (II) sulfate was known as copperas due to the green color, and was / is used to make iron gall ink. Iron sulfate reacts with the tannins in oak call to produce an ink that darkened over time. Some iron gall ink also ate holes in paper due to excess acidity, but paper isn't leather. Anyway, it sounds like both ferrous acetate and ferrous sulfate reacts with tannic acid to produce black.

Made templates this morning for belt ends and another checkbook cover pattern. My first attempt was to draw it directly on the back of poster board, then cut out. That project design proved unworkable, so never used it. These I first drew in LibreCAD, then printed. But how to make templates? First idea, one I intended to use for a knife sheath pattern, was to trace it on the poster board using carbon paper. Then decided to cut around the pattern, glue it to the back of the poster board with a rub-on glue stick, then cut out. This worked well. I went with oval belt holes, and the first two are passable, but the rest look good. I used a hole punch (3mm) for the rounded ends and cut between them. Used the same method on the belt buckle slot, except bumped it up to a 5mm punch. Worried about the half-circle end of the buckle end and the English point on the other, but went at it slowly with an small craft knife that was a gift some years ago. Also used the craft knife for the belt holes and buckle slot. The rest I used a utility knife. Used the craft knife for the rounded corners of the checkbook cover. Being a newbie, I looked at cutting out the template as practice for cutting the leather later. Is this a standard way of making templates? If I was going to do a lot of belts and checkbook covers, I might have sprung for that plastic film used to make templates, Being this would see little use, thought poster board would be okay.

Polenta with a US Southern accent. What we locally call grits refers to hominy grits. Hominy is corn / maize that's processed to have the hull removed. It then swells, makes something like a firm popcorn. Hominy grits is made from dried, ground, hominy, and has a different taste than coarse corn meal.

When I made my first project, a checkbook cover, I slicked the flesh side visible above the pockets just enough to be presentable, but left the rest of the flesh sides alone. I think that caused resistance when sliding in the checks and register, and decided to at least slick all the flesh side. Now I have the leather ordered for a checkbook cover for a relative, and will dye it (Fiebing's Pro Dye Dark Brown) and finish it with Fiebing's Resolene. This, however brings me back to the flesh side. Intend to apply dye with a dense sponge "brush," so I could just apply it where the flesh side is visible. But I'm wondering about bleed-through if it's unsealed on the flesh side. Have thought about dyeing both sides of each piece, but that seems to suggests finishing prior to assembly. I'm assuming glue on any finish isn't a good idea, so I'd have to keep that clear and scrape/roughen the glue areas. Note: I plan to buff it prior to applying Resolene (tm) to minimize rub-off as much as possible. My question is what is the usual practice? Is the flesh side of checkbook covers and wallets finished before assembly, or is the practice to dye and finish just the visible areas after assembly but prior to stitching? Thanks in advance.

Thanks. Started thinking about the reaction with tannins and the resulting products. Most of what little chemistry I knew is long gone, and tannic acid turns out to be complex ( C76H52O46 ). Three elements but a whole lot of them, reacting with NaHCO3. A search turned up the obvious: tannic acid in leather is a preservative, raising the question about removing tannic acid from leather. That also has me wondering about vinegaroon for black. Will likely just use Fiebing's Pro Dye to be on the safe side.

Update: I tried it by making what I hope was just under a saturated solution and dipping the leather. Here I messed up: I should have timed it. I waited at least a minute, maybe two, and removed as the solution began wicking through the scrap. Dried and set aside until completely dry. The portion that was in the solution is a medium brown. The leather doesn't feel stiffer, but note it was subject to neatsfoot oil a week ago.

Okay, this is a weird one. Was studying dyeing techniques in Youtube videos, had looked at vinegaroon, and came across a claim that sodium bicarbonate alone can react to veg tan to create a brown color. The person in the video went well beyond the saturation point and had undissolved sodium bicarbonate, and dunked his project in it without filtering. The result did look brown, but was also covered in residue. Was thinking that since sodium bicarbonate can be used as a abrasive, that wasn't a good thing. Still, it did seem to turn the leather brown, and filtering and maybe washing later might remove the grit. However, if this is a chemical reaction to the tannins, what does it do to the leather long-term? Has anyone tried this? Did it turn out good or bad? Will be trying it on a tiny scrap I was going to toss, but it's already had too much neatsfoot oil and that might affect results.

The topic says it all. Have two projects in mind, a belt and a checkbook cover, that I intend to dye with Fiebing's Pro Dye. I used Fiebing's Leather Balm on my first project, and was surprised at how slick it made it. I assume that's from the wax in the mixture. Is Fiebing's Leather Balm sufficient to prevent dye rub-off, or should I use Fiebing's Resolene? Oh, the dye is to be a shade of brown, not black. Thanks in advance.

Already made it and using it. You can see a photo (and issues I ran into) in Critique My Work. The leather is light enough that it folds. The only issue is that the reinforcement creates a sag in the single layer portion. Because this is light leather, toyed with the idea of a solid piece of leather in the fold and cutting slots, Due to the outer layer readily showing creases just from carrying it, a revised pattern would use a heavier weight of leather for the outer piece and two sections of lighter leather to form the pockets. That removes the reinforcement at the sides and should remove the sag. There will definitely be another checkbook A family member asked me yesterday for one to replace another that's coming apart.

Thanks, all. An accent piece out of the same weight leather sounds like a good idea; just cut and sew at the fold. I just looked at it to see if I could take a close-up of the sag, and noticed the outside cover is showing more impressions than anticipated just from carrying it. If I had dyed it, it might not be as noticeable. Something I've fought about is simply cutting slots in the inner piece and gluing it to an outside piece of the same weight. I think, though, that at my absolute beginner level, it might be better to go with the thicker weight for the outside piece and have two separate inside pieces. The one I made is also a little too long for my liking, and I could reduce the width slightly by having no reinforcement on the inside. Tooling is something I may never get into. It's interesting, and I might could do simple patterns, but nothing beyond that.

Revised my pattern tonight after going through my old belts and taking more measurements. I kept the belts on the off chance that I might could use the leather for something, though three are synthetic that didn't hold up and all but two are "genuine" leather than only held up a little better. Now I'm looking at the buckles and thinking "Parts!" Today I stumbled across belts designed around millimeters. Now, I'm not adverse to using the metric system. I've used both it and Customary Units for decades. Since I'd already laid out the patterns in Customary Units, I kept those units.

It was the dimensions of the belt made outside the US that had me wondering. Belt holes are spaced exactly 1 inch apart, and the width is exactly 1 7/16 inches. But the belt holes are 4mm. I would have anticipated the holes to be spaced 25mm apart and the width 36 or 37 mm.

This is more curiosity than anything else. Stitching chisels seem to be marked in millimeters, so I set up my first project so that the stitching was divisible by the stitch distance. Tools such as hole punches seem to be marked in millimeters as well. Now I'm drawing up a pattern for belt ends, from an old belt made in the US, and it's in International Inches. That's to be expected. Yet at the moment I'm wearing a belt made in Vietnam and the width and belt holes also seem laid out in International Inches. Was this because it was to be sold in the US, or is International Inches the norm in leatherworking? But if it's the norm, why are stitching chisels and hole punches in millimeters? This is just curiosity, not to debate metric vs US Customary Measure. I can use either, so it's not an issue. Thanks in advance.

This would also apply to long wallets. This all started because I ordered the wrong weight of leather, 2/3 oz. I looked at it and thought "checkbook cover," and that was my first project. Photos of it are in "Critique My Work." It's simply one piece of leather for the outside, one piece of leather for the inside, and a cut-out out at the fold in order to form two pockets. I made the inside one piece in order to have reinforcement on the outside of the folds. I've used the checkbook cover for five days now, and its developed a noticeable sag in the fold between the reinforcements. I think that's simply due to only one thickness of leather at this location, and that if I hadn't had reinforcements on the edge, the sag wouldn't have happened. I'm thinking I should have used thicker leather for the outside, maybe 5/6 oz, and made the two inside pockets from 2/3 oz. leather. Is this standard?

Important: Do not use the dimensions in the posted pattern! Yes, I already posted one warning. But even after I modified the pattern slightly to allow for rounded corners on the pockets, it was still too tight. I should have allowed more room to make it easier for the checks and register to slide into the pocket. I ended us whittling the reinforcements between pocket pieces in order to make it usable. This added maybe 4mm to the length of the cut-out, but even then the tolerances are really too tight.

Important Note to Beginners Like Myself: The dimensions in my pattern might not work in reality. This is only a pattern I've drawn, and I don't know what I'm doing. I did a pattern before this one that didn't work, and this one might not, either. In particular, the dimensions for the cut-out is measured to a tight tolerance, and I'm going to remeasure to see if rounding the corners is going to result in the checks and check records being supported only by the corners and not the straight part between them. Ideally, I think the rounded corners should be beyond the checks and check records, which means the length of the cut-out should be the length of the checks plus the twice the radius of the curved part. So if I use a hole that's 6mm in diameter for corners (1/4 inch = 6.35mm), then I think the length of the cut-out should be the length of the checks + 6mm. I might even go to a 4mm radius like the outside corners, which would make it check length + 8mm. Either way, I may have to make the entire pattern slightly bigger. But I don't know what I'm doing, which is why I'll cut it out in paper first and see if it fits to my liking, and if not, back to the drawing board.

Thanks, all.