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Showing results for tags 'dye'.
Found 188 results
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I have been making some black leather straps for several months now and I first used fiebing black dye, but the last few I used fiebings black oil dye because I have read that it is better. I admit that it seemed to go a lot further than the regular black dye but now that the product is finished it seems to me that the regular dye produces a much richer and blacker color. Has anyone else noticed this also? -
Since I've started making leather things (mainly belts) from veg tan leather, I've always used acrylic leather dye but to be honest I find the dye gives me a headache and the smell is pretty strong when applying. I've not used water based dyes, but wondering what the main difference is regarding use and finish. Presently I dye, then polish out and apply either Resolene or Tan Kote over the top. If I switched over to water based dyes, what would be the differences I would see? Thanks
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I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to add spirit dye to an oil dye, since they are both technically alchohol based, in order to create a new colour? Thanks -
Hey all, I'm Matt. I read here more than post, but I've got some stuff to sell that I'm not using. New bottles of Fiebing's DuraEdge and Zack's Manuel Edge Ink. 8oz & 4oz, respectively. Only used a small test patch and didn't like it for what I needed. Also including a 3/4 full 4oz bottle of Fiebing's Tan Kote that I'm not using anymore. It's a little old, but it still works fine. Sold only as a set for $20, including shipping anywhere in the continental US only. Thanks for looking!
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Looking for information for how to dye or paint veg tan leather white in a way that would be resilient enough for daily wear as a belt. Thanks! -
For the most part over the years I have stuck with traditional fiebings spirit dyes such as browns, tans, blacks, etc, and I do love them. I've always been wary of doing whole pieces or even accenting with color dyes such as greens, blues, purples, etc. In the past year I've done a few whole pieces as well as accenting with green, blue and other fiebings dyes of the brighter color spectrum (I've had no trouble with the reds) and have noticed a year down the road they fade and often change color terribly and that's with minimal direct sunlight. I was wondering if any of you experienced leather workers had any advice on using colored dyes as I am getting more requests for such brighter colored work, but I do not want to do so worrying about severe fading/discoloration down the road. I have only used fiebings, but I am certainly open to other brands. Don't get me wrong, I do love fiebings traditional color spirit dyes and they have worked well for me over the years, it is just the brighter spectrum I have trouble with, save for the reds. I have no interest in eco flo dyes or any water based dyes. Thank you kindly in advance, -Cheyenne W
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I've been playing with a variety of leather dyes and stains over the years trying to come up with some unique and beautiful effects. I'm still learning, but I've posted a tutorial on youtube for anyone that might be looking for some more creative staining techniques to really make your projects eye-catching. Click here to go to my video link. I've also posted a video tutorial on the wallet I'm staining in the video. Click here to go to the wallet tutorial. Enjoy!
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Hi, I'm trying to learn how to paint with Angelus alcohol based dyes for leather. I noticed quite a few people recommended these dyes. I'm painting on veg tanned leather. I'm looking for a tutorial or video that might explain some basics. I've looked all over you tube and this site and don't seem to be able to answer any of my questions. I tried to paint with some dyes last night and it turned out quite blotchy and just straight up YUCKY! I do have quite a bit of expedience with watercolors and acrylic painting, although not an expert AT ALL. Some of my questions: Should my leather be wet, damp, or bone dry? Should I treat my leather with anything before I paint on the dye? And most of all, do you know of any video's that might explain the process a bit? I contacted Angelus and asked and they have no answers. Thank you so much for any tips, I really appreciate it. The pic below is an example of the what I'm trying to achieve, a soft subtle color. I hope its ok to post someone elses work!
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Hi fellow leather-workers, I’m new to leather working and trying to figure out the best ‘order’ to do things in. Bellow is a list of steps I typically take during leather working – I would love some feedback on what you think is the correct order to do things in? 1. Cut pieces 2. Bevel Edges 3. Sand Edges & back side of leather 4. Neatsfoot Oil to soften leather 5. Gum Tragacanth to slick edges & back side of leather 6. Groover & Stitching Spacer (dampen leather for this) 7. Dye leather 8. Apply finishing coat 9. Sew leather pieces together Would you change this order at all? If so, what would you do differently?
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So in my back yard I have a huge old Mulberry tree, which drops a metric ton of berries that stain everything, up to and including my chickens. (pretty easy to tell when they've been eating them, beaks are all purple stained on the edges and backs have splotches where berries bounce off of them) Should have taken a before pic, but as you can see the scrap of veg tan I used had plenty of surface flaws which turned out to make it look pretty neat. I just cut the strap and the 5 strands, took it outside and started squishing berries (with gloved hands, learned not to pick up the berries if I didn't want to get stained a while ago) and rubbing the juice onto the leather. It ended up making a nice dusty rose color with darker flecks where the flaws in the leather caught more of the juice. After letting it mostly dry, I burnished the edges with a scrap of canvas and that made a really nice burgandy, pretty much the same color as the darker spots on the leather. Then I rubbed beeswax over it and braided it up, I'll have to see how the stain lasts long term but for now it's sealed in pretty well, just rubbed it on some white paper and not a bit of color came off. I'm thinking next I'll try juicing a bunch of the berries and reducing it on the stove to get a more concentrated liquid. Looking online it says add salt to berries to use as a mordant (something to make the dye "stick") but I worry about how that will act with the leather. Maybe I'll do a few batches... Anyone else try doing it the old-old school way? I know some people have made vinegaroon (which I'd also like to try). and for that matter, try out some of the colors/plants shown on this page: http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/natural-dyes
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Hi, I was making a dog collar. I tooled it and then painted the edges and certain areas of the collar with Angelus leather paint. I let the paint dry for 24 hrs. I then carefully painted black angelus spirit dye to the whole middle of the collar, around all of the painted areas. It looked great!! I waited about 12 hours and then began to buff out the black dye and that is when it all went wrong. The black dye buffed onto all the painted areas past the point of fixing it. I spoke first to someone at Angelus, they were totally clueless. I then spoke to the place I ordered the paints and dyes from and she said she didn't think I could acheive the look i wanted that some black would always buff onto the paint. I was just wondering if anyone might have a clue if I did something wrong or if that technique just won't work? I remade the collar and painted the whole middle with angelus black paint. I just like the look of the dye much better if I might be able to get it to work in the future. Here are pics of the bad one and the one I painted. Thanks so much for any insight! -
Which is better for repelling dye/stain? I need to paint some letters light gray and dye the leather black. I've been experimenting with the two, and am still working on it, but though I'd ask if anyone has any experience in this area. I had planned to dye first, but it distorts the paint color if I paint on dye/stain.
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hi guys, i'm familiar with different techniques for applying dies to smaller pieces of leather. for thinner leathers and larger pieces (let's say a couple of square feet) dip dyeing becomes pretty impractical. has anyone tried, or does anyone know of, a do-it-yourself drum dying technique? before i go mcgyvering myself, just fishing for any links, instructions, if anyone else has tried this, etc. thanks a lot, braden -
To buy the dark brown or the light brown, is the question. Is it better to thin out the dark brown or just go heavy or multiple coats with the light brown to achieve a medium brown or colors in between? Money is tight and would like to buy one bottle of dye to use for now. I have been using Fiebings leather dye. Thank you in advance. -
I've slowed down on my leather workering a bit and now when I use veg tan, I don't dye it. Luckily for you guys I have quite a bit of dye left that I want to move off the shelf. I'll add pictures so you can see how much is left in each bottle, but the two colors I have British Tan and Light Brown (which actually translates to a nice medium on leather). Both of these would cost you over 50 dollars new including shipping. I'm looking to sell theese for $35 with Free Shipping. The pictures are too big to upload here, but here's the link to imgur. http://imgur.com/a/lv9Sp
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Hi folks. I'm new to leather work and just bought a job lot of old kit. Apart from the leather smelling musty (now in my freezer) can tandy dyes, stains and super sheen go off. Going by the paperwork in the box, the liquid stuff is at least 20 years old. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -
Hello, I'm a complete beginner in leatherworking, but I was recently inspired to give it a shot. I'm attempting to make a simple wallet, which I intend to dye navy blue with a white-gold coloured design on the front. Unfortunately, I live in a small city in Canada and leather supplies are quite expensive here. So, I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before buying the supplies. Hopefully you folks can help me with that. My first problem is deciding which finish to use. It's a wallet and going to be handled frequently, so I need something that really seals the dye. I would probably be using Tandy's Eco-Flo dye, because it's reasonably priced and available in the colours I need. I also live in a climate that snows a lot, so I'd prefer to use something water resistant. I've looked at acrylic resolene, which looks good for both water resistance and dye sealing, but I want to avoid anything that looks shiny or plasticy. So, what type of finish should I be looking for here? My next question is about combining dyes. Let's say I'm dyeing it navy blue, and I've got black and blue dyes to work with. Should I combine the dyes first, or simply apply a few black layers to the leather, and then a few blue layers, etc, until I get the desired colour? Could I do both? Combine the dyes first to make a navy blue, then proceed to apply additional coats of blacks or blues until the I get the desired colour? Lastly, I'm not sure what I should do about the coloured design on the front. Let's say I dye the leather navy blue and let it dry. I now want to add the white-gold design on top of it. How should I do this? I thought about using stencil paper, but if I apply the dye with some kind of brush or cloth, I wouldn't be able to keep the stencil in place. Also, I'm not sure if the colour would turn out, considering I would be placing a light dye over a dark one. Perhaps it would be fine? I've never dyed leather before, so I wouldn't know. I've attached an image I've photoshopped demonstrating how I'd like the finished product to look. Again, I'm a leatherworking novice and I'm not sure if this sort of thing would even be possible. I'd appriciate any thoughts you have. Thanks!
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I have noticed that when I use Fiebing's Professional Oil Dye, it looks great on solid backgrounds with no tooling. When I use it on tooling or stamping it does not soak in to the tooling and darken it to where it stands out from the rest of the piece. I don't like Eco-Flo, however, it DOES make my tooling stand out when I wipe off the excess pigment. Is their a trick to using the oil dye on tooling, or is their a product that I can darken my lines with? Its really driving me crazy, because I want to use Fiebing;s only. -
Hey folks, I'm new to all this-- a small project that suffered from "scope creep" has now resulted in a new hobby. Anyway, I bought a set of Keda aniline dyes, and have not been at all happy with the results: with either water or isopropyl the color has lacked any vibrancy unless completely submerged long enough to soak the piece, which then severely degraded any stamping. But, while I wait for some fiebings to arrive, I have tested a bit more, and last night remembered that I had a bottle of Liquitex medium & varnish (details on the product: http://www.liquitex.com/glossmediumvarnish) In the paint world, this is pretty versatile stuff, suitable for use as a sort of thinner or "extender", a binder, a varnish, and yes, as medium for powder-based pigments as well. So, I took a bit of keda I'd already made up and added an equal amount of the liquitex, with some very interesting results. The keda portion was about 1 part hot water to 3 parts 90% isopropyl. The pigment was roughly 1 part blue to 15 parts red, and a very small amount of yellow. Here are the results on two short 1.75" strips of veg tan that was not prepped in any way prior to application, and left to dry overnight: The mixture was highly viscous, but with the high isopropyl content it also dried quickly-- touch-dry inside of a few minutes, so it might be difficult to cover larger areas evenly without an equally large applicator. I don't know how this will fare in terms of longevity, but a scratch test showed color penetration beyond sitting on the surface. As such, if the gloss dulls or wears off in time, the color should still be there, and allow for refreshing with a light coat of liquitex varnish by itself, or simple waxing. Another consideration is that liquitex makes a very wide variety of medium of this sort with different finishes and consistencies, and is readily available, and inexpensive. (often or 50% off retail from AC Moore with their single-item coupons). For now I'll probably stick mostly to fiebings, but this versatile option will be nice to keep in my back pocket, and once the fiebings arrives I'll also be very interested to see how the liquitex might be used with that as well. -
Hi guys, I'm fairly new to leather work and have been making a few belts recently for some friends. Mostly i've been dyeing my veg tanned leather with brown fiebings pro oil dye. My process is to cut, dye, buff, apply a resolene finish and then buff again with beeswax. They've turned out a nice rich colour that looks lovely. I've tried the same process for belts dyed with black pro oil dye and once dyed and buffed i get a nice glossy finish yet when i add resolene and buff with beeswax i get an awful finish. The leather looks blotchy and marked. Almost as if the dye is rubbing off. Its nothing like i get using the brown dye. I give a good coverage of dye which seems to penetrate very well so basically....i'm stumped! I also notice i get a really streaky finish applying resolene which is why i buff it. Is that standard practice or should i be able to get a nice finish applying just resolene? I'm finiding it quite frustrating! Many thnks in advance Steve -
I've added a couple of pictures of sheaths I really did shed some blood, sweat and tears working on yesterday. All y'all have been so good with advice -- I think these, especially the wider skinner sheath, have some of the best work I've done. Once I'd stitched and done the edge-burnishing, I swabbed on a good coat of Fiebring's USMC Black leather dye. I let it dry and then rubbed off the powdery residue. (I only get that with the USMC Black and not with brown dyes.) Then another coat of the black dye, and left them hanging overnight, well over 12 hours. Today I rubbed the paraffin into the edges and buffed that. I'm trying different finishes. I don't like the SuperSheen -- makes my leather look like plastic. I have Eco-Flo matte and satin finishes, and they've left streaks on sheaths before. I prefer a lower-gloss finish. Today I tried mink oil that was in the shop from someone else's work. Rubbed it on, let it dry for a couple of hours, rubbed the surface then put it on the buffing wheel, and that's when the black dye started coming off the leather. You can see the patchiness here in the pictures. So -- now what? My partner thought maybe the mink oil acted as a solvent on the dye, but the dye was dry. I know the thread I used yesterday was more heavily waxed than usual and I'm wondering if I transferred some by my fingers and made a resist -- but it didn't show up til I buffed the finish. I'm thinking of trying the homemade finish - got beeswax and vegetable oil to melt it into. The one I saw has vodka in and there's good reason not to keep drinkin' liquor around here -- I'm going to see what I can find about using rubbing alcohol instead.
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I've added a couple of pictures of sheaths I really did shed some blood, sweat and tears working on yesterday. All y'all have been so good with advice -- I think these, especially the wider skinner sheath, have some of the best work I've done. Once I'd stitched and done the edge-burnishing, I swabbed on a good coat of Fiebring's USMC Black leather dye. I let it dry and then rubbed off the powdery residue. (I only get that with the USMC Black and not with brown dyes.) Then another coat of the black dye, and left them hanging overnight, well over 12 hours. Today I rubbed the paraffin into the edges and buffed that. I'm trying different finishes. I don't like the SuperSheen -- makes my leather look like plastic. I have Eco-Flo matte and satin finishes, and they've left streaks on sheaths before. I prefer a lower-gloss finish. Today I tried mink oil that was in the shop from someone else's work. Rubbed it on, let it dry for a couple of hours, rubbed the surface then put it on the buffing wheel, and that's when the black dye started coming off the leather. You can see the patchiness here in the pictures. So -- now what? My partner thought maybe the mink oil acted as a solvent on the dye, but the dye was dry. I know the thread I used yesterday was more heavily waxed than usual and I'm wondering if I transferred some by my fingers and made a resist -- but it didn't show up til I buffed the finish. I'm thinking of trying the homemade finish - got beeswax and vegetable oil to melt it into. The one I saw has vodka in and there's good reason not to keep drinkin' liquor around here -- I'm going to see what I can find about using rubbing alcohol instead.
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Hello people, I had a slight problem regarding a couple of dyes and wondered if anybody else has experienced a similar thing. Once when I applied a coat of Fiebing's Oxblood dye to a piece of leather, it came out with a strange metallic green patch on it. The leather I used was an economy piece.... but even with decent leather I've never had great results from the oxblood. I also had a similar experience with Tandy's Dark Brown Gel Antique coming out completely grey, without any hint of brown in it. Again this was an economy piece of leather I was using for practice. That level of discolouration hasn't happened since, but it has made me curious. It looked like a chemical reaction, certainly the oxblood. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if anybody else has seen this or know's the reasons why. Cheers -
I've attached a photo of a project I completed using Eco Flo Mahogany Leather Stain. It seems this lovely color has been discontinued. Could anyone tell me of a similar product? I would prefer a maroon color, but any information you could give me would be appreciated. I'm mainly looking for something that settles into the tool marks and gives that nice outlined look my designs. I've tried fiebing's leather stain, and it just doesn't work as well, too uniform. If not, does anyone have some techniques to share to get a similar effect with other dyes? I haven't been doing this for very long so please be specific with brand names trade terms. Thanks in advance.
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Hello, I guess you can consider me novice, but I do have alot invested into leather crafting and I've done a dozen or so projects over the years. But I seem to hit the same darn brick wall every time I get into the coloring of leather. I get so much feedback on how much better paint is over dyeing and then how much better dyeing if over painting. And the only resources I can find only try to sell you the products you're looking at so I feel like I'm going in circles. I need help in getting taught what is the best solution when it comes to giving color to leather... I have Oil Based Fiebings dyes and they work great for the darker colors. Plus b/c it's oil based it should help keep the leather from drying out. Which it has and gives good deep colors. But I want to give my leather a Yellow color. And the last time I made something yellow, I entered it into a crafting competition and I got aweful scores b/c it wasn't bright enough and people thought I didn't even dye the leather... (attached are the pictures of the project.) After a few months the color gets darker and turns orangish or browner... It needs to remain yellow for years on end and deal with the stresses of being a Belt. Can someone help give real facts about what's best to use. I'm not looking for opinions b/c opinions more or less sale the product or products. I'm looking for cold hard facts on if paint is just better and what type of paint works best for what and then the same for dyes. I want to invest on the correct best products and not get stuck again with a lot of money tied up in dyes that just don't perform professionally when I was told it would. :-(
