Search the Community

Hello everyone! I currently make blue, green, and purple antiques by mixing Angelus dyes into Eco-Flo Smoke Black hilighter. (I have tried mixing them into Fiebing's neutral antique paste also, but that leaves this horrible chalky finish.) The effect is lovely, but lately I've noticed some terrible fading. The kicker was when a suit of armor I made faded from green to brown while NOT in direct sunlight! I've tried using the Fiebings alcohol dyes instead of Angelus but they seem to be fading as well when left out in the sun. Do alcohol based dyes always fade with exposure to UV radiation, or is there something I can do to prevent it? I have tried Meguiar's gold class conditioner (has a UV blocker in it, supposedly) but it didn't help. What bright-colored dyes or stains do you know of that behave better in the sun?

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

Hi everyone I thought I would share some results in light fastness of dyes and finishes. First let me say I was not making these test pieces to test light fastness but was testing for waterproof finishes with zero dye bleed on thin flexible veg tan. So far no luck on that one. When flexed all the finishes caused water spotting which often spotted the dye. So I ended up with all these tests cut from the same leather and thought heck lets hang em in the window and see what happens. Here is the result after about three weeks or so. I kept reading about resolene having UV protector in it well sorry folks I contacted Fiebings and there is no UV protector in resolene. That said although the difference is slight it was the most protective. However I was using it 50/50 with water and where the coverage was not completely even the sun faded and marked the dye. I hate using resolene and plan to order some angelus 600 to try at some point. I get a nicer more water resistant finish with folk art satin varnish but it is shiny and not UV protective either according to my test. So I tried ceramcoat matte varnish (interior /exterior) as it gives a nice finish but didn't pass the water test on thin leather when flexed and is it also does not have UV protection. Just like resolene, people on line say it has UV protector in it (Amazon sellers for example). So I contacted the manufactures and no it does not have added UV protection. I forgot to enquire about the folk art satin made by the same company. As an aside ceramcoat was my bullet proof go to varnish but it seems to me the formula has changed and I am out of my old supply :-( While all the dyes faded the areas with a finish of some sort had significantly less sun darkening of the leather under the dye thus there is obviously some UV protection but not enough to protect the fugitive dyes. Where there was just kiwi shoe polish or bees wax the leather sun darkened a lot. The red dye changed the least. I am planning to make a folding green man camp chair so I really need to solve this puzzle of both water protection, UV protection, dye bleed and flexibility. Some things I am going to try in the future (money and time withstanding) is angelus acrylic finish, silicon for shoes and car products to stop fading. Anyhow I will keep ya posted on the eventual results. Hope this is of some help to someone. Cheers, Toolingaround PS sorry for being so long winded