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Hi, I work for a company outside of the US that manufactures products that are made from leather. Up until now we used to by the processed leather after it was dyed and now we are looking into doing the process in house . We have tried a few ways of dying the skin black and met with companies in Europe but didnt reach the result we were looking for. We were told that there is alot of companies in the US the specializes in these kind of things and have a lot of knowledge. Since we are a big company we are looking to work and purchase on a large scale once we find the right company to work with. If anyone has any insight on this topic or know any good companies in the state that specializes in this that we can meet with, I would really appreciate it if they could send me in the right direction. Thanks!

Hi, I work for a company outside of the US that manufactures products that are made from leather. Up until now we used to by the processed leather after it was dyed and now we are looking into doing the process in house . We have tried a few ways of dying the skin black and met with companies in Europe but didnt reach the result we were looking for. We were told that there is alot of companies in the US the specializes in these kind of things and have a lot of knowledge. Since we are a big company we are looking to work and purchase on a large scale once we find the right company to work with. If anyone has any insight on this topic or know any good companies in the state that specializes in this that we can meet with, I would really appreciate it if they could send me in the right direction. Thanks!

I'm new to leather crafting and using a blog. If this should be posted elsewhere please advise. I tried running a search with no luck. I'm making leather greaves of veg tan cow hide. Stencils and cuts are done, tooling to be done soon. As it is relatively flat I will be wet forming it to fit around my leg so I wondered if I should: dye it first, then wet form? wet form, then dye? (I think this might be the way to go) or other suggestions? I'm using kelly green fiebings for the majority of it but I have a stag in the middle I would like to keep a lighter color maybe use the color block stuff and some hi light for the tooling recesses? Attached is the greave to be worked on and bracers I did that it will be matching. Thanks for any input!

This book is Coloring Leather by Al Stohlman. A great book that shows how to mix and dilute dyes, including the Pro dyes. It also has color wheels, how to highlight your leather carvings, how to understand light sources, etc. Awesome book if you do any leather carving or dye work. This book seems to retail for around $20, I will sell it for $12 plus shipping. YinTx

Hi everyone, This is my first post here on the forum, so I apologize if I didn’t put this in the right place. Sorry for the length, I just want to give all the info I can to get the best advice. Thanks in advance for your time! I recently picked up a side of matte-ish black Horween Essex for a custom tote order. The tote was made and shipped and I started using the rest of the side for a crossbody bag with an alligator flap. I checked in yesterday with the tote customer to make sure she was happy and she said she was, but she’d noticed that the color was rubbing off on her white pants. She didn’t have this problem with her first tote from me last year and I’ve never had this problem in the 3 years I’ve been working with Essex so I was surprised. Out of curiosity, I went over to the alligator and Essex bag that I just finished up and rubbed it with a scrap of light colored T-shirt and sure enough quite a bit of color came off. Obviously, I’m concerned that not only does a customer have a tote that’s leaving color on her clothes, but in the meantime I have just finished an expensive, fairly time consuming hand-stitched bag (my first using alligator) that’ll be rubbing on someone’s shoulder and hip. I can’t have it leaving big black marks on someone’s clothes. I wouldn’t even try and sell it if I know that’s a possibility. Now that the bag is done, what can I do to try and seal it? The edges are all painted with Vernis edge paint so I’m nervous about getting any kind of solvent on them and having that turn into a big mess. I tried buffing the whole bag with a soft cloth to remove excess color, but the color transfer hasn’t stopped. I thought about using Resolene, but I’m concerned about (a) being able to apply it consistently and not having it gum up since it’s all finished and 3-D and not an easy flat surface and (b) won’t it make the matte black really look shiny and plastic-y? I liked the way it looked before with the soft finish. It made the gray alligator flap pop. Lastly, does it work well on leathers with soft-medium tempers. I’ve used it on heavy veg tan work but not this kind of thing. I can’t afford to experiment with stuff that “might” work, because if it works on a flat scrap and not on the finished 3-D bag, the whole thing’s wasted. Is there any way to salvage it? I loved the way it turned out and would really appreciate any advice. I’d also like to be able to help the tote customer so she’s not stuck with a bag that ruins her clothes. She’s in a different state, so if you have a product in mind that she could buy separately and apply as a non leather worker that’s even better. Thanks again! -Hannah

Hi guys i have recently opened up my potion of vinegroom that I made a few months ago and it's taken quite well to the leather and gone a really deep black but it bloody stinks! I used cider vinigar and rusty nails to make it, any ideas of how to remove the eternal stench?! Thanks

I am attempting to dye this yellow lambskin bag brown. I have dyed deer and cow hide leather in the past with no problems and figured changing the color of the bag would be easy enough. However, after attempting to dye the front of this bag I realized I was very wrong So I figured I should seek some guidance before continuing any further. Here is what I have done so far: The bag came with a small leather patch so I tested out my methods on this first. It worked quite well. I coated the patch in some Tarrago leather preparer and then used a wool dauber to apply a single coat of Fiebing’s alcohol based leather dye. [Dyed swatch left, undyed right] The leather test swatch’s results were to my satisfaction so I proceeded to coat the bag in the preparer and then applied a single coat of Fiebing’s alcohol based leather dye to the front. Unfortunately, the front of the bag turned out nothing like the test swatch.The sealer on the bag appeared to still be intact and most of the dye sat pathetically on the surface while the remainder, that had soaked in, turned the leather a uneven dirty orange. [The bag doesn't look half bad in this photo but I assure you in real life its terrible. I put the test swatch off to the left side for comparison.] I let the bag dry and then coated the leather with acetone to try to remove all existing sealer from the surface. I didn’t have any deglazer on hand but heard acetone is good for tough jobs anyways. I don’t know if that was a mistake but after a few coats all of the existing sealer appears to be removed and the bag is almost completely matte in color. The bag came with a leather encased mirror and a strap so I applied acetone to those as well. I decided to dye the mirror first, as I never use it, before again attempting to dye the body of the bag. I wet the leather and applied one coat of dye with a wool dauber. I think the dye took better to the leather on mirror after treating in acetone. I want to now precede to the strap and bag but am I afraid since the front turned out so badly the first time around. What do you guys think? Should I proceed with this method or is there anything else you would recommend I do before attempting to dye the body of the bag?

Greetings all. Wanted to see if there are any recommendations for leather dye block out there. I saw ecoflo on a Tandy video but couldn't find it for sale anywhere. Maybe there is something else that is commonly used? Thanks!

Hi all, I have two questions. First... someone asked me to make them a suede clutch bag. They are looking for a specific colour (light lime green). I can't find suede that is the right colour. I've attached some photos of the colour they've requested. I thought about suggesting we go with a raw veg tan leather and I try dying that lime but the only dye I can find the right colour is Tarrago. Is this a good choice... or even a good idea to try?? Second... If I go for suede the bag will be floppy and a clutch needs to be stiff. Does anyone know how to get around this? Thanks in advance for your help. Kymberly :-)

I need to cut my Angelus spirit dyes. I've read a few things regarding isopropyl vs denatured. I'd rather stick with ethanol(denatured) rather than isopropyl which is a bit different compound. Angelus recommends ethanol and their reducing solution is ethanol. My question is to the techy/ chemistry savvy people. Could I substitute Bacardi 151, in a pinch for the denatured alcohol? It is 75.5% alcohol. And I believe it is ethanol? I use the 151 to cut food dyes to paint on cookies and cakes and wondered if it would work for leather? It completely evaporates on my cookies and there is no alcohol taste or smell. Would it be a little bit less harsh on the leather? Or is it too high of a water content? Not to mention if my project looks like crap, I could down a few swigs it may look a whole lot better! Thank you!

Hi, I'm new to this forum but I'm trying to find information for a friend of mine. My friend used to work in a manufacturing place for horse tack and at this place they had a machine for making designs on the computer, then they would print it out on special paper, roll it in leather dye, then place the template on leather and the design was transferred from the paper onto the leather via dye. That's the best I can describe what she would do and I've tried to find something that does that but I'm clueless on where to start. My friend doesn't remember any name brand on the machine or program so I don't have names to work with to start looking. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I'm interested in dyeing leather white, and obtaining the effect shown in this image. Anyone have any thoughts on how to color the leather white? Is there a white dye? I'd prefer not to paint the leather if possible. How do you suggest I do the shadowed effect?

I am a complete noob to leatherworking but have several projects planned in the near future (so wish me luck). As my first simple/fast project I decided to dye my favorite leather belt. I have had this belt for over a decade and love it. Even though the black color was faded on the leather, every other part looks fantastic. So I bought 'Fiebing's' Leather dye and dyed the belt, let it dry for a couple of days. I liked how the belt was restored to almost look new, with a dark deep black. Then I decided to slap it in my work pants and that evening I was shocked that the dye had rubbed off over everything it touched. Thank god the outfit was expendable. So my question is this... should I have sealed the dye with something? If so, what? Any recommended brands? I would love it if whatever sealant gave it a small amount of healthy shine, as the black color looks dullish right now. Thanks all. CC