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I’m guessing this is the right place? I went and purchased 2 gallons of 100% neatsfoot oil and it seems as thick as molasses and it’s a hot summer here in North Carolina. Spreading this is difficult to say the least! How do I thin this oil to correctly apply to leather? Im open to any suggestions

I'm fairly new to leathercraft and one topic that I still have so many questions on is dyeing and treating leather. There's just so much stuff out there and everyone does it all differently. Now, I understand that a lot of it comes to experience and mostly personal preference, but I'd love to hear some tips/ opinions here on a few matters: 1) I currently dye using Fiebing's Leather Dye. I diluted the stuff with spirits since I found that without diluting, the colors are too intense. Whatever type of brown I used would all turn out dark brown for example, and my blue was getting too close to black for my taste too. So, I diluted the stuff. Works kinda.. I know the alcohol makes leather stiff and I'm really considering switching to Fiebing's pro dye. I've heard that this doesn't make your leather stiff although I've also read otherwise. Anyway, in the case of leather dye.. what can I do to prevent this terrible stiffness? Should I do something after dyeing, before, or both? Tips and tricks are very much welcome. 2) I've read quite a lot on this forum about Neatsfoot oil. I've read people use it to treat leather before dyeing and maybe after, I'm not sure. However in many video's I've watched here and there I've never really seen anyone use neatsfoot oil. So I'm curious, does it really help to add this before dyeing, for example? I've owned a bottle once and all I can remember from it is that I thought it smelled really bad.. I really hope someone can share their tips/tricks/opinions/knowledge on these matters. Cheers, Iris

Hi all, I'm new here and new to working with veg tanned leather. I'm making some experiment with a piece of hide I was given, which means I don't know it's provenance, nor if it was treated with something previously. I have been doing some dye tests on it, and they look good. However, when I use Fiebings dye prep it seems to stain the leather somehow. Does anyone know why this might be? Please see images. I managed to spill some of the dye prep, which is what caused the largish splodge in the centre and also it drip down the bottle which I place on the leather and caused that dark square stain (yes, I know, VERY shoddy behaviour!) However, the more even staining is just caused by my wiping the dye prep over the hide with a cloth. I tried to find some Oxalic acid to clean with that, but failed (in the UK in my town). I'm back in the Netherlands so will look there for some. Many thanks in advance for any help. Simeon