question on blue fiebing dye

[stampingdelight]

has anyone dyed with fiebing light blue dye or royal blue dye wanted to get idea of what looked like on leather. looked on here did not see anything & was looking online yet not seeing exact answer.

Edited May 18, 2024 by stampingdelight

[fredk]

I've used both. For me Royal Blue is a strong blue but comes out very dark, almost black.  Light Blue is lighter but not as light as a pale blue, it comes out for me as you would expect a blue item to look.   I'll see if I have any photos

[James1]

I just bought some royal blue the other day, and so far I have found that results differ widely between different types of veg tan leather. I really like the results on the lightest colored Veg tan Leather, but not so much on test pieces of reddish harness leather. It turned them more brown than blue.  

[stampingdelight]

@James1

do you happen to have a photo of item done with the royal blue leather if you do not mind

[James1]

I tried to upload a picture, but it said the file was too big and I’m not sure how to change settings on my phone. 

I could text them to you, but I don’t know if that’s allowed

[ScottWolf]

I have found that colors like blue or other colors where you have different shades of it require a bit of trial and error on a scrap piece in order to get the desired shade/hue. A couple ways that have worked for me are

1. Apply with an airbrush. This I have found will give you the most control of how it looks on the leather from lighter to darker. Using a dauber or sponge, etc always seems to produce a result that is a shade darker than I want.

2. Cut the dye 50/50 with alcohol and test on scrap using dauber,sponge and adjust the cut of alcohol until you get the desired shade.

Its a bit of experimenting each time,as each piece of leather takes the dye differently. but once you know your ratios, its typically a small adjustment to get the desired shade. Hopefully that helps you get to the shade of blue you are looking for.

[fredk]

This was dyed with Light Blue. Applied by paint bush on very light, almost white, leather

[stampingdelight]

1 hour ago, ScottWolf said:

would other colors be like those use with blue in them or just darker colors? where does one find airbrush that works with dyes? when one cuts the dye 50/50 with alcphol does that make the dye lighter?

 

[ScottWolf]

5 minutes ago, stampingdelight said:

 

Any color you can fiddle with the hue/shade as I mentioned but colors like saddle tan dye for example, tends to come out of the bottle on to the leather pretty dark with a dauber. But if you cut it and or use an airbrush, you can get a much lighter version of saddle tan. It's more apparent with the darker colors, but you can also see the same results with yellows and reds. A normal airbrush can handle dye. The Badger airbrushes are a good baseline model to start with that are not too expensive and provide good results.  and yes, the dye will get lighter when you cut it with alcohol, when using an alcohol based dye.

[fredk]

Warning  Deviation; if you don't have an airbrush and are looking to buy one I recommend this type. It has a small rechargeable compressor attached and thus its hose and cable free. The compressor time lasts as long as, or longer than, most jobs need. I have one and find it more useful than my other four regular  airbrushes 

 

[Northmount]

5 hours ago, James1 said:

I tried to upload a picture, but it said the file was too big and I’m not sure how to change settings on my phone. 

I could text them to you, but I don’t know if that’s allowed

If your files are too large to post here due to file size restrictions, you need to resize your files to fit.  Follow this link for some helps and suggestions.  https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/15122-how-to-post-pictures-on-lw/?do=findComment&comment=551171 There are lots of Apps, software, and online tools available on the web, or even built into your device to enable you to reduce your file sizes.  800 pixels in the longest dimension is quite adequate.  Smart phone screens and many monitors don't display high res files in high resolution.  People that live on the fringes of the internet appreciate smaller file sizes and high res photos may take from 10 minutes to hours to download.

 

[James1]

Thank you for the info Northmount

[stampingdelight]

8 hours ago, ScottWolf said:

Any color you can fiddle with the hue/shade as I mentioned but colors like saddle tan dye for example, tends to come out of the bottle on to the leather pretty dark with a dauber. But if you cut it and or use an airbrush, you can get a much lighter version of saddle tan. It's more apparent with the darker colors, but you can also see the same results with yellows and reds. A normal airbrush can handle dye. The Badger airbrushes are a good baseline model to start with that are not too expensive and provide good results.  and yes, the dye will get lighter when you cut it with alcohol, when using an alcohol based dye.

k thanks and how does one know if dye is alcohol based for did not see anything on fiebing saying alcohol or are all fiebings alcohol based? will check out the airbrush  

[stampingdelight]

7 hours ago, fredk said:

Warning  Deviation; if you don't have an airbrush and are looking to buy one I recommend this type. It has a small rechargeable compressor attached and thus its hose and cable free. The compressor time lasts as long as, or longer than, most jobs need. I have one and find it more useful than my other four regular  airbrushes 

 

what kind is that airbrush

[fredk]

45 minutes ago, stampingdelight said:

k thanks and how does one know if dye is alcohol based for did not see anything on fiebing saying alcohol or are all fiebings alcohol based? 

Alcohol will thin both water based and alcohol based but not oil based. Oil dyes are  usually marked so on the front of the container. Alcohol thinning will speed up the drying whilst water thinning will slow it

 

45 minutes ago, stampingdelight said:

what kind is that airbrush

It a single action gravity fed Chinese clone. With a changeable  reservoir, it comes with one 14ml metal one and two larger ones, most suitable for large area dyeing.  It has a universal screw thread fitting to the compressor and I can change the supplied airbrush to any of my other single- or double- action ones. Shopping around you can buy the unit for as little as $20. If going on ebay to look search under 'nail art' in the beauty section, its cheaper there

 

[stampingdelight]

@fredk 

thanks

[Handstitched]

I have used  standard blue fiebings before on a VT  belt, over time the colour changed to almost a torquoise colour . So I guess it depends on the leather being used. 

 

HS

[pikefish]

i like/use the royal blue pro dye, nice blue imo... this is two coats on a natural veg tan, goes darker and darker with each coat

[Mablung]

Very, very nice.  I like it.  Giving me the bug again to make a nice collar for my dog.  The nylon one she wears currently is serviceable, but it lacks panache.