Members Nowandagain Posted August 20, 2024 Members Report Posted August 20, 2024 (edited) Any suggestions for dying veg tan brown or burgundy using household materials? Leather dyes are hard to find where I live (Amazon won’t ship them here), and I want to avoid exposure to VOCs for health reasons. Haven’t found neatsfoot oil here, either Coffee comes out much too light, no matter how strong I brew it, how long I leave it, or how many coats I use. Adding ketchup to the coffee helps, but not enough. One website claims you can use pomegranate juice. They were wrong. Has anyone tried diluting vinegaroon (I’ve never used it) with coffee? Or adding steel wool to strong coffee? Any luck with strong tea? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance. Edited August 20, 2024 by Nowandagain Quote
Members Littlef Posted August 20, 2024 Members Report Posted August 20, 2024 Something I heard of, but never experimented with is using walnuts shells or pecan shells. I found this youtube video of a guy talking about his process: Quote Regards, Littlef Littlef - YouTube
Members Nowandagain Posted August 20, 2024 Author Members Report Posted August 20, 2024 I had seen this but I have no source for walnut skins, only shells. Quote
Northmount Posted August 20, 2024 Report Posted August 20, 2024 7 hours ago, Nowandagain said: I had seen this but I have no source for walnut skins, only shells. Quote
Members 1961Mike Posted August 21, 2024 Members Report Posted August 21, 2024 Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home. I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye. Walnut hulls also work very well. If you want DARK brown, almost black leather, use dark roast coffee that's been reduced by about half. It is HELPFUL to make some trial leather pieces to see how long to soak the leather in the dye. Later Quote
Members Nowandagain Posted August 30, 2024 Author Members Report Posted August 30, 2024 Mixing vinegar & steel wool into the coffee/ketchup experiment didn’t work any better than it probably tastes. It came out blotchy, uneven, black around the edges, light brown in the middle, with pin-prick black spots. Back to the drawing board. Quote
Members Nowandagain Posted August 30, 2024 Author Members Report Posted August 30, 2024 “Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home. I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye. Walnut hulls also work very well. “ Unfortunately I have no source here in Israel for either type of hull. Quote
AlZilla Posted September 2, 2024 Report Posted September 2, 2024 How about shoe polish? It's not really dye, but who knows? Quote “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.” - Aristotle
Members Littlef Posted September 2, 2024 Members Report Posted September 2, 2024 another option would be to use a wood stain from a hardware store. Quote Regards, Littlef Littlef - YouTube
Members Trailblazer87 Posted September 4, 2024 Members Report Posted September 4, 2024 On 8/30/2024 at 6:12 AM, Nowandagain said: “Hi, I live in Oklahoma, and there is a pecan orchard a few miles from home. I purchased a 25 or 50 pound bag of Pecan Hulls, a lingerie bag to boil them in, and now I have a dark brown dye. Walnut hulls also work very well. “ Unfortunately I have no source here in Israel for either type of hull. OK, something i might be able to help ( California pistachio grower here) with, do you have access to pistachio hulls? They should be coming available this time of year, just let them age a bit to darken up and let the tannins release. Do you have access to oak trees? The acorns are loaded with tannins, grind them up then soak them to make a very bitter tea. The other thing to try might be a dark red wine, or even Balsamic vinegar, just be sure to neutralize the acid with baking soda and a good rinse. Quote
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