dying leather before or after cutting

[figthnbullrider]

do you all dye your whole side of leather or do you cut out each peice and dye it by it self. what methods do yall use

[YRsaddles]

well to be honest really the only dying that I do is dying the edges on ALL my parts. 99 % of all my saddles are oiled and tan koted only. for example if a customer wanted a black saddle I'd buy sides that are that color,saves time plus if you can buy it from the tannery you can get the dye "blown through" meaning the dye completely impregnates the leather, so if the leather is cut or skived the leather will be that color throughout

[Bob]

I agree, dying leather is a messy business. I only do it when I have to. I dye the parts separately. Before you oil and after you stamp the leather. If you use oil dye, thats the best. Because you'll have much more success in getting it even, then when you apply neatsfoot oil, it will help even the color also. Make sure that your leather is dry not damp after stamping. This makes a difference only if you want consistant color with all the other parts.

One more thing you may want to keep in mind, it'll take some experimenting. I've been thinking of doing this and not sure about the mixture. But you can mix the oil dye with the pure neatsfoot oil and do it all in one step. Again, I would do it after cutting the parts out. That way you don't have to get out the rubber gloves again to dye the edges.

Best regards

Bob Goudreault

Kamloops Saddlery

[figthnbullrider]

cool thanks, i did not realize most people bought it the color they wanted it. but i would much rather save myself the trouble any way. thanks

[wolvenstien]

Bobs got a point about the gloves... though 75% of the time I forget to get em out and get dye all over my hands... LOL

If you are going to be working with Veg Tan leather and not building saddles, then I suggest you dye in pieces. I just did a case for my blackberry: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...amp;#entry21738

As you can see from this thread, i made it cut it all out and then dyed it then painted it...

I was actually going to leave it natural, but the tools left discoloration where I stamped the larger stars and I was not happy with it, so I dyed it, then decided to add a little life to the color and did the stars to stand out so it would not be just black...

Normally, to make it easier and to get an even overall dye job, I would have dyed and painted before I assembled it. Dying after it was assembled gives the obsticals of the rivets (having to wipe them down after they dye gets on them) and the clip (again having to wipe it down) and then applying the finish has the same problems... Not to mention the edging.... I could not properly apply the edge coat once it was assembled and if it was not all black on black, you would be able to see the major flaws in my edge coat work....

So... it just depends on what you are doing and if it has hardware or not....

Con against dying the whole side of leather is.... what is you want to make something from it that you DO NOT want to be the same color?

Not sure about tooling pre-dyed veg tan.... anyone do this?

[TomSwede]

My first experiences in tooling was on pre-dyed, allthrough black veg and being a newbie and all I managed to get some tooling down on those pieces and the owners of them bracers I made claim to still be happy with them so pre-dyed can be tooled.

Don't think there were any big difference in how it takes the tooling.