How to Dye Leather Black

[Shorts]

This method sound great, I'll probably try it on the current holster. However, I'm a bit concerned with the step of adding oil after you've dyed and nuetralized to get the dark black color. Neatsfoot oil softens holster leather to the point it doesn't hold shape.

How do you go about it for holsters?

[Hedge]

Excellent tip, Troy. Works the same for rawhide. You can get various colors and tones by using teas and berry juices. I suspect

one could do a lot of experimentaion with any vegetable/fruit having a color since they all contain some acid.

[LarryB]

Well, my solution had sit awhile and I needed to dye a small item black so..... I dipped it in the vinegar 3 times and let it soak up good. then worked some oil into it. It was still gray looking so dipped it 3 times in the water and soda and I looked at it and it was black all the way threw. I really liked the color.. made it look old and no mess. Thanks for sharing this idea with us.

[dbarleather]

Great info. Can someone post a photo? I think that would help everyone to see the shade of black.

[Shorts]

Hi.

I'll try this. Here I can't get good comercial dyes and blcak dye always rubs off.

Chuck, glad to see here, I'm your fan.

Just a little question : On sheaths and holsters, is there any problem on affect the metal ?

Regards from Brazil.

In another forum I read that an unlined holster dyed with this solution can remove the blueing from guns. I would imagine neutralization after dying would help, but I do not know to what extent.

[Leerwerker]

Hi Chuck,

I asked the leather chemists once a question about Aluminum stearate in leather conditioners, and here is an extract from their answer to me (so it seems it is bets just to let the leather stay acid):

Aluminum stearate is just soap, though most would probably consider it more a grease than a soap. It combines a wax and humectant roll, but just as most leather experts warn against the use of saddle soap, I think you will quickly see that this soap really has little to offer your mix. The biggest issue with soaps and leather is that soaps are made under highly alkaline conditions, and unless that basicity (alkaline pH) is neutralized it can carry terrible consequences to the acid leather.

I hope this helps!

JOhan

A word of caution - I've been using this method - old timers in the USA called it vinegaroon - for better than 35 years and while this is a great stain there is an extra step that many folks don't use and should - that is one should neutralize, if you don't you can have problems later on with the leather disintegrating.

To neutralize I mix 3 tablespoons of baking soda in a quart of warm water (it may be best to use distilled water depending n the quality of your tap water. Once dissolved saturate the leather well and then rinse with clear water. Let dry and while still damp add a coat or two of your favorite leather oil.

.....

[whinewine]

Hi Chuck,

I asked the leather chemists once a question about Aluminum stearate in leather conditioners, and here is an extract from their answer to me (so it seems it is bets just to let the leather stay acid):

Aluminum stearate is just soap, though most would probably consider it more a grease than a soap. It combines a wax and humectant roll, but just as most leather experts warn against the use of saddle soap, I think you will quickly see that this soap really has little to offer your mix.

The biggest issue with soaps and leather is that soaps are made under highly alkaline conditions, and unless that basicity (alkaline pH) is neutralized it can carry terrible consequences to the acid leather.

Huh? I thought that a base (alkaline) neutralized an acid, according to what I remember from high school & college chemistry (which is why you neutralize the vinegar dye with baking soda)...

...but what you're saying is that a base (soap) does NOT neutralize an acid (leather) & so the base (soap) must be neutralized??? ...

I'm sorry...

I'm confused now...

Edited March 31, 2008 by whinewine

[Shorts]

Excellent tip, Troy. Works the same for rawhide. You can get various colors and tones by using teas and berry juices. I suspect

one could do a lot of experimentaion with any vegetable/fruit having a color since they all contain some acid.

I've been working on a brown dye all night. I'll post pics in the morning after the swatches dry.

[HorsehairBraider]

Huh? I thought that a base (alkaline) neutralized an acid, according to what I remember from high school & college chemistry (which is why you neutralize the vinegar dye with baking soda)...

...but what you're saying is that a base (soap) does NOT neutralize an acid (leather) & so the base (soap) must be neutralized??? ...

I'm sorry...

I'm confused now...

I don't want to speak for the chemist... but I think I get what he means. Leather "likes" an acid environment. It will perform its best in a slightly acid environment, but putting excess amounts of a base on it will caust it not to perform well and perhaps even disintegrate a little bit.

Natural fibers are like this too. Sheep wool likes a slightly acid environment; adding a capful of vinegar to the rinse water when you wash it helps it. It does *NOT* like a base environment, and that is why you must handle it so carefully when you use soap on it! If you do use soap on it you must be very careful it is not agitated or swished around in any way or it will turn to felt. Maybe some of you have felted and shrunk a sweater this way?

Plant fibers such as cotton are the exact opposite. They do *NOT* like an acid environment. Do you have a cotton T-shirt you are sick and tired of, and wish it would wear out so you could at last get rid of it? Just throw a little vinegar in your wash water. Soon it will look like someone threw battery acid on it and you can at long last consign it to the scrap pile.

[whinewine]

I don't want to speak for the chemist... but I think I get what he means. Leather "likes" an acid environment. It will perform its best in a slightly acid environment, but putting excess amounts of a base on it will caust it not to perform well and perhaps even disintegrate a little bit.

Natural fibers are like this too. Sheep wool likes a slightly acid environment; adding a capful of vinegar to the rinse water when you wash it helps it. It does *NOT* like a base environment, and that is why you must handle it so carefully when you use soap on it! If you do use soap on it you must be very careful it is not agitated or swished around in any way or it will turn to felt. Maybe some of you have felted and shrunk a sweater this way?

Plant fibers such as cotton are the exact opposite. They do *NOT* like an acid environment. Do you have a cotton T-shirt you are sick and tired of, and wish it would wear out so you could at last get rid of it? Just throw a little vinegar in your wash water. Soon it will look like someone threw battery acid on it and you can at long last consign it to the scrap pile.

Ok, that does makes sense, but I think vinegar with iron dissolved in it is too strong for the environment of the leather & must be neutralized to bring it back to the normal ph balance of the leather, whatever that may be.

As an absurd example, water is a very weak acid- to turn it into & make it a stronger acid would defeat its purposes & greatly harm the things around it that depend upon it (drinking, flushing out the body's toxins & wastes, cleaning things, allowing fish to live, etc...).