Vinegaroon tutorial

[ramrod]

bicarbonate is simply baking soda. it's used for reducing the acid level in the leather after you apply the vinegaroon.

this is a great thread....but i have a question.....and i don't mean to hijack this thread.

say someone were to make a belt and make it two colors....maybe red for the body and outline the stitching area in black, could you simply dye the piece red and apply the vinegaroon to the perimeter? in other words, how does the vinegaroon affect already applied dye? or would you apply the vinegaroon to the perimeter and then dye the interior with the other color? i don't have any made to try this out.

Edited January 8, 2011 by ramrod

[Shooter McGavin]

I like the color. What is done afterwards as far as finishes? can you oil it, apply acrylic sealers, etc? Im going to pic up some vinegar and steel wool after work tomorrow and maybe by this weekend I can give it a try.

[MarshalWill]

After the baking soda bath and rinse has dried completely, I put EVOO and Lexol conditioner on it. A light coat of EVOO seems to help neutralize the acids in the leather. After that, I think it's mostly personal preference.

[EvadCarpenter]

Thank you Scooby for the tutorial, you have inspired me to make some and use it for myself.

Here's the result of a holster for a cordless drill I posted on another thread here.

I couldn't have done it without you.

[Wolfsax]

Awesome tutorial! Would love to see this pinned please :D

[iamasmith]

Great tutorial, I set some brewing just over a week and tried it out today on a piece of scrap veg tanned leather, it produced a lovely deep black so I think I'll start using this for some things.

I have a couple of questions though about transfer of the ferric acetate once dried and a concern over transfer onto tools etc.

I may want to tool some of this leather at some point. Would you suggest tooling first then applying the vinegaroon with a brush rather than soaking? I'm concerned about some of the compound sticking and transferring to my stamps etc.

Is it probable that if I make a mixed piece of natural and vinegaroon treated leather that I will get some contamination and darkening of the natural leather? I noticed on the test piece that even fingerprints were transferring to the bit I was holding. Would a coat of supersheen stop this?

Cheers,

Andy

[marine mp]

Andy, I've founfd that it is a whole lot easier to tool before I use the vinegar black. I've done it both ways and if you do it after, it seems you have to work harder to get the imprint of the tooling. Don't know why. I just do it before now and I dip the entire piece for 1 minute and then let it rest for 10 minutes the dip it in a solution of 2 tablespoons baking soda and 1 quart warm water then wash it all off with warm, running water. As far as the transfer to tools or the transfer of fingerprints.........vinegaroon is a chemical reaction with the tannings that are used n the leather processing. It "blacks" thru an thru and I've never had any thranferring. I do wipe it off several times before putting my finish of resolene /water on it, but I don't think it should transfer if it has been fully dried and a finish coat put on it. I am not an expert...I learned this from the tutorial on this forum and another one on the CasCity forum. Semper-fi MIke

Edited February 13, 2011 by marine mp

[Saddlebag]

I tried this but didn't know to degrease the steel wool. I poured and strained half the mix but it appears black in the jar. When I dip the brush in and apply it it looks like water, yet the blackening begins almost immediately. The remainder is a dark reddish brown with rusted bits in the bottom. I plan on straining that today and see what it does. When I worked in book/document repair/conservation tea was an integral part of antiquing new paper.

[lazybum]

Just checking stainless steel wool probably doesn't work right?Anyone tried it before?

Edited February 21, 2011 by lazybum

[MarshalWill]

I suspect the only thing that could happen with stainless wool is that the vinegar would clean it. In food processing, they build stainless machinery so there won't be oxidation (rust) contamination of the food. No rust = no oxidation = no vinegaroon.