removing dye from hands

[esantoro]

I spilled some spirit dye and got a good amount on my hands during clean-up. Is there a method or good soap to cleaning dye off human skin?

Thanks,

Ed

[Crystal]

There's some good tips in this thread:

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...ic=17903&hl=

Crystal

[Tina]

I use Denture alcohol (with the reservation for spelling errors *S*)

[celticleather]

Ed

After my disastrous day with dye spillages, I found that denatured alcohol (methylated spirit), followed by white spirit, followed by a week's holiday - snorkelling in the sea - worked quite well.

I now have pristine pinkies . . . until the next time!

Terry

[ShirleyT]

Turtle Feathers carries a great hand cleaner - ReDuRan - that works great and is on sale right now. We've been using it for a while and find it takes dye right off of our girly hands just great. And just like Brylcream - a little dab'll do ya.

http://turtlefeathers.net/

http://turtlefeathers.net/text/angelus/cgdye.html

[esantoro]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to get some of the ReDuRan. It's good to know about denatured alcohol, as I should have some on hand.

ed

[TwinOaks]

...and from the depths of the Tome of Useless Knowledge.....

French Fries. I learned this when I worked as a mechanic. The oil/grease will lift off just about anything.

[$$hobby]

80 grit sandpaper

you can use some IPA, however it wont get it all off.

i just let it wear off. it will take a couple days unless you dont wash often.

[Deb59]

Try a little cream rinse hair conditioner. It helps in a pinch. It may not get all of it off, but it works fairly well in a pinch.

[westtxcowboy1979]

If you can was your hands pretty quick after getting the dye on them. Gojo orange hand cleaner works good. If you have dry skin use tide powder to scrub with. It works for me.

[esantoro]

I had thought that oil might work, and I used crisco along with ivory soap and ajax. It all worked to some degree, but I thought there might be something better available.

ed

...and from the depths of the Tome of Useless Knowledge.....

French Fries. I learned this when I worked as a mechanic. The oil/grease will lift off just about anything.

[oddball]

Not that this will clean but before I touch a dye bottle I point on a pair of blue nitril rubber gloves

[sheathmaker]

Acetone. available at your friendly Hardware store or Paint supply store. Takes dye off really quickly from human skin to hard surfaces of any type. Not good at all near or on plastics.

Paul

[nobearsyet]

Over the years I have discovered that fingernail polish remover works pretty good for removing Fiebing's dye

[TwinOaks]

Not that this will clean but before I touch a dye bottle I point on a pair of blue nitril rubber gloves

Yeah, I discovered that it's easier to peel the gloves off than it is to un-dye hands too.

[hidepounder]

This won't help in removing dye from your hands, but it is pretty handy to help prevent or contain spills.

Hope it helps....

Bob

[Pkay]

Prevention is always best especially when what you have done is to dye your skin !! I use aniline dyes which are meths based and it will stain your skin unless you use gloves for which I pay about £3 for 100 pairs. Continuous hand cleaning can give you really nasty skin problems so plan in the prevention as part of your leatherwork process.

[oltoot]

Lots of good info, as usual. The collection of many lifetimes. A little hand cream before use will help to minimize staining but I just let it wear off as a badge of honor.

[Studio-N]

what's wrong with dyed hands? It's your badge of honor.

[Pkay]

I did wear it with pride until during a visit to the doctors he suggested I cut down !! I don't smoke and wondered what others were thinking when they saw my brown fingers. Also concerned about what affect the dye on my hand could have on my wife ;-)

Edited January 19, 2015 by Pkay

[Studio-N]

All jokes aside, you're doc is right. I had a customer who was a saddle maker. He did the leather work, and his wife did the dyeing (without gloves I might add). His wife developed a skin cancer which

the doc determined was due to all the dyes. So yeah, be careful. Disposable gloves are worth it. Cheers!

[Tramps Leatherworking]

I'm with the "wear it like a badge of honor" crowd, I have two black fingers right now...

[billybopp]

Gloves are certainly the way to go, but things happen too. They get holes, dye splashes or splatters sometimes. And while I love the "wear it like a badge of honor" idea, it's not always do-able. It can be hard to explain those dye stains to some people that might find them objectionable.

The best thing I've found for getting dye off of hands is a product called Dye Gone II. It's not cheap, but it also doesn't take much to remove dye from your hands pretty thoroughly. The stuff has a pretty funky smell, so follow it up with some perfumed soap, tho!

Hope that helps

Bill