What about Minwax?

[particle]

I've been digging through the form, but can't find any answers to my question. And, the question is - can you use Minwax stains on leather?

I'm making a holster, and my plan is to dip the holster in a light colored stain, then airbrush a darker stain for accents.

If Minwax is acceptable, would the oil-based or water-based version be better?

If oil based, would that eliminate the need for applying a coat of Neatsfoot oil for flexibility?

I'm making a holster similar to the following, and want to make sure the leather remains flexible enough to fold and snap, and would also like to use readily available Minwax stains if at all possible (large selection of colors, and no shipping charges since I can pick them up at the local hardware store).

[TTcustom]

Here is the deal. Before wiser heads come in and prevail I am always up for trying anything just to see what it will do. Coffee/espresso dye, ah yup check. Berry stain dye, check. So if you have some scrap and a friend that already has some of this stuff give it a try. Oh and be sure to let me know how it turns out. I still think that the spirit and or oil leather dye is cheaper even with shipping though. Could be wrong though.

One of the last things I do after I finish a project is to condition the leather.

[particle]

I happen to have quite a few cans of various Minwax wood stains in my garage, so I went ahead and stained a bunch of small squares of leather to see what would happen. They're drying, but I thought once they dry that I might cut each piece in half and then oil them with Olive Oil (don't have any neatsfoot oil on hand) to see how much darker they get.

Regarding prices, you can get a quart of Minwax wood stain for less than $8, or an 11.5 oz. aerosol can for about the same price. A gallon sells for under $26. Half pint (8 oz I believe) is under $5. And it is easily cleaned up with mineral spirits. Edited to add - that's roughly half the price of Fiebing's Leather Dyes at Tandy.

Edited October 26, 2009 by particle

[Peter Ellis]

I used Minwax special walnut stain on a piece I made awhile back, mostly just to see how it worked. The piece came out a really nice deep and warm brown - much as you would expect with a walnut stain. The stain works on leather.

I don't think the oils used in wood stains are the kinds you would want to rely on for preserving leather. My instinct would be to use a bit of oil whether I went with the water based Minwax or the oil based version.

[kevinhopkins]

Hi... Basically, (without trying to sound like a smart-butt) you can use anything you want on a piece of leather... But it's gonna be up to you to figure out what you need to do to make it work the way you want. The reason that folks like Fiebings exist, is because they've done the research, and have come up with products that are reasonably easy to use. the fact that they've been around for years means that they've been accepted, and lots of folks are able to use them relatively easily. But if you find a product that's cheap, easy to use, and does what you want, I'm sure there's lots of folks on this site that would be happy to hear about it... Me included!

Kevin

[TTcustom]

This is interesting news! I see that they have a blue stain that I want to try in the water base. From the minwax website it looks like they can mix custom colors as well. Finally something to do with that tote filled with scrap! If you have any pictures of your experimental pieces I would like to see them.

Thanks for bringing up this interesting topic!

Oh yeah you were dead on about the price. I had no idea it was so cheap.

Edited October 27, 2009 by TTcustom

[dscott]

Thanks so much for asking this question i have been thinking about trying it to see what it would do

David

[particle]

Here is my preliminary, rookie, uneducated, unscientific results thus far.

Penetration with the Minwax oil-based stains seems to vary depending on the stain color. For example, one of the lighter colors penetrated almost 100% of the color of the stain in the can (it absorbed the color very well).

Mahogany stain (very dark) did not penetrate as quickly. I soaked pieces from 2 or 3 seconds, up to 20 seconds with little difference in color. I stained another piece for 5 minutes, and it got quite a bit darker, but still fairly light when compared to the 'actual' mahogany stain color that's drizzled all over the side of my dye can.

The pieces are still drying, so I'm not sure what effect the oil in the dye will have on the leather. I'll check the pieces tomorrow, and try to post pictures - fighting a headache right now.

If anyone has any definitive information as to exactly why wood stains are not suitable for leather, please feel free to chime in. Likewise, if you've used wood stains on your leather projects, I'd like to hear from you as well.

[particle]

I checked the sample pieces of leather this morning on my way out the door. They still have a strong stain odor - nowhere near dry yet. Meanwhile, the new holster that I'm making (and dyed a couple hours after I dyed the Minwax samples) is already dry and will be ready for its next step in the finishing process tonight.

[particle]

Okay - here is my take on Minwax stains. If you're looking for an inexpensive, easy to apply, readily available stain for a project that needs flexibility in the final leather product, you should definitely give Minwax wood stains a try.

What I found is that it added nothing to the stiffness of the leather. It took close to two days to completely dry (for the stain odor to disappear). The leather remains very flexible. The colors are easy to regulate, as it doesn't seem to penetrate in the same way typical leather dyes do (in my VERY limited experience with leather).

I dipped small squares of leather (roughly 1" x 2") in the stain for about 4 seconds, then removed them, and set them on the bench to dry. The only exception to that rule being the Mahogany stain, which I dipped from 2-3 seconds, and another piece for 5 minutes. Late last night I brushed a coat of olive oil one piece from each stain color, then sprayed them with Fiebing's Leather Sheen tonight.

This is the Mahogany stain - the two smallest pieces were the piece that was dipped for 5 minutes, with the rest ranging from 2-20 seconds.

As you can see, all pieces basically took on the same color. Even the two small 5-minute squares are relatively light in color when compared to the stain on the outside of the can.

I should mention that I did nothing to aid the opening of the pores in the leather. These were simply dry pieces of leather dipped in the stain, removed and set aside to dry.

In the following image you can see that I've folded the finished piece completely in half.

And released it from the clamp...

Notice the lack of cracks in the leather - there is minimal stretching, which I assume is to be expected, though it's not really visible in the photos.

And lastly, here is the piece flattened back out - looks just like the original picture (except for some smudge marks from the clamps).

Bonus images - here is a couple other stain colors.

Anyway, I hope this is of some benefit to someone out there. Maybe someone smarter than me (which shouldn't be too hard) can tell everyone what the main difference is between wood and leather stains, and why the coloring had little impact on the leather.

Oh - "Penetrates, Stains & Seals" - one test piece still absorbed water very quickly, for whatever that tidbit of information is worth.