Dying Rawhide

[Aggiebraider]

Hey guys,

I've been looking around and been unable to find anything that really explains dying rawhide except for the thread that talks about using coffee. I really like the color that this makes, but I was wondering if there were any other techniques that allowed you to get exactly the color you needed, such as black or red? I saw somewhere that someone said they used Ritz clothing dye (which I absolutely loathe using because I used to have to dye my own paracord and talk about a horrid task) but I havent seen any explanations as to how much, how concentrated, for how long, if you need to set with vinegar, etc. A tutorial on this would be awesome.

I have heard that some people dont like to dye rawhide because it doesnt hold color very well over time and when working interweaves in, people would use Kangaroo lace because it can be dyed much easier. Does anyone else do this? I think this would be much easier since you can buy roo hides that are already died to the color you want.

Thanks,

Calvin

[rgerbitz]

Hey Calvin,

I've used Rit for black strings. Just mixed the rit and water and soaked the strings in it for 24 hours. Hung up and let dry. When wanting a red string you can take the skin off of a red onion and boil the #$%^ out them. Let cool then soak the strings for 24 hours. You can also use a vinegaroon to turn the strings black using rusting water and vinegar. This are the only methods I have use so far and they seem to work well. I kinda of fell into the rusty water and vingar deal on accident and turned a whole hide black, I was real pissed at first then and almost threw the whole deal away, thinking I had ruined it. But once I had it all cut up it made some really cool string.

Best of luck,

Rob

[roo4u]

in one of bruce grants books he says you can easily dye rawhide using easter egg dye...i havent tried it yet but the easter junk is going into the stores now so may give it a shot. yes roo is easy to dye but you really have to get a good finish on the hide after dyeing or it also easily bleeds(i use spirit dye).

[Saddlebag]

Glad I found this topic. A gal has a saddle with about a 3" cheyenne roll that is rawhide. It's now looking pretty grubby and some of the polished surface is gone. She was inquiring about my dying the cantle a brown. I've never tried dying rawhide. I have oil dye and spirit dye on hand. I don't even have any scrap rawhide on hand to do some test patches.

[ljensen]

I did some experimenting over the weekend with dying rawhide. I got a nice deep purple from blueberries.

[roo4u]

in argentina the dye with beets to get red, im betting beet juice is easier than having to boil onion skins. i think i have some pickled beets so i may try it. im also going to pick up some easter egg dye and give that a try. bruce grant mentioned it in his book and im thinking that if it still mixes with vinegar then it should do a decent job. sorta like when they make vinegaroon to dye leather black.