Black Edge Dye For Black Bridle Leather?

[Kate]

I have tried the Fiebings black oil dye... it does NOT penetrate the waxy bridle leather.

I got the sides of leather from Zack White and am pleased with them otherwise, beautiful hand, superb burnishing of the edges, but I am having fits trying to get the cut edges BLACK. Don't really want to go to a solvent stripper just to get the edges dyed, or why spend the bucks on the stuffed bridle leather in the first place.

Not really hot on the idea of an acrylic "coating" product either, and am about out of ideas. This commission (not just a project!) is for bridle browbands for the Irish team at World Equestrian Games, so the work MUST be of high quality.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated - I need to get going on the work!

Kate

[dirtclod]

When i dye the edges on a headstall i use regular Fiebings black or brown and wool dobber before i burnish and it works fine.

Edited March 25, 2010 by dirtclod

[Luke Hatley]

BLACK WAXY BRIDLE LEATHER ?

WHAT I WOULD DO IS BURNISH THE EDGES WITH BEES WAX ON THE MOTORIZED BURNISHER.

THEN COAT THE EDGES WITH SUPER SHEEN OR RESOLINE.

[rdb]

Luke's absolutely right. A good motor burnish will work fine, but eventually it will "shag" out.

I use a great deal of black bridle. Bridle leather in general is a joy to work with. It slicks up easy...actually, too easy for deep penetration of dyes. You always want to burnish before edge dyeing, just so the dye goes on smoothly. When I use the dye, I do a medium burnish. More dye gets sucked in. Then I do a final heavy burnish.

I have had Great success using vinegaroon on edges. It has to be a good brew of it, not a weak one, but it works especially good on black bridle. It gets sucked in deep, and doesn't discolor the barrel tanned black of the leather. A light coat of oil over the edge, dry, then run it through a motorized burnisher, and some top finish...it's a thing of beauty.

[gary]

I use a lot of bridle leather and use a powder dye mixed to the strength needed for the job - usually very strong for bridle.

It does 'shag out' eventually as already stated.

As it's a powder you can also add other stuff (like gum trag) as you're mixing it to give it the characteristics you want, after a bit of trial and error.

It works out a treat and all my burnishing is done by hand.

Gary

[awharness]

Steve Siegal just sent an email around a couple days ago for Dye Lok he called it, an old product that they used to have and are getting made again. I am not sure of the qualities or applications, but it seems like it may be worth looking into. I've never delt with anything waxier then sedgwicks so he might have a little insight on that topic in general.

-Andrew

I have tried the Fiebings black oil dye... it does NOT penetrate the waxy bridle leather.

I got the sides of leather from Zack White and am pleased with them otherwise, beautiful hand, superb burnishing of the edges, but I am having fits trying to get the cut edges BLACK. Don't really want to go to a solvent stripper just to get the edges dyed, or why spend the bucks on the stuffed bridle leather in the first place.

Not really hot on the idea of an acrylic "coating" product either, and am about out of ideas. This commission (not just a project!) is for bridle browbands for the Irish team at World Equestrian Games, so the work MUST be of high quality.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated - I need to get going on the work!

Kate

[barra]

I am making a double bridle out of Black Sedgwicks at the moment which has a fair amount of tallow content. I am achieving success staining/burnishing sedgewicks with the following method and potions.

I have a home made clamp set up where I can stain multiple straps at once. I then use stencil ink and then clamp the strap into clamp number 2 (the pic with the bull dog clips) I then rub up vigorously with a rub rag heavily impregnated with beeswax. This clamp set up allows me to grip tight and put my back into it so to speak. I then apply a solution to the strap edge made out of PVA glue and water(cheapest PVA you can find - walmart etc). A good generous dollop in about a pint of boiling water goes along way. I then repeat the rub rag burnish.

Depending on the job I will sometimes hot burnish. I place the strap in the multiple strap clamp and heat up my metal burnisher (a spoon will do for this)and apply what I call shoe makers heel ball to the hot burnisher. Do a search for heel ball or coad. A final rub up with the rub rag as a final polish and it comes up glassy smooth.

Barra

[Kate]

Steve Siegal just sent an email around a couple days ago for Dye Lok he called it, an old product that they used to have and are getting made again. I am not sure of the qualities or applications, but it seems like it may be worth looking into. I've never delt with anything waxier then sedgwicks so he might have a little insight on that topic in general.

-Andrew

Yeah, I was talking with Steve about that - am eager to get some of it and see how it does. He and his family have such a long history in the business, there's a lot of knowledge I think that has been taken for granted. Since his Dad has been so sick, I think Steve's realizing he'd better pay attention to the knowledge while it's still there!

Big sigh on the vinegaroon - guess I better get a jug set to rust up.

Barra, what the heck is "stencil ink"? I am not familiar with the term.

Bottom line, I'm thinking if I ever run through the two sides I have now I will look hard for dye-struck leather next time!

Thanks to all,

Kate

[Art]

Hi Kate,

Stencil ink is a specialty ink or paint they use to stencil marks on steel drums and iron castings. The real stuff is horrendously expensive, as much as $150 a gallon. They also put it up in pints for around $35.

When ordering leather, you have to specify "struck all the way through". It needs to spend extra time in the drum. Holster leather is usually done this way, bridle or harness generally not. There are pros and cons to that extra drum time. So you have to be specific with the Tanner. There are only 3 left in the US, Horween, Hermann Oak, and Wickett and Craig. Of those, the only ones that will listen to you are Wickett and Craig. Call Matt Bressler at 814-236-2220 and tell him exactly what you need; and while you're at it, ask him about the dyes, he has people there that have forgotten more about them than most of us know.

Jeffries uses Sedgwick bridle backs in a lot of their operations, and they dye the edges rather successfully I'd say. Since Siegel sells Sedgwick in the US, see if Steve can find out what they use.

Art

Yeah, I was talking with Steve about that - am eager to get some of it and see how it does. He and his family have such a long history in the business, there's a lot of knowledge I think that has been taken for granted. Since his Dad has been so sick, I think Steve's realizing he'd better pay attention to the knowledge while it's still there!

Big sigh on the vinegaroon - guess I better get a jug set to rust up.

Barra, what the heck is "stencil ink"? I am not familiar with the term.

Bottom line, I'm thinking if I ever run through the two sides I have now I will look hard for dye-struck leather next time!

Thanks to all,

Kate

[Kate]

WOOHOO!!!!

Vinegaroon it is! OK, so it took a WEEK for the vinegar to eat up that darn steel wool pad (heck, it took over an hour for the denatured alcohol to burn off...... grumbling....) but the gooky looking tea stuff sure does a fine job of blacking the bridle leather's edges. Fairly quick, too. Nice buff up too! I'm now happy with the bridle leather job.

One oddity. I was whacking off a proof of my maker's stamp (as I MUST get a new one made). Had done a quickie case job on a chunk of veg tan scrap, dipped it into my always-made jug of case solution, water and ProCarve, let it set up a few minutes, then stamped it. Let it dry a bit while doing other things, then on a lark dipped it into the vinegaroon.

Darn thing came out GRAY. I'm not kidding, a nice dark gunmetal gray. So, was this because it was still damp, OR is it the ProCarve stuff?

While I love the fast casing results that ProCarve gives, I am NOT fond of the way my steel (not plated) tools and stamps leave black marks on pro-carve cased leather. Have gone back to straight water when using non-plated stamps for this very reason!

Anybody else out there having funky results from the ProCarve?