A Few Questions..

[276ccm]

I´m basically working with motorcycle seats and stuff like that, so my stuff will get worn easily, and I have a few questions about dye, sealer and colors..

Is anyone familiar with leather dye called " Narvesvaerte" from R.O.C? It´s a Danish brand I think.. (I´m adding a few pics of the bottle, cous the one letter is not in english)

The brown one is a transparent dye and after use I usually add leather grease and then some wax polish to seal the color.. anyone uses other techniques or sugestions?

The most important question is, they also have a silver metallic dye, which does not goes down in the leather the same way as the transparent one when used, it kind of stays on top of the leather, so I wonder if there is any sealer to put on top of that, so the silver color wont get worn off when people sit on the seat, and when it´s getting wet in the rain.. (sorry my simple english)

Any ideas?

Also, have anyone any experience for using 1-shot enamel on leather?

Does anyone have any advice for other brands of dye, especially white and how to use and seal it when used on motorcycle seats?

I really hope someone can help! :-)

[bex DK]

Yeah, the metallics are different. "dækfarve" would translate to "cover color". I haven't used those at all and haven't really studied them yet either. Not sure of the type. The easy way to work it out is to find out what should be used to thin it. The thinner shows what type it is.

We do use the other ones though (narvsværte) . They're spirit dyes, so you can do whatever else can be done with spirit dyes. I am sure someone else that does similar work will have good ideas. We pretty much only use "læderfedt med bivoks" -- a leather cream or grease with beeswax.

As for the white, probably acrylic paint. Thin it a lot with water and build up in layers to get a more dye-like effect. If you use it thick, it would lay on top and probably peel off more easily. They probably have a dækfarve with that too, but it is cheaper to just buy some acrylics somewhere else (akryl maling på dansk. ved det ikke på norsk)

I don't think we have the selection of other finishes here that are often used in the US, but I haven't looked into it much either. We like our læderfedt and the result. just important for us to buff off any residual dye to avoid transfer. But that only seems to be a problem with projects we dip or coat heavily. The ones I do more like "paint" don't seem to have that problem.

[TomSwede]

There is no oil in ROCs dye like there is in Fiebings pro oil dye and I allways felt ROC dried out the leather very much and hard to buff it to a shine also as a result of it drying out the grainside of leather it makes it curl up alot.

I'm gunna take a pic tomorrow and post here for you wich shows worn out metallics from ROC that was sealed with Tandy super sheen spray finish. it doesn't exacly look like new but that bracer has been through lots of hard wear the past 2½ years, even gone skinnydipping with it a few times.

More tomorrow, i just gotta get me some sleep now.

Tom

[TroyS]

There is no oil in ROCs dye like there is in Fiebings pro oil dye and I allways felt ROC dried out the leather very much and hard to buff it to a shine also as a result of it drying out the grainside of leather it makes it curl up alot.

I'm gunna take a pic tomorrow and post here for you wich shows worn out metallics from ROC that was sealed with Tandy super sheen spray finish. it doesn't exacly look like new but that bracer has been through lots of hard wear the past 2½ years, even gone skinnydipping with it a few times.

More tomorrow, i just gotta get me some sleep now.

Tom

Swimming naked with only a Bracer?? What is this world coming to!?? HAHHAHAH (sorry, couldn't resist)

[TomSwede]

Swimming naked with only a Bracer?? What is this world coming to!?? HAHHAHAH (sorry, couldn't resist)

In Sweden we call this promotion haha ;-)

Tom

[276ccm]

Bex DK, I see the metallic color is water based and thinned with water.. it says it gives a (vandfast overflade) water tight surface, but probably not totally waterproof.. so I heard that a satin gloss spray should give it extra strength and add a kind of layer of film, but still curious of how much strength it gives on a seat which will be used a lot.. hmm

I have also used the golden læderfedt (leather grease) and polished with bivoks (bee wax) after, but never tested with the metallic color..

Thanks a lot for the advice with white.. I´ll see if I can get some acrylics somewhere.. the selection is not too good in Norway, so if you know any good online stores somewhere in the world, let me know :-)

TomSwede, Do you know if the Tandy super sheen spray finish is something similar to "Aniline Satin Gloss" (it says: Aniline leather satin with a satin-gloss coating for smooth, full and semi-aniline leather)

Looking very much forward to the pictures of the worn out metallics from ROC that was sealed with Tandy.. thanks a lot! :-)

TroyS, you´re obviously not scandinavian ;-)

Thanks for help so far! :-)

Edited July 19, 2010 by 276ccm

[TomSwede]

Here we go 276, sorry for delay. Camera probs.

Don't know differnce with aniline, sorry.

The flaking I have on this would probably have arised no matter what I'd sealed it with.

On the sides there are chipping problems and the pentagram shows regular wear, the gold is being "polished" away and the red underneath starts to show through.

Tom

[bex DK]

You can go to an art store for the acrylics. I've seen tons in Harald Nyborg, which you probably don't have up there, and also the have-everything stores like Bilka and A-Z. Art acrylics are thicker than made-for-leather-acrylics, but you can thin them with water. You probably get more color for your money than trying to find the leather ones anyway. The little I have done, I have thinned a LOT. Right now I have several projects waiting for me to get time to mess with the spirit dyes (the narvsværte). I like the results better with those than acrylics, but it seems that the only way to get white is acrylic.

Sounds like those metallics are also a type of acrylic. Try thinning it to the point that it just barely colors the leather then apply many layers to get the color right. I think the thin layers will be less likely to wear or peel off. The problems with thick acrylic is that it can be easy to catch something under the edge and pull it all off like a piece of plastic.