A Spot Of Tea With Your Vinegaroon Anyone ?

[ToddB 68]

Hi Everyone !

This Newbie could use some help with the following.

I read a suggestion somewhere on this website that if you use black tea on leather it adds tannin which helps to make the Vinegaroon-dye blacker.

I have some scraps of 12 oz. Veg.- tanned cowhide to practice dying the edges with Vinegaroon. The edges have been burnished. My Vinegaroon is ready to use and I have a cup of black tea brewed and cooled in a separate container.

My questions are:

#1... I assume the tea should be applied to the edges first, then the Vinegaroon; is that correct ?

#2... Should I allow any drying time between the tea and the Vinegaroon ?

Thanks,

ToddB68

[ChuckBurrows]

Either way, before or after, works as long as there is no drying time in between. Vinegar black works via a chemical reaction between the iron in the vinegar black and the residual tannins (tannic acid) in the leather. By increasing the tannins you increase the ability to react with the iron.

The only thing the vinegar does is put the iron into solution, you can also do the same thing with just iron and water (i.e. letting the iron "rust" away completely) but it takes much longer to create the first batch.