Sixer Report post Posted June 9, 2011 I'm working on a simple carving design for a western style holster. I'd like to Hi Lite the pattern and then dye the entire holster a darker shade of brown with Fiebing's pro oil dye. The Hi Liter has a light brown color to it... so I'm wondering if I need to apply the Hi Liter to the entire holster BEFORE I dye it... in order to keep a consistent color??? My concern is that if I use Hi Liter on the front design only, then dye the holster dark brown, will I end up with two different shades of brown? Any help would be appreciated, before I go and ruin a perfectly good project Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whinewine Report post Posted June 9, 2011 I'm working on a simple carving design for a western style holster. I'd like to Hi Lite the pattern and then dye the entire holster a darker shade of brown with Fiebing's pro oil dye. The Hi Liter has a light brown color to it... so I'm wondering if I need to apply the Hi Liter to the entire holster BEFORE I dye it... in order to keep a consistent color??? My concern is that if I use Hi Liter on the front design only, then dye the holster dark brown, will I end up with two different shades of brown? Any help would be appreciated, before I go and ruin a perfectly good project Thanks! I may be misreading this, or I may be stupid (Probably both), but the purpose of the hi liter is to bring out the highlights of a natural colored piece- I would think that the application of dark brown spirit or oil dye OVER light brown will totally negate the purpose of the highliter- in other words, dark brown OVER light brown = dark brown. But better that you take a piece of tooled/untooled SCRAP & try it before trying it on the real deal. And IF they do end up the same color, why use the hi-liter in the first place? Plus, I don't think that light brown OVER dark brown will work either- you can't go light over dark without opaquing the dark so it doesn't bleed/show through (Coloring 101). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sixer Report post Posted June 9, 2011 haha... well I'm a complete noob when it comes to carving or using HiLiter, so there is a pretty good chance you know more than I do on the subject Whine, what your saying makes sense (in theory). I'm trying to achieve something similar to this in color - It's fairly dark yet still has a much darker, almost black, background. So was this achieved with just normal dye, or was HiLighter involved? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bison Report post Posted June 9, 2011 What you're showing looks like it is done with a dark dye and a small paintbrush. You can find some good info on the technique in several books, but basically you're going to dye the entire piece light brown. Then get your darker dye, dip in the brush, then start in the middle of one of the tooled background areas. The dye will spread out from the point where you touch the brush to the leather. Then just work to the edges of that area and repeat for each part of the background. It takes a bit of practice, so work with some tooled scrap first. Once you get the hang of it, it'll go pretty quickly. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sixer Report post Posted June 9, 2011 Thanks for the info guys! Sounds like a lot of scrap leather in my future Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Willbilly Report post Posted June 9, 2011 I believe Bison is correct about the picture. It appears it was done by hand. I ahve done a few belts like this. While it can be a pain, on a large design wit hlots of holes, it is not too bad once you get used to it. The right brush is improtant though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slimjim1942 Report post Posted June 10, 2011 I'm working on a simple carving design for a western style holster. I'd like to Hi Lite the pattern and then dye the entire holster a darker shade of brown with Fiebing's pro oil dye. The Hi Liter has a light brown color to it... so I'm wondering if I need to apply the Hi Liter to the entire holster BEFORE I dye it... in order to keep a consistent color??? My concern is that if I use Hi Liter on the front design only, then dye the holster dark brown, will I end up with two different shades of brown? Any help would be appreciated, before I go and ruin a perfectly good project Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slimjim1942 Report post Posted June 10, 2011 Oil based dyes are hard to control. I did a blue hi-liter on a project and used fiebings black oil on the flesh side and it bled all the way through into the blue. The project ended up being black of course Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
