Getting Leather Dye Off Hands?

[JHayek]

Alcohol works but fast orange hand cleaner does pretty well also. It has pumice as well as citrus in it; as an added bonus it is non-flamable

[impulse]

Thanks guys! No denatured alcohol around or nail polish remover, but I know there's GoJo out in the shop... If it really won't come off, I might try a minute amount of methyl ethyl ketone (since it works on everything else, lol). Thanks again!

For future reference - nail polish remover is just acetone which is very cheap at your local hardware store.

[drphil]

For future reference - nail polish remover is just acetone which is very cheap at your local hardware store.

And for additional reference, methyl ethyl ketone is almost the same thing as acetone so it ought to work as well. They are both ketones the difference is that methyl ethyl ketone (butanone if you like) has one additional carbon atom.

As far as the denatured alcohol, it is basically ethanol with additives to make it poisonous to drink. The ethanol has been "denatured" by the addition of small amounts of other alcohols (methanol etc.). In general this means that you can also use other alcohols for the same purpose typically. Be careful with this information though because a lot of other products are diluted with water which will change how they behave as solvents. If you are trying to use isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) make sure you know how dilute it is. When you buy them at the store they come in different mixtures. I usually get 95% which means that 5% is water. Keep this in mind too if you are using it on metals as even 5% can contribute to rusting.

Just a few thoughts!

[jack523]

Thats what i use it works well.

Try denatured alcohol...

[BearMan]

Hi Everybody,

I use a LOT of spirit dyes. When I know that I'm going to be doing a lot of dying, I wash my hands, then apply some type of lotion. I found by doing this, the dye doesn't "stick" to the skin as bad. If it doesn't come right off with the alcohol, & Fast Orange, it only takes about a day to wear off. I've tried using gloves,,, but I have a tendency to just transfer the dye from the gloves to the project,,, usually in the wrong place.

I hope this helps,,, it works for me. Ed the"BearMan"

[oakleaves]

I have found that real soaps (not the detergent crap that you get for cheap) as in the stuff with saponified vegetable oils in it (often purchased by leather workers as glycerin soap) is great for reducing the dye marks on hands to shadows of color. It usually doesn't get 100% off but takes dye down to very reasonable level while doing no harm to your hand or your health.~Oakleaves