Yet Another Vinargaroon Question

[Bard Skye]

I started my first batch of vinigaroon back in Sept. Loaded the vinegar with as much steel wool as I could get to submerge, then let it mature for a month. Filtered out the leftover wool and sediment and tried it out on some scraps from a hide I have.

WOW! Instant, beutiful black in less then 60 seconds.

I sealed it up and put it away to await my next "black" project.

I just finished cutting out the pieces of a knife sheath, and thought this was a great time to use some of my vinigaroon. The leather for the sheath came from the same hide as the test pieces I used earlier.

It took over a 2 hour soak in the vinagaroon to achieve the same level of black I'd been getting in 60 seconds about 2 months ago.

What the heck??!!

Does vinagaroon have a short shelf life?

Could this be temperature related? Ambient air temp in here is about 60 degrees, with floor level temp (where jug was stored) somewhat less.

Any ideas?

[malabar]

I started my first batch of vinigaroon back in Sept. Loaded the vinegar with as much steel wool as I could get to submerge, then let it mature for a month. Filtered out the leftover wool and sediment and tried it out on some scraps from a hide I have.

WOW! Instant, beutiful black in less then 60 seconds.

I sealed it up and put it away to await my next "black" project.

I just finished cutting out the pieces of a knife sheath, and thought this was a great time to use some of my vinigaroon. The leather for the sheath came from the same hide as the test pieces I used earlier.

It took over a 2 hour soak in the vinagaroon to achieve the same level of black I'd been getting in 60 seconds about 2 months ago.

What the heck??!!

Does vinagaroon have a short shelf life?

Could this be temperature related? Ambient air temp in here is about 60 degrees, with floor level temp (where jug was stored) somewhat less.

Any ideas?

I've made a coup[e dozen holsters and several belts using the same batch of vinegaroon I made at the end of August. The results can sometimes be inconsistent. There seem to be several issues involved:

-- The tanning of the side of leather: The more tannin left in the leather, the blacker it gets.

-- The condition of the grain of the leather. The more "open" the grain, the more easily it absorbs the vinegaroon.

-- And surface coating will prevent the vinegaroon from soaking in.

-- The iron can sometimes precipitate out of the solution. Stir it up good and see what happens.

Try brushing the leather with a solution of black tea before applying the vinegaroon.

tk

Edited December 5, 2011 by malabar

[Bard Skye]

I've made a coup[e dozen holsters and several belts using the same batch of vinegaroon I made at the end of August. The results can sometimes be inconsistent. There seem to be several issues involved:

-- The tanning of the side of leather: The more tannin left in the leather, the blacker it gets.

-- The condition of the grain of the leather. The more "open" the grain, the more easily it absorbs the vinegaroon.

-- And surface coating will prevent the vinegaroon from soaking in.

-- The iron can sometimes precipitate out of the solution. Stir it up good and see what happens.

Try brushing the leather with a solution of black tea before applying the vinegaroon.

tk

Good points, all.

I did find black crystals collecting in the bottom of the jug. At first, I thought they were just some sediment that made it through the coffee filters, but they could very well be iron precipitate. I managed to get them to re-dissolve.

There is no coating on any of the leather.

I'm afraid I don't know how to judge the "openness" of the grain of a given piece. Even though all pieces were from the same hide, I'm sure there can be variences.

I've found out that temperature *is* a factor. Warming the vinagaroon up to about 80 deg. sped up the reaction considerably.

As to tannin content, one would think that a given hide would be reasonably consistant. Apparently this isn't so. I cut more test pieces and tried them out. These are all from the same hide, remember. The results varied from jet black to medium gray. The tea trick worked quite nicely, though <g>. Lovely little tannin booster.

Thanks.

Skye

[malabar]

Good points, all.

I did find black crystals collecting in the bottom of the jug. At first, I thought they were just some sediment that made it through the coffee filters, but they could very well be iron precipitate. I managed to get them to re-dissolve.

There is no coating on any of the leather.

I'm afraid I don't know how to judge the "openness" of the grain of a given piece. Even though all pieces were from the same hide, I'm sure there can be variences.

I've found out that temperature *is* a factor. Warming the vinagaroon up to about 80 deg. sped up the reaction considerably.

As to tannin content, one would think that a given hide would be reasonably consistant. Apparently this isn't so. I cut more test pieces and tried them out. These are all from the same hide, remember. The results varied from jet black to medium gray. The tea trick worked quite nicely, though <g>. Lovely little tannin booster.

Thanks.

Skye

Lesser quality hides can be pretty inconsistent. I've worked with a lot of bargain leather that had a very inconsistent surface. Looked fine until it was cased. My use of "open grain" is not very precise. What I'm trying to say is that one part of the surface of the leather can be much more absorbent than an adjacent area.

tk

[swivel knife]

My expirience is: The Temprature is not the thing. My Solution stands in a store room outside the house. I put rusty nails in viniger and i don't filter ist up. The solution stands 3 weeks. It works perfectly. When the leatherpice on the first try become just grey then try again.

ciao Lutz