Ecoflo Dyes + Neatsfoot Oil

[Suicide]

Hi guys,

I'm using Ecoflo dyes on my project (well.... I know... but this point out of discussion please ) and would like to oil leather to make it softer and more pliable. Leather is about 7-8 oz thick.

The project is going to be multicolored so....

All I know and have seen till now is that oil will dark leather a bit ( I have seen the only oil effect on not dyed leather)

So my questions are :

What should I use first after tooling?

If oil is going first, won't it kinda "resist" dyeing as Ecoflo are water based? If not, will it affect on final color much (I supose yes)?

If dyes are going first, will project after oil application be affected as natural leather - darker than before? If yes, will this effect go mat be not completely but at least "less" after some days of oil drying?

Any other precausions/suggestions on these? Would very appreciate.

Thanks in advance!

[Chavez]

Hi!

I hope that gurus will correct me if I'm wrong

From what I've read here, many people oil the leather after carving and after dyeing.

I only oil it after carving but I use extra virgin olive oil which I believe is supposed to have a smaller darkening effect than neatsfoot. Having said that, its rather easy to over-oil the leather so the carved parts get too dark (at least for my liking).

When you oil the leather, the oil gets absorbed into it so there is no oil on the surface. I've got a little bottle of eco-flo all-in-one (fell for Tandy adverts) which I used once and it seems to have next to 0 penetration of leather, so oil will not get in your way.

Not sure bout this one, but if your project is multicoloured, oiling after dyeing might blur your painted image... Let's see what others say.

PS I've got a 4oz shoulder from Tandy and its stiff as hell. I recently got some 7-8oz belt blanks from a local supplier and they are more flexible than the shoulder. I can oil the hell out of the shoulder, but its not going to be as good as the 7-8oz blank =/

[Suicide]

When you oil the leather, the oil gets absorbed into it so there is no oil on the surface. I've got a little bottle of eco-flo all-in-one (fell for Tandy adverts) which I used once and it seems to have next to 0 penetration of leather, so oil will not get in your way.

Thanks for your feedback, Chavez. As I\ve got (never have used it so far though), All-In-One is not a dye but kind a mix of their hi-lite stain and acrilic sealer/finish, so it suppose to be on the surface, not goint into. (please correct me if I'm wrong).

PS I've got a 4oz shoulder from Tandy and its stiff as hell. I recently got some 7-8oz belt blanks from a local supplier and they are more flexible than the shoulder. I can oil the hell out of the shoulder, but its not going to be as good as the 7-8oz blank =/

Yep, same story here with Tandy belt blank (surprise-surprise!) . Then I took it off the pack it still tight as a spring, so I had to ran it over the bench's edge several times, but even being cased it still tried to return to that spiral shape as it was in the plastic bag. Oh! I already oiled it once, but think I should do it one or two times more.

[js5972]

Do a test piece. The few things I have oiled really darkened. I oiled them from the backside, after dye.

[Suicide]

Do a test piece. The few things I have oiled really darkened. I oiled them from the backside, after dye.

Just tried it.

Having a tooled piece, I oiled one half of it and dyed the second half with deluted canyon tan dye. Let it sit over night. Oiled part became a bit darker then original undyed color (as expected), dyed part had almost yellow color.

Then I dyed with the same deluted dye part what was previously oiled, and oiled previously dyed part brom the both side - front and back.

Waited over night and now see both parts have exactly the same dark yellow color.

The only slight difference I noticed after buffing is seem part what was initially dyed and then oiled shines more than the other one. Both have like mellow gloss, but anyway a bit diffenrent.

No other differences observed.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Suicide