Buying Dyes/finishes For The First Time... Help Please.

[jk215]

Hello everyone. Ive been slowly gathering materials to begin learning Leathercraft and have a question about what dyes and finishes to purchase for what I will be working on. Basically I just want to get the hang of everything and will be making small pouches and a wallet. I know I want to to dye it brown. How do I know what kind of finish to purchase? Id prefer something to help with waterproofing and be a matte finish. Something to just preserve the natural look of the leather. Also, what should I look at for edge dressing? Im going to be shopping on the Tandy website if that makes any difference. Thanks for any help!

Edited January 10, 2012 by jk215

[DoubleC]

Hello everyone. Ive been slowly gathering materials to begin learning Leathercraft and have a question about what dyes and finishes to purchase for what I will be working on. Basically I just want to get the hang of everything and will be making small pouches and a wallet. I know I want to to dye it brown. How do I know what kind of finish to purchase? Id prefer something to help with waterproofing and be a matte finish. Something to just preserve the natural look of the leather. Also, what should I look at for edge dressing? Im going to be shopping on the Tandy website if that makes any difference. Thanks for any help!

Hi JK. So far everything I use is Tandy, but I've been getting my things at eBay instead of Tandy. I've bought from the same man there for two years and he'll answer any questions you have. I'm not sure you'll get the same type of help from Tandy's website. I can look up his webstore for you and his name is Bruce (no I don't get a commission, LOL, just mean what I said.)

You don't have to join eBay to look! http://stores.ebay.com/stecksstore?_trksid=p4340.l2563

Oh and for edge dressing, Bobby Parks, a member on here did a great tutorial on that. Since I don't know what forum I downloaded it from I'll upload it for you. His work is pretty renown on this board.

I hope this helps. Cheryl

[Chavez]

Hello from another newbie!

I would really recommend fiebing's products.

I've got a bottle of eco-flo all-in-one and it does a pretty bad job - only used it twice before switching to Fiebings. Perhaps other eco-flo stuff is better (e.g. separate dye and finish) but I'll stick to using Fiebing's pro oil dyes.

If you get spirit/oil dye, don't forget to buy some iso-propyl alcohol to cut the dye.

Finish wise - that's something for me to find out. I've tried a few and I'm still to find the best solution.

Edge kote is not a necessity (see Bob Park's howto).

PS I'm just a newbie, so I'm sure pros will give you a better advice=)

[Sylvia]

+1 on Stecksstore at Ebay. And I've bought from their online .com store too. My advise is to compare prices ebay to their online store because sometimes it's less expensive on ebay with shipping and sometimes it's less expensive at the online store.

As for dyes, I found Angelus dyes and paints at http://www.dharmatrading.com for a LOT less than "leathercraft" places and ebay even when adding in the shipping. They even have the Quart bottles of the dye. New customers get a free gift too (see main page)

Hi JK. So far everything I use is Tandy, but I've been getting my things at eBay instead of Tandy. I've bought from the same man there for two years and he'll answer any questions you have. I'm not sure you'll get the same type of help from Tandy's website. I can look up his webstore for you and his name is Bruce (no I don't get a commission, LOL, just mean what I said.)

You don't have to join eBay to look! http://stores.ebay.c...sid=p4340.l2563

Oh and for edge dressing, Bobby Parks, a member on here did a great tutorial on that. Since I don't know what forum I downloaded it from I'll upload it for you. His work is pretty renown on this board.

I hope this helps. Cheryl

[DoubleC]

+1 on Stecksstore at Ebay. And I've bought from their online .com store too. My advise is to compare prices ebay to their online store because sometimes it's less expensive on ebay with shipping and sometimes it's less expensive at the online store.

As for dyes, I found Angelus dyes and paints at http://www.dharmatrading.com for a LOT less than "leathercraft" places and ebay even when adding in the shipping. They even have the Quart bottles of the dye. New customers get a free gift too (see main page)

I'm going to check out your link Syl and also wanted Chavez to know Stecksstore SELLS the fiebing, I though it was a Tandy product, LOL

[Sylvia]

Nope Fiebing is just a brand of dye Tandy happens to carry.

For what it's worth Angelus is made in the USA as is Fiebings.

:D

[DoubleC]

Nope Fiebing is just a brand of dye Tandy happens to carry.

For what it's worth Angelus is made in the USA as is Fiebings.

:D

And you KNOW I'm liking that already.......

[Chavez]

Wow!

I did not realise that Fiebing's was Tandy. I thought I read that they are tryign to stay away from spirit-based dyes and all other non-green stuff.

What a surprise!

Thanks for the info!

[Sylvia]

Wow!

I did not realise that Fiebing's was Tandy. I thought I read that they are tryign to stay away from spirit-based dyes and all other non-green stuff.

What a surprise!

Thanks for the info!

Chavez... no no no.... Fiebings is NOT a Tandy Product. It is just a product Tandy stocks as a convenience to their customers. I would guess that all the "Eco-flo" stuff is based on the fact that the Tandy kits say "ages 8 and up" One wouldn't want their 8 year old getting poisoned by the Spirit dyes... Right? I have a bottle of Omega Dye from the 70s... that says right on it. "Poisonous" contains bla bla bla.... "Can not be made non-poisonous" Yikes!! Yeah, I'm gonna let my 8 year old grand kids get any where near that!!

[TOM123]

Hi JK,

You could also look into ZACKS http://zackwhite.com or http://springfieldleather.com

but stick with the oil base as the water base will come off with sweet or other water.

there is a post here some where (could not find it) that tells the difference in the types of finishes but if you go to the DYES, ANTIQUES, STAINS, GLUES, WAXES, FINISHES and check out what others are doing---there is about as many ways to do finishes as there are post on this sight, good reading, good info.

[Chavez]

Oh, right, now it makes sense=)

Thanks=)

Chavez... no no no.... Fiebings is NOT a Tandy Product. It is just a product Tandy stocks as a convenience to their customers. I would guess that all the "Eco-flo" stuff is based on the fact that the Tandy kits say "ages 8 and up" One wouldn't want their 8 year old getting poisoned by the Spirit dyes... Right? I have a bottle of Omega Dye from the 70s... that says right on it. "Poisonous" contains bla bla bla.... "Can not be made non-poisonous" Yikes!! Yeah, I'm gonna let my 8 year old grand kids get any where near that!!

[jk215]

Thanks for the info! I started with one of the Eco-flo water based dyes and the leather balm with atom wax. Really just wanted to get the hang of what I am doing. The dye dried pretty uniform and the leather balm looks nice too. I will definitley upgrade when I start doing real projects.

[DoubleC]

Thanks for the info! I started with one of the Eco-flo water based dyes and the leather balm with atom wax. Really just wanted to get the hang of what I am doing. The dye dried pretty uniform and the leather balm looks nice too. I will definitley upgrade when I start doing real projects.

JK, Paul Barnett, Mr. Leather himself, started a tutorial on here about carving, stamping, and painting leather. Unfortunately he became ill and couldn't finish it. Whatever paints he was using became unavailable so he uses eco flow from Tandy. The only problem I have with Tandy is all their tools, trim, buckles, whatever aren't made in this country. So I just bought a vintage basket weave tool last night, and paid about a 1/3 more. I've used and abused their paints, and they work fine.

I have an eco flo dye too, emerald. I just looked, didn't even realized I had more than one kind of dye. I love it because I can mix my paints with it to get different shades. Since I didn't realize I had different types, now I know why when I tried to mix white and later red to my Fiebings brown dye, I ended up with a big gunk of nothing, LOL. So I have both.