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Posted

Has anyone else tried this? I can't get it to turn brown, it changes colour but only to a kind of redish pink. I used a lot of baking soda, so much that it wouldn't entirely dissolve in the water. The water was cold though, did you use hot water?

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Posted

I used cold water as well. Are you using baking powder or baking soda? What kind of leather as well?

I've done a few more tests on both Tandy leather and Herman Oak and they all are turning brown. This time I measured. I used 4 tablespoons of baking soda in one cup of water. I'm charging my camera now to get better pictures this time.

Using different types of leather I'm noticing definite differences in color change and shade. I tried a 4/5oz and the 3/4 oz Tandy and a 9/10oz Herman Oak.

The HO is a fairly solid brown. Looks good.

The 3/4oz samples are lighter this time but I gave them only 10 second dips. I would say they're light cocoa.

With he 4/5oz samples I gave one a 10 second dip and two pieces I let soak in the mix for 30 seconds. The one is a little mottled and you can see where it absorbed on some places better than others. The two that went for a bath are both brown already. One has a slight mottle to it but it was pretty old scrap so could have had oil on it or something.

I'll give pictures soon.

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Posted

I am using baking soda, and some veg tan sholder from tandy. It does change colour but after it dries it's a faint redish brown. The baking soda is pretty old, other than that I can't think of anything else that could affect it.

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Posted

well now I tried it with a bunch of different scraps of veg tan from tandy, and one turned out very dark brown, and the others turned a kind of light purple! I guess I'll have to go back to tandy and test out a couple different types. Strange how different types of veg tan react so differently...

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Posted

Hi!

This baking soda trick sounds very interesting. I'm still trying to make some roon, but as soon as I get it, ill try the baking soda method.

My only concern is that soda is going to interfre with leather's ph balance and ruin leather...

Posted

well now I tried it with a bunch of different scraps of veg tan from Tandy, and one turned out very dark brown, and the others turned a kind of light purple! I guess I'll have to go back to Tandy and test out a couple different types. Strange how different types of veg tan react so differently...

This happens too with different tannery leathers when using Fiebings dye. You have to make sure that you do not use one piece of leather on part of a project and another on the rest. they may turn out drastically different.

Aaron

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Posted

post-7334-079671400 1329671174_thumb.jpgHere are photos from my test pieces.

The first one is Herman Oak 9/10oz. Turned a nice dark brown. Cut it in half There was a slight difference in color near the center. It's not stiff or anything.

post-7334-065888100 1329670770_thumb.jpg

The set of three is Tandy 3/4oz. Also dark brown through and through. The thin stuff has a bit of stiffness to it now. The edges curl up a little but they also curl with just plain water.

This is the original piece I tried this out on and a shot showing the edge

post-7334-062583900 1329671164_thumb.jpg

post-7334-056432700 1329670781_thumb.jpg

The 4/5 oz Tandy looks horrible and I didn't take any pictures of them. They were brown only while it was wet and then as they dried they lightened. Only the edges stayed dark brown.

I think this method would be perfect for molding pouches. Dip and let sit for the reaction to happen then rinse thoroughly and put in your mold.

  • 9 years later...
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Posted

This method sounds too good to be true, so I had to try  it. Can't say anything about the final colours yet (I tried washing soda as well, in the spirit of scientific inquiry) because the leather has to dry, but it's definitely darker than just wet leather. But it seems to have a reddish tinge to it.

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Posted

The colour turned out nice, but the leather became really hard and stiff and oiling it did not remedy that. I won't repeat the experiment. 

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