Mixing Alcohol Based Dye In Oil

[azrider]

So I have tried a few times to get dye into solution with oil, and try and dye the leather that way. One of my chemist friends suggested adding some soap to the oil, and then adding the alcohol based dye. This actually binds the alcohol and oil together, along with the pigments. I used olive oil, Angelus Dye, and palmolive dish soap. I did a few diffrent pieces to try it out, and was pretty happy with the results. It seems to take some of the pigment into the leather, which evens out as the oil evens out.

Just wondering if anyone else has played with this, and what they might have found?

Edited March 19, 2012 by azrider

[pete]

neatsfoot and feibing's chocolate dye is a standard on my workbench. I use it all the time for dying light colored leather after tooling and before neetlac/antique.

[dbusarow]

I used olive oil, Angelus Dye, and palmolive dish soap.

Do you have some approzimate volumes? Like 1 drop of dish soap to 10 drops of dye to 3 oz of oil? Mainly curious about how much soap you used. I have tried mixing oil and dye without the soap and that did not work for me.

Thanks,

Dan

Edited March 19, 2012 by dbusarow

[pete]

Dan- I know that you didn't ask- but I just pour the dye into the neats until I get the color I want. I've had some in a bottle for 6 mos and it doesn't separate-just shake it a second if it has been sitting.

[azrider]

Dan- I know that you didn't ask- but I just pour the dye into the neats until I get the color I want. I've had some in a bottle for 6 mos and it doesn't separate-just shake it a second if it has been sitting.

I will have to try it with neatsfoot oil. I have tried mixing dye with olive oil multiple times, and the dye is always suspended, and not quite in solution. Is the feibings dye alcohol based?

I added the soap one drop at a time and shook it, and kept adding drops until the the oil and alcohol were mixed well.