Old, Nearly Dried Out Dye—How To Rejuvenate?

[tbmow]

After much searching, finally found a craigslist ad for some leather crafting tools & supplies. Most of the stuff is older (from the 70s & 80s), including several bottles of dye. To give you an idea of the age, there is a quart bottle of Omega dye (green) with a $2.95 price tag on it.

The problem is that with a couple of the bottles, the solvent has almost completely evaporated leaving a thick liquid. Because this is a dye and not a sealer (like a polymer that solidifies as the solvent evaporates), it should be able to be rejuvenated.

My question, to the long-time crafters, is what do I use to dilute the nearly dried out dyes?

Looking at the MSDS for the Fiebing's solvent it lists two alcohols (ethanol and isopropanol) as ingredients. Will this work with the older dyes? Most of the dyes are Fiebing brand.

thanks

t

[Wishful]

Eagerly awaiting an answer too as I have a simlar situation. I was going to experiment with alcohol too but will wait and see...

[mlapaglia]

Who makes the dye? some is oil, spirit or water based. It all depends on what you have.

[electrathon]

I don't really have an answer but more of an observation. Even if you get it liquified do you really want to use it? You are likely going to mess up your work if it does not properly rehydrate and you will not know it till it is to late. If you found a semi-solid gallon of paint would you attempt to use it on the wall of your house?

Aaron

[tbmow]

Thanks for the responses.

mlapaglia:

The dyes are Fiebing's and Omega, and are in glass bottles. Tried searching for old MSDS sheets, but these were probably made before MSDS was required.

Aaron:

Dyes and paints are two different things from the chemical perspective.

A paint is a polymer that is composed of many small particles (the "mers") that form a long (poly) chain in an irreversible chemical reaction. One purpose of paint is to provide a surface coating that acts as a protective layer. Because this reaction is unidirectional, it is not possible to reverse the reaction. There are exceptions to this generalization (i.e. watercolors).

A dye typically consists of pigments dissolved in a solvent. The solvent is a carrier that distributes the pigment, and the solvent evaporates leaving the pigment behind. Depending on how the solvent interacts with the material being dyed, there may be some chemical changes that occur. There also may be additives to help set the dye and keep it from bleeding when exposed to a solvent.

Though I am new to leather, I have done a lot of woodworking. The old stains (dyes) with a volatile solvent (i.e. lighter than water) produced much better results than the new water-based stains. The old stains penetrated deeper to produce a richer finish. After reading many posts in the forum about how bad the newer dyes are, I was hoping that someone had a similar experience in the past and was willing to share.

t

[electrathon]

Though I am new to leather, I have done a lot of woodworking. The old stains (dyes) with a volatile solvent (i.e. lighter than water) produced much better results than the new water-based stains. The old stains penetrated deeper to produce a richer finish. After reading many posts in the forum about how bad the newer dyes are, I was hoping that someone had a similar experience in the past and was willing to share.

I have to half way agree with you. The newer eco flo (waterbased) dyes and paints that Tandy is selling are of far inferior quality to the solvent based dyes (that are still available) that most leatherworkers are familiar with using. It is not that solvent based dyes are gone, just that Tandy has chosen to push the waterbased products. Buy the quality products and you will not have an issue.

[Art]

DEA is probably your best bet for the Fiebings. I use Fiebings Pro and Spirit dyes and cut them considerably (well over 50%) with DEA. The Omega, I am not sure. Use scrap to test, not your project.

Art

[mlapaglia]

DEA = Denatured Ethel Alcohol?

Thats a new one on me.