Tea-Dying Leather And Sun-Darkening With Oil

[JakeDiebolt]

Hello everyone! I'm just signed on to the forum and a newbie with leather, so I was hoping for some advice.

I've been lurking on the forum the last little while and found a couple of things I want to try for dyeing my leather. I've seen tea-dyeing mentioned briefly, but I've never seen the actual colour results. Does anyone have any pictures of things they've tea-dyed? Any tips as far as how long to leave in the dye, finishing, etc would also be appreciated!

Another thing I'd like to try is darkening the leather with oil. I read somewhere that leaving the oiled leather in the sun causes it to darken to a nice light brown colour. Unfortunately we've a foot of snow on the ground up here right now and I can't leave the leather outside. Would hanging the leather in front of a window or something give the same effect as leaving it in the sun?

I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!

[Bob Blea]

Hello everyone! I'm just signed on to the forum and a newbie with leather, so I was hoping for some advice.

I've been lurking on the forum the last little while and found a couple of things I want to try for dyeing my leather. I've seen tea-dyeing mentioned briefly, but I've never seen the actual colour results. Does anyone have any pictures of things they've tea-dyed? Any tips as far as how long to leave in the dye, finishing, etc would also be appreciated!

Another thing I'd like to try is darkening the leather with oil. I read somewhere that leaving the oiled leather in the sun causes it to darken to a nice light brown colour. Unfortunately we've a foot of snow on the ground up here right now and I can't leave the leather outside. Would hanging the leather in front of a window or something give the same effect as leaving it in the sun?

I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!

Hello Jake, and welcome to the forum!

I don't have any experience dyeing with tea or coffee, though I've heard of people doing both. So I can't tell you much there except to give it a try. On using the sun, that does work and the oiling isn't needed. Sunlight will cause leather to darken just by itself. Oiling with some oils, like Neatsfoot, will also darken leather. Some others (mainly Extra Virgin Olive Oil) dont' darken leather, or at least don't darken it much. I haven't intentionally 'suntanned' leather to get a darker color, though I've had scraps that have been darkened because they have been in exposed to indirect sunlight. From what I understand, just hanging a belt in the sun here in Colorado (where UV is usually pretty strong due to our altitude) for a half hour can darken leather quite a bit.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[ramrod]

i'm sure that you've left the forum jake, but here's my take. dying with tea or coffee will not be very sucessful in my experience. the commercially made dyes are very, very concentrated. they work very well for that reason. the tea or coffee that you might be using isn't nearly as "strong" no matter how you brew it.

[billymac814]

Also flouresent lighting seems to work about as good as the sun. I can tell just when I let leather lay on my cutting table that it darkens up.

[JakeDiebolt]

i'm sure that you've left the forum jake, but here's my take. dying with tea or coffee will not be very sucessful in my experience. the commercially made dyes are very, very concentrated. they work very well for that reason. the tea or coffee that you might be using isn't nearly as "strong" no matter how you brew it.

I ended up dying with tea and actually had success. I used about 30 cheap tea bags in a large pot full of water, boiled for about an hour and a half. It produced a nice light tan colour. Combined with oiling and finishing it, it became a light brown/tan that I'm actually quite pleased with. I did soak it for a day and a half - that maybe made a difference.

As an aside, has anyone noticed weird behaviour when accessing this forum? I've stayed away for a while because the forum kept redirecting me to sketchy sites and popup ads.