Question About Dying

[Dennis Oakley]

I haven't been doing this long and am about to embark on a new project. I purchased a kit for a guitar strap from Springfield Leather and have some questions before I start on it.

I have a set of celtic stamps from Tandy that I'm going to use to put a border along the edge of the strap. Down the length of the strap I'll be tooling in 3 or 4 shamrocks, about 1 1/2" tall. I'll also be tooling in 3 or 4 sets of initials, also about 1 1/2" tall.

I want to dye the the shamrocks green and the initials white while making the entire strap black. I have Eco-Flo water based leather dye in Coal Black. I also have Cova Color in white and Cova Color in kelly green.

What would be the best method to use when dying? Should I dye the shamrocks and initials first, then use Super Sheen as a resist before dying the whole thing black? Or should I dye the whole thing black except the shamrocks and initials and then come back and dye them?

I'm a little nervous and would like to get some advice before I screw it up.

Thanks

[PutnamLeather]

Hello Dennis, first I'd like to say that I love the eco flo dye. That being said, I can't stand the coal black! I have never in 6 years been able to make it work evenly, every other color works great for me. So for black I use febings usmc black. The eco flo is just like water colors from grade skool, it bleeds and runs and if your not carefull can make a HUGE mess. I knocked a 4oz bottle over on white carpet once and my wife almost killed me. So the best advice I can think of is this, pore a small bit at a time into a smaller container and practice practice practice on scrap leather. It took me forever to get something I liked, and some people get it the first time. Just have patiencs and good luck. And we all always love to see pics when you get finnished. This is a shotgun butt cover I just made eith eco and usmc.

[Chief31794]

I haven't been doing this long and am about to embark on a new project. I purchased a kit for a guitar strap from Springfield Leather and have some questions before I start on it.

I have a set of celtic stamps from Tandy that I'm going to use to put a border along the edge of the strap. Down the length of the strap I'll be tooling in 3 or 4 shamrocks, about 1 1/2" tall. I'll also be tooling in 3 or 4 sets of initials, also about 1 1/2" tall.

I want to dye the the shamrocks green and the initials white while making the entire strap black. I have Eco-Flo water based leather dye in Coal Black. I also have Cova Color in white and Cova Color in kelly green.

What would be the best method to use when dying? Should I dye the shamrocks and initials first, then use Super Sheen as a resist before dying the whole thing black? Or should I dye the whole thing black except the shamrocks and initials and then come back and dye them?

I'm a little nervous and would like to get some advice before I screw it up.

Thanks

Dennis,

You might get several different suggestions on how to do this, ditto using USMC Black, it works much better. To tackle something like this I would do the following. Once the tooling is done and the leather is dry, I would carefully paint the shamrocks and letters using the Cova Colors. Then I would carefully paint the areas around the letters with a small brush with USMC black and use the technique of starting back from the item and letting the color bleed up to the design. Then I would use a larger brush once I was clear of the painted toolings. The great thing about USMC black is that it will be very consistent and the area where you used the small brush will be just as black as the open areas. Takes some practice. I never liked dying over things unless it is absolutely necessary, I always get a little "Mix", some folks are just better at it than I, but this method keeps the colors bright and clear and the black the same. Hope that helps, maybe some of the good multi color folks will chime in with other suggestions.

Chief

[Dwight]

Just another way to do it, . . . do all the tooling, . . . then dye it with Feibings black oil stain, . . . not USMC black. The USMC is a great dye, . . . but it leaves so much extra pigment on the product, . . . it takes forever for me to buff it off, . . . and I can never get it all buffed out (like it want it) from any carvings or stampings.

I would then burnish the edges, . . . coat it with a 50/50 Resolene finish, . . . and buff that out. IMPORTANT: let the Resolene dry 36 hours or so.

Then I would get a full pot of coffee, . . . a couple of doughnuts, . . . some small brushes, . . . and Eco Flo paint the right colors, . . . and commit myself to painting the other colors on, . . . very painstaking, . . . very slowly, . . . but it comes out nice, . . .

This is a painting I did that way on a holster for a friend.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Dennis Oakley]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I ordered the USMC Black today. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as it's finished.

[David8386]

Hey Dennis, the USMC black is good just make sure to buff the crap out of it. Then when done do it again. Like Dwight said it is good stuff but takes a long time to buff out.

David

[WoodBoneAndStone]

I have had mixed results with attempts at multicolor projects. I have tried coloring the focal design first and then added a resist before covering the entire project with the darker background color and then wiping it off the resisted area. I found I needed to touch up the color a bit.

I have colored the design and then, as Chief suggests, carefully started the background color with a small brush.

When using an opaque color Dwight's method works great. Good job on the hawk, Dwight!

Regardless of method a little touch up is usually necessary, at least when I do it.

I like the shotgun butt cover too. Great job!

Edited February 16, 2013 by WoodBoneAndStone

[Dennis Oakley]

David, when you buff it out do you use a soft cotton cloth? Or is there something better to use?

[David8386]

I usually use old cotton socks or t shirts but anything soft like that should work.

David

[Dennis Oakley]

Thanks again for everybody's help. I tooled everything in and then used the Cova colors to carefully paint in the shamrocks and the lettering. Gave them a couple of coats with the Cova colors. Let that dry for 24 hours and then went over the Cova color with Super Sheen. Waited 24 hours and gave it another coat of Super Sheen.

Then started the USMC black with a tiny brush around the tooling, changing to a dauber once I was safely away from the Cova color. (Huge difference between the USMC black and the Tandy black by the way. Thanks for that tip!) Tonight I came home and buffed out the USMC black and burnished the edges using beeswax and the burnisher on my Dremel. During buffing the Cova white picked up a bunch of the black to the point it looked bad. So now I'm repainting the white color.

I'm wondering why it did that? Did I miss a step or was there something else I should have done? My plan now is to recoat the white before covering the whole thing with Super Sheen.

[Chief31794]

Thanks again for everybody's help. I tooled everything in and then used the Cova colors to carefully paint in the shamrocks and the lettering. Gave them a couple of coats with the Cova colors. Let that dry for 24 hours and then went over the Cova color with Super Sheen. Waited 24 hours and gave it another coat of Super Sheen.

Then started the USMC black with a tiny brush around the tooling, changing to a dauber once I was safely away from the Cova color. (Huge difference between the USMC black and the Tandy black by the way. Thanks for that tip!) Tonight I came home and buffed out the USMC black and burnished the edges using beeswax and the burnisher on my Dremel. During buffing the Cova white picked up a bunch of the black to the point it looked bad. So now I'm repainting the white color.

I'm wondering why it did that? Did I miss a step or was there something else I should have done? My plan now is to recoat the white before covering the whole thing with Super Sheen.

Dennis,

I don't have any confidence in Super Sheen as a resist for spirit dyes. I use Clear Lac and after 8 hours or so of drying time, nothing penetrates it that I've found. One note though, I have had a lot of trouble using Clear Lac on USMC Black, it works great on other spirit dyes, but regardless of how long it has dried and been buffed, Clear Lac seems to "melt" the USMC Black. I use Tan Kote (50/50 with Distilled Water) on USMC Black and it works great. I don't use Tan Kote as a resist though, maybe someone else can chime in on that. Any time you try a new product, test it on scrap first. Hope that helps,

Chief

[Dennis Oakley]

Well, for better or worse it's done. Just posted the finished product in the Show Off forum.