Dye Or Paint And What's Best For Leather

[hunteil]

Hello, I guess you can consider me novice, but I do have alot invested into leather crafting and I've done a dozen or so projects over the years. But I seem to hit the same darn brick wall every time I get into the coloring of leather. I get so much feedback on how much better paint is over dyeing and then how much better dyeing if over painting. And the only resources I can find only try to sell you the products you're looking at so I feel like I'm going in circles. I need help in getting taught what is the best solution when it comes to giving color to leather...

I have Oil Based Fiebings dyes and they work great for the darker colors. Plus b/c it's oil based it should help keep the leather from drying out. Which it has and gives good deep colors.

But I want to give my leather a Yellow color. And the last time I made something yellow, I entered it into a crafting competition and I got aweful scores b/c it wasn't bright enough and people thought I didn't even dye the leather... (attached are the pictures of the project.) After a few months the color gets darker and turns orangish or browner... It needs to remain yellow for years on end and deal with the stresses of being a Belt.

Can someone help give real facts about what's best to use. I'm not looking for opinions b/c opinions more or less sale the product or products. I'm looking for cold hard facts on if paint is just better and what type of paint works best for what and then the same for dyes. I want to invest on the correct best products and not get stuck again with a lot of money tied up in dyes that just don't perform professionally when I was told it would. :-(

[TwinOaks]

The choice of what's best really is subjective to what the leather is going to be used for. Things that will see a good bit of use, abuse, flexing, stretching, reconditioning, etc. would probably look better when dyed. Things that will see use, but probably won't be abused can benefit from paint. It's because of the nature of the two- dye penetrates the fibers and changes their color; paint adheres to the fibers instead of penetrating them to achieve the color change.

Angelus paints (for leather) are some of the better acrylics, as are Golden 'High Flow' paints, because their formulation lets them keep some elasticity- i.e. they stick to the leather and flex instead of cracking/flaking off. Angelus even warranties the paint's adhesion to leather.....but only for a year.

That brings us to which looks better. Again, its subjective. Dye, while changing the color of the leather, doesn't change the physical appearance of the leather. You can still see the leather grain. Paint on the other hand, is solid particles in a suspension and it WILL hide the grain. The other side of that coin is that paint remains more visible because it's solid particles and acrylic medium reflects light better than preserved skin...aka leather.

In the example of your belt, one thing I noticed is that the leather is already fairly dark. When dealing with translucent dyes, you can't put a light color over a dark one. Since paints are opaque, you can, as they are just layers of solids.

[DavidL]

In your opinion which seems to be the most likely that tanneries do when veg tan has flesh side that is coloured different than the grain would that be dye, acrylic or some type of powder that you rub on and heat set on the flesh?

[hunteil]

The leather I used in the picture was Veg Tanned. I don't believe you can find anything brighter than that.

[TwinOaks]

The leather I used in the picture was Veg Tanned. I don't believe you can find anything brighter than that.

You can get different shades of hide. I've bought some import shoulders that were tan enough to not need any dye at all, and I've picked up some pieces from another member that were almost white (I think that was W&C leather). Simply being veg-tan does not denote color, only the tanning process.

If you prefer a more analytical discussion to discuss what is happening and why, you might try leatherchemists.org.

In your opinion which seems to be the most likely that tanneries do when veg tan has flesh side that is coloured different than the grain would that be dye, acrylic or some type of powder that you rub on and heat set on the flesh?

I've only seen it in chrome tanned pieces, not on the veg-tan. I don't know if it's vinyl, some other polymer, or a polymer based ink. It could simply be a split that has dye infused then the whole piece is hot rolled.

[Dwight]

I guess the first really big question is, . . . how are you applying the dye?

If you want serious dye color, . . . you cannot get it with any other process other than dip / dunk dyeing. You have to fully submerge the leather in the dye, . . . and the longer you leave it in there, . . . the richer the color will be.

With a yellow (assuming you are talking about "caution" yellow, . . . bright yellow, . . . dandelion yellow), . . . it will probably take at least two maybe three maybe even 4 trips into the tank to get the hue you want.

You are trying to fully change the color when you go to something like yellow, . . . white, . . . pink, . . . or light blue. Browns, tans, black, or other darker colors can be done in one trip in the tank, . . . no problem, . . . but with yellow, it'll be harder.

You also want to start out with the lightest color leather blank you can find, . . . you may have to go to the store and spend a while digging through their selection for a really light piece, . . . and be forewarned, . . . even after you dye it, . . . if it is left in the sunlight, . . . it will darken anyway, . . . it is the "nature of the beast" so to speak.

There are other leather like products out there on the market, . . . some are leather with a plastic top coat, . . . that is what I had to use for some special "dress up" rifle slings I made a while back, . . . they wanted "WHITE" ones, . . . and they got em.

Best wishes, my friend, . . . you have taken on an arduous task.

May God bless,

Dwight

[ClaireAshton]

Hi,

My take on this quite simple. You can't dye brown yellow. You can dye it browner or combine with a colour to give green or black or red etc. Light Blue is next to impossible and as above, as soon as light gets to it it will darken. So with veg tan it is start with as light a hide as you can find and make sure uv protection is in finishing coats - or - go down the coating route. Effectively paint the surface with an acrylic such as Tandy Cova Color. I recently did a bag in red, white and blue to be patriotic (No! The Union Flag for the UK). The red and blue airbrushed ok with dyes but the white had to be surface. If you go down this route for yellow, apply many coats very thinly as cracking is an issue with anything lying on the surface.

Best of luck!

Claire

Sorry! Missed Twin Oaks reply which pretty much covers it.....

[hunteil]

I use Tandy Leather Factory for my leather needs. Anyone I talk to there says they don't have any type of leather available that is lighter than Veg Tan that will allow good tooling capabilities.

I have a few dozen pieces of other weird leather and tooling it is impractical. So I prefer to stay away from those.
As far as dipping it in dye... Wow that's gotta be expensive.

[DavidL]

You could try to dye it white/ bleach then yellow. Same technique is done by painters to get yellow on a dark background. The way black covers everything, the opposite is true for yellow.