Very Light Coloured Dying

[leaky5]

For a future bag, i want to just take the edge off the flesh colour of the veg tan leather. Just a light Olive Green, sand or khaki sort of colour.

Does anyone have any usefull tips for ways to do this ?

[thoughtcrimes]

<p>Find the color dye you want and reduce it. Be sure to reduce with the same substance as the dye's base (i.e., spirit-based die use a spirit reducer, water-based dye use water).</p>

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<p>I have found it difficult to get a nice even dye with a really reduced dye. Definitely practice on some scraps before working on your bag.</p>

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<p>Another option may be to apply a finish and dye over top (like an antique finish) -- dunno about that though.</p>

Edited July 16, 2015 by thoughtcrimes

[Nuttish]

+1 thoughtcrimes on difficulty and practice. Dilute dye solutions make uneven penetration quite easy to see, and the problem gets worse as you make additional applications.

I use a highly dilute natural vat dye on unfinished tooling leather. I wet it out just like fabric. I find that very lightly washing the leather with dilute oxalic acid and gently washing the acid solution off with a damp cloth is sufficient to wet the leather out so that it will uniformly absorb my water-based dye solution.

If you're using diluted spirit dye, you can let the leather dry from its oxalic acid wash and then wet it out by lightly spritzing it with rubbing alcohol.

[leaky5]

I have been playing about and I think Neetsfoot oil is going to give the result I want, when I finally get around to it I will pop some pictures up. I have 4 bags to do and this is probaly going to be for the last one.