Any Secrets To Getting Dye Or Stain Even

[leathervan]

It is real frustrating to have a nice piece of leather work finished only to have the dye or stain applications to come out uneven with darker spots here and there etc. You probably know what I mean. It would be nice if a dye or stain would just come out even when applied. Any secrets. What is your experience with that problem.

[Dwight]

Well, . . . first thing you gotta do is go spend time at the EAA museum, . . . tell em Dwight sent you.

Then, . . . get into the habit of dip dyeing your projects. I use all Feibings products, . . . I cut them with thinner, . . . half dye / half thinner.

I use a couple of old cake pans I scrounged out of my wife's kitchen, . . . they're 9 by 14 or something thereabouts, . . . 2 inches deep.

The leather goes in, . . . end for end, . . . dunked all the way around, . . . and sometimes it's tricky to get the last few places dyed, . . . and sometimes it gets a bit messy, . . . BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE.

Another process is spraying it with an air gun, . . . but it is only surface deep, . . . I don't like it as well.

Both processes work well though, . . . purses, holsters, belts, billfolds, pouches, etc.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Red Cent]

No dunking here. And I threw the foam applicators away. I use old towels for a lot of things including using a piece of towel to apply dye. Experience has taught me to pay attention to the "wetness" of the leather. The leather at first will soak up the dye but the towel will only apply so much. I wipe it on in one direction. At a point in time, the dye wetness will linger and this means saturation. With practice, you can get it pretty even.

[leathervan]

what kind of thinner do you use. So it sounds like what your doing is putting your solution in a pan and for a belt you would put one end in the solution and just pull the belt through the solution submerged and it should come out even. Correct?

[Dwight]

what kind of thinner do you use. So it sounds like what your doing is putting your solution in a pan and for a belt you would put one end in the solution and just pull the belt through the solution submerged and it should come out even. Correct?

That's how I do it, . . . just be sure not to hang it up by one end, . . . top will be light, . . . bottom will be dark , . . .

I lay it on the top edge for about 15 minutes, . . . then flip it and let it dry out.

You can use Red Cent's process too, . . . I am just a bit lazy, . . . and I'm also a Baptist, . . . and a doughnut lover, . . . so "dunkin" just comes kinda natural to me.

May God bless,

Dwight

[paprhangr]

Edited January 19, 2016 by paprhangr

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

I make saddles and only use real sheepskin on my saddles, so; I always have a bunch of sheepskin fleece scraps on hand. I use them, with the dye straight out of the bottle. I apply it in a circular motion over the whole project. Depending on how dark and uniform I want it to be, I may use more than one application. And of course, like the others have said, pay attention to saturation. Too much is also not good.

Bob

[Boriqua]

Post a pic of the offending piece. Its leather so unless it is a paint like finish you may find some inconsistency in the final product. Its leather and absorbs dye differently in different spots sometimes and I personally think its part of the charm but I have done repairs on some old military stuff and the finish seemed to be more paint like than dye and so had a dead even color.

I use an airbrush now for almost all my dying and it gives me as even a finish as I think can be applied short of dip dying. Before that I found that using a folded rag and rubbing the dye into the leather in circles gave me the most consistent beautiful finish. If you are using a dauber ... well I would suggest throwing it away and cutting up some rags. I rarely had success with a finish I liked using those damned daubers!

[club49]

I am also a dip dyer and I just got into air brushing. I have a question for you Boriqua. Have you had any problem with the dye not penetrating deep enough into the leather when air brushing. Being that it is such a fine mist and very little dye is being used.Over a long period of time, I was wondering if the leather would get lighter? With dip dying, you are saturating you leather with dye. I have read articles that suggest using a lacquer before dyeing to cut down on bleeding. I have not tried it yet. I do love the effect of air brushing, the colors are much nicer and you can do a lot high lighting on the lighter colors.

Jim

[Boriqua]

Hey Jim

I have never dip dyed so I cant make that comparision but I have in the past used a dauber and then my go to technique was using a folded rag and rubbing dye into the leather. I did do some testing with sand paper on pieces I used a rag on and pieces I air brushed and I didnt see any difference. I didnt feel like my dye rubbed in was any deeper or more durable. Of course that depends on how may passes I do with the air brush. Some colors like saddle tan I really like in that kind of bright orange it gets. If I apply to much dye even if I cut it I find saddle tan goes murky so it is a lighter application. Black I make several passes

I havent seen any significant fading on any of my leather stuff and have been using the airbrush exclusively for almost 3 years. It would be hard to give up that control once you have it. No more splotchy mahogany but nice pretty even color.

Now that you have me curious I may dip a small piece, spray one and rub one and then cut them in two and see what the penetration looks like. I will report back.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Boriqua

[snubbyfan]

My two main methods depends on the type of dye. Mostly I use Fiebing's Professional oil dye and apply it with a dauber. I can generally tell when enough dye has saturated into the leather.

With spirit based dye, I'll apply it with a damp sponge.

[club49]

I noticed when I airbrushed one of my belts light brown. The natural color was coming through at the fold by the buckle. I only did one coat, I think I am going to do a few more coats and check it out. I do cut my dye 50-50 Fibbing's oil.

Nice work Snubbyfan.

Jim

[Boriqua]

I noticed when I airbrushed one of my belts light brown. The natural color was coming through at the fold by the buckle. I only did one coat, I think I am going to do a few more coats and check it out. I do cut my dye 50-50 Fibbing's oil.

Nice work Snubbyfan.

Jim

Hey Jim

Its just that your learning a new tool and new technique. The rules of how much to saturate are the same as you always did you are just having to learn how to achieve it with the air brush. If I do something like a belt or even a holster I make my pass and then go back and make my pass again and often I change the direction of the piece in relationship to the sprayer. On a black holster I may make 5-6 passes.

Its not unlike when you do it with a dauber in that you wouldnt sit and saturate an area before moving to the next area. I dont know your technique with a dauber but I try and spread it out pretty quickly and evenly over my whole piece my first pass so I dont land up with weird dark spots when it dries. you know the second that dauber hits the leather you get that initial suck. Then I come back in with the dauber and saturate the entire piece again.

Same thing. Treat it like applying any spraypaint. Go left to right with a fluid motion overlapping the passes and then, at least when I do it, I turn the piece and do it again so I am overlapping but criss-crossing my previous passes ... if that makes sense?

I dont know how you applied it but one pass of cut dye doesn’t sound like nearly enough. You use less dye because you kind of avoid that dauber suckage. Your not dealing with the initial heavy draw of dye and then the thinning out. With the airbrush you can evenly saturate the leather which uses less material ... but you still have to saturate it.

I hope that was helpful. I'm originally from NY. If you promise to bring Bagels you are welcome to come out to the 80 degree temperatures and we can go make a mess in the shed with the airbrushes.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Boriqua

[Boriqua]

If I remember correctly the saddle tan on this piece had about 5 passes and I think it pretty even.

[bob21804]

Interesting thread for me. I just bought my first inexpensive HF airbrush set up, and poking around the forums looking for info and opinions. I have about 20 minutes of airbrushing experience (including setup and cleanup. ), but I liked the way the Eco-Flo Saddle Tan looked on the small scrap piece I did. I think, with some learning and experience I'll have better control of the dying results I get versus rubbing dye in with a sponge or a dauber. But perhaps, the technique I use will depend on the project and desired results. <<< Newbie speaking. No doubt I'll be starting a thread to pick the brains and learn from the experienced airbrush people here.