Dyeing recently oiled leather

[TarMinyatur]

I've recently decided to delve into leatherworking as a means of repairing and maintaining some of my reenacting gear.  My skill level is best described as rudimentary, and that said I'm slightly stumped with my current issue.  I recently ordered a pair of old Swiss mountain boots (leather of course) and upon arrival noticed that the leather was becoming rather rigid and dry, so naturally I went and applied a coating of mink oil.  After chatting with a few of the other guys that are in my reenacting unit, I found out most of them are dyeing their boots black.  So I went to the local crafting store and picked up some Fiebings black dye and tested a coat on my older jackboots, and tested a small portion of the mountain boots.  The jackboots were success, whereas the mountain boots not so much.  The dye beaded up and didn't appear to set in.

My question: Is there an oil based dye that will penetrate the layer of mink oil, like Fiebings Professional Oil dye?  If not, would you have any suggestions for improving my odds at dyeing the boots?

 

[bikermutt07]

You might have a tough time penetrating a new layer of mink oil. Deglazer may help, but before you spend any money, let some of the experts chime in. 

Welcome to the forum.

[Halitech]

I've never used mink oil but it's a water proofer by design so you are going to have a hard time getting anything to penetrate it until you strip it away. I'm not sure if a deglazer will do it or not as the oil should have penetrated into the leather, not just sat on top. You may be looking at using the boots as they are for a while

[Martyn]

I would say strip out the Mink oil with a wash of soda crystals (sodium carbonate) and then dye with vinegaroon.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Martyn

[Colt W Knight]

Warm water, dish soap, and a scrub brush should get rid of the mink oil. After that, you would need to use a heaver oil solvent to break down oil.

 

[gigi]

I think you need other boots     ***just kidding***  What kind of leather is that? Different dyes works with different leathers because of the chemicals from the tanning process.

Edited May 19, 2016 by gigi

[Martyn]

3 hours ago, Colt W Knight said:

Warm water, dish soap, and a scrub brush should get rid of the mink oil. After that, you would need to use a heaver oil solvent to break down oil.

 

I used soda crystals on a renovation of an old army backpack recently. It's basically soda ash, the main constituent of ...soap. Aside from being an amazingly effective degreasing agent, it also raise the pH significantly, which allows dye molecules to bind more effectively with the fibres.

This s a picture of the leather base of my backpack before I did anything to it. It's very worn and old (the saddlers stamp says 1949), dirty, dry in parts, greasy in others, and covered in years of army red/brown boot polish...

This is the same pack (I've added strap attachments for a bedroll). All that I've done is wash it in a solution of warm water and soda crystals, let it dry, re-waxed the canvas and for the leather, 2 coats of olive oil and a rub over with some home brew leather wax (2 parts neatsfoot oil and 1 part beeswax).

I was astonished at how effective the soda crystals were at stripping out all the old oils. I picked up on it from a UK horse riding forum where some were using it as a deep clean and de-grease for heavily soiled tack.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Martyn

[gigi]

I've found some instructions searching the web (on: how to remove mink oil from boots) but I've never tested this steps:

http://www.ehow.com/how_12069666_remove-mink-oil-boots.html

 

Edited May 20, 2016 by gigi

[TarMinyatur]

On 5/19/2016 at 11:40 AM, gigi said:

I think you need other boots     ***just kidding***  What kind of leather is that? Different dyes works with different leathers because of the chemicals from the tanning process.

Honestly, I'm not sure what leather it is.  Thank you for the responses.