What's the best way to reduce leather dye

[metroplexchl]

I have some reducer on order that will be here in a week or so, but I'm curious....are there other ways to reduce dye? Simpler ways?  Why ca't you just use water?

chris

[Dwight]

I use denatured alcohol, . . . on Feibings dyes, and Feibings oil dyes.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited August 19, 2016 by Dwight

[metroplexchl]

12 minutes ago, Dwight said:

I use denatured alcohol, . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

Can you get that at a CVS or Walgreens type place?  What ratio of dye/denatured alcohol do you start with?  Or do you just start somewhere and test on scraps?

thanks for your response!

chris

[bikermutt07]

Denatured alcohol will be in a paint section.

Supposedly it's basically the same thing as reducer.

I also read a 5 part alcohol to one part dye will produce the intended color, although I haven't tried that ratio yet.

[Dwight]

5 hours ago, metroplexchl said:

Can you get that at a CVS or Walgreens type place?  What ratio of dye/denatured alcohol do you start with?  Or do you just start somewhere and test on scraps?

thanks for your response!

chris

Chris, . . . Experience will teach you that leather is a funny animal (no pun intended) when it comes to dyeing.  

Sometimes it dyes AOK, . . . and sometimes you wonder if a space ship didn't go overhead, disrupt the galaxy,  and cause your dye job to turn upside down.

The best thing YOU can do is be constant.  That is the reason that I cut my dye 50/50, . . . first time, . . . every time, . . . all the time.  I only do "custom" dye jobs when the customer demands it up front.  But I make sure that if I'm doing a belt for him, . . . he knows not to come back in a year and want a billfold and set of spur straps to match his belt. That borders on the "darn near impossible".

If I am using my standard colors (I have 3) I can come close to guaranteeing the color, . . . anything else is worse than trying to predict how many times you will have to try to win solitaire with a deck of 51 cards.

The alcohol I get comes from a local hardware store or Lowes. 

May God bless,

Dwight

[Dwight]

5 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

Denatured alcohol will be in a paint section.

Supposedly it's basically the same thing as reducer.

I also read a 5 part alcohol to one part dye will produce the intended color, although I haven't tried that ratio yet.

Biker, . . . in times past I messed around a bit with some of those ratios.  

It will look good for a year or two, . . . then it will change.  In most cases it seems to get lighter and drifts off to a more "sunburned leather" color.

I know where there is a beautiful single holster, . . . plain western rig that was almost a funky dark grey when it was done several years ago, . . . and now it was drifted down to a medium dark brown.  Don't get me wrong, . . . it still is really good looking, . . . but the color has changed significantly.

That has been my experience with the lighter ratios, . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[Art]

Denatured Ethyl Alcohol by the gallon in the paint section at Wally-World.  Much higher concentrations of alcohol than 50% will push the dye concentration a bit, making multiple coats a necessity.  At higher concentrations of alcohol, the dauber method of applications may not yield even results.  The dip dye method is better with diluted dyes.

Art 

[metroplexchl]

I read on some old post from somewhere else that someone used hot water at a 1/1.  I wonder if that would work?

[Art]

So good of you to volunteer to give this a try for us.  Please let us know how it works out for you.  

13 minutes ago, metroplexchl said:

old post from somewhere else?

Art

[electrathon]

41 minutes ago, metroplexchl said:

I read on some old post from somewhere else that someone used hot water at a 1/1.  I wonder if that would work?

Not a good idea if you are using alcohol based dyes.  If you are using water based it would work.  You have to dilute with the base solvent the product is made from.