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.

[metroplexchl]

1 hour ago, Art said:

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

Art

Haha. I'll give it a shot....I'll look and see where I saw this. It was some older website I think and it was referring to using dye in those little spray gun things. I'm really new to leatherworking, so forgive my ignorance here. :-)

[bikermutt07]

9 hours ago, Dwight said:

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

I don't have any experience with it yet, I just read it is all.

Thanks for the heads up.

Being a hobbyist I wouldn't be too worried about colors changing over the years. But if I ever go retail, I will have a good disclaimer to work into the deal.

[flux41]

Disclamer: I have only been doing leather work as a hobby for about 9 Months, so take my words with a grain of salt.

I've been using good old 91% Isopropyl alcohol for diluting as I always have a ton of that stuff around here. I always dilute my spirit dyes at least 50%. Usually the ratios are more like 1-2 or 1-4 dye to alcohol. These days, I try to be somewhat methodical with how I work with dyes. I write down exactly what I did to get what color on what item, and with what leather. Every hide of leather is different, so you should always want to try out whatever you're doing on a small piece first. From talking with several people, everyone seems to have their own way of doing these things. Not sure if any particular way is "right". Usually the advice that most people have given me, is find something that works for me to get the look I want and just keep doing that. 

[metroplexchl]

Thanks Flux41! GOod advice. Especially the keep copious notes part... I think I'll start doing that as well. I'm very new to this. I've been making little draw string sacks for years with my dad...but always with same exact type of suede and in the same pattern. So I'm basically starting from square one. So each little project i do is basically a little project full of small mistakes. Each one a learning opportunity.  I'll get better over time fast by taking notes.

 

[MADMAX22]

Or you can take the advice of people who have been doing it for years and have already made the mistakes. Will jump start your progress exponentially. 

I agree with Dwight on this one, mix about 50/50 with denatured alcohol. The DA is relatively cheap and anything more then a 50/50 split gets into the area of repeated coats  to get a good color. 

[Red Cent]

Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirits or denatured rectified spirit, is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption. In some cases it is also dyed.

Denaturing alcohol does not chemically alter the ethanol molecule. Rather, the ethanol is mixed with other chemicals to form an undrinkable solution. For many of these solutions, there is no practical way to separate the components.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

I use the cheaper stuff and don't see any difference. Then again, I don't use deglazer either.

 

 

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

So, for us non-techie folk, meths will be ok for diluting the dye?    

(Sorry, but I alway read about denatured alcohol, and such stuff, etc, and I hear a little 'whoosh' as the words go over my head.)

[bikermutt07]

Here is something to add. I have a hide from Tandy that just won't evenly take diluted dye of any mixture.

I was using fiebings mahogany. It continued to come out putrid variations of purple with darker specs all over it.

I had this same result with daubers, sponges, and dip dyeing. I finally had to resort to full strength.

This left me with a black piece with a hint of purple.

So, take note of the leather you are using. Cheap leather can leave you blaming the dye or technique, when you should really be addressing the material.

Just a heads up.

[metroplexchl]

Well said, sir.

[bikermutt07]

Thanks.

[OLDNSLOW]

I had run into the same problem that biker had with some leather I was working with so I put in a call to Kevin at SLC, he had 2 suggestions to correct the problem.  One was to dilute to 50/50 with the denatured alcohol, due to the mixing at the factory, Fiebing's is know for mixing in very high concentrates.  The other was to address the problem with the leather, he indicated that I would need to air brush the leather to help correct the problem, and I have to say he was right on both parts.  And this isn't a comment to promote them as I don't work for or represent them. 

[utah leather]

On 9/4/2016 at 6:36 AM, bikermutt07 said:

Here is something to add. I have a hide from Tandy that just won't evenly take diluted dye of any mixture.

I was using fiebings mahogany. It continued to come out putrid variations of purple with darker specs all over it.

I had this same result with daubers, sponges, and dip dyeing. I finally had to resort to full strength.

This left me with a black piece with a hint of purple.

So, take note of the leather you are using. Cheap leather can leave you blaming the dye or technique, when you should really be addressing the material.

Just a heads up.

I have a hide from tandy also, I bought it just for the heck of it to see what it would look like , I thought i would use it for tool holders on my belt. The little black spots you are seeing after dying are bug bites from the free range cows in argentina ( thats what they told me at my tandy ) I don't like the look. Did you ever notice that none of those hides are from the USA. ? They told me it's because the foreign countries have more cows and can produce more hides faster ( to keep up with Tandy sales ) than we can, well I think it's bullshit !!! it just has to do with money. I get my leather from Moser leather in Ohio and when you call there you actually get Jim moser ( the owner ) and he will help you every step of the way so get what you want. the number I call is 1 ( 513 ) 889-0500. I wouldn't buy from anyone else, good luck .

[bikermutt07]

5 hours ago, utah leather said:

I have a hide from tandy also, I bought it just for the heck of it to see what it would look like , I thought i would use it for tool holders on my belt. The little black spots you are seeing after dying are bug bites from the free range cows in argentina ( thats what they told me at my tandy ) I don't like the look. Did you ever notice that none of those hides are from the USA. ? They told me it's because the foreign countries have more cows and can produce more hides faster ( to keep up with Tandy sales ) than we can, well I think it's bullshit !!! it just has to do with money. I get my leather from Moser leather in Ohio and when you call there you actually get Jim moser ( the owner ) and he will help you every step of the way so get what you want. the number I call is 1 ( 513 ) 889-0500. I wouldn't buy from anyone else, good luck .

I hope you were wearing boots in that Tandy store. Sounds like that salesman was so full of it, he had a piece of corn in his eye.

[GatoGordo]

I use Angelus dyes. I started off by cutting the dye with denatured alcohol, but then switched to using isopropanol as it is much cheaper. I did not see any difference when I changed and I like the smell better.

[utah leather]

3 hours ago, GatoGordo said:

I use Angelus dyes. I started off by cutting the dye with denatured alcohol, but then switched to using isopropanol as it is much cheaper. I did not see any difference when I changed and I like the smell better.

thanks , I will try it with my feibings alcohol dyes