Advice needed

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

Trying dip-dyeing with the tools I have on hand. I practised with water first and had the wife hold the tray of water and the cheese cutter while I pulled the leather through the 'bath.'

My tools (such as they are):

First pass, first belt, grain side:

Wasn't sure what I had gotten on the belt after seeing the strange 'dots' on the leather, decided to flip the next belt face down and see what happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First pass, second belt, grain side:

Strange dots are now on the flesh side, so it must be some sort of bubble when dragging the belt under the slicer.

The darker patch on this belt is from me letting go of the belt to grab the next couple of feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of us that dip dye...

I like the cheese slicer idea because it is wide enough that I can do a 3" wide belt with no worries. The odd dots come from running the belt under the roller and I can control that by flipping it grain side down. The darker spot I can stop my pulling the belt in one long, steady pass. I practised with water first just for these reasons and to show my wife how I needed her help so we didn't pour dye all over the carpet.

So...

What am I missing, anything? Anyone have a better idea for long belts? I'm having to do this in a shallow food dish because funds are rather limited and I have 8oz worth of dye mix (4oz bottle of Fiebings that will be mixed 50/50 with isopropyl alcohol). And, my workbench is my coffee table.

Cheers!

Red Bear Haraldsson

 

[Northmount]

Keep it away from carpet or other material that will take stains easily!

Make sure your cheese slicer doesn't have any cheese or greasy stuff on it.

Good luck.  Good idea to practice first.

Tom

 

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

I knew there were other things I wanted to add in the initial post. 

The cardboard is longer than the belt and table both (The kydex I bought for my gun case came in it, BIG sheet).

Slicer is the next best thing to sterile, wife is a good bit OCD when it comes to the kitchen's cleanliness. We haven't bought block cheese in over a decade, so I do not even need to replace it.

I think the 'dot' problem will go away once I get more dye, as it sits now, the roller on the slicer is not completely submerged.

I may cut the dye down to 1:2 so I can pull slower and have the dye deeper in the pan.

Cheers!