finishes and edge dyeing hermann oak English bridle

[Wedgetail]

Hey All,

Got a question and a bit of a lesson learned to share.

I've just completed a belt made from hermann oak English bridle leather in Havana Brown. My first time working with this leather.

Being a bridle leather, I assume I should not need to apply any finishes to it because of the waxes etc already in the leather. Though, I thought I better run that by the forum before I hand it over to the customer. Especially regarding the flesh side, do you apply finishes to bridle leathers?

Next is a lesson learned. Edge dyeing bridle leather is tricky proposition! I applied 4 coats heavily of fiebings pro oil dye to one edge of the belt and it looked no different to the other side where I only applied one coat, they both looked patchy and the dye refused to take up.

With the second side I burnished it with water first, applied dye being sure to apply it in both directions, burnished again, applied a second coat of dye same as the first. Then gave it a hard burnish with a lot more pressure and moving slower (I use  a  pro edge burnisher in a bench grinder).

At this point still looked patchy, so I applied beeswax and burnished again, which really helped even out the colour. Now it looks great, and is smooth as glass.

Seems like a long way around though... so I am wondering also if anyone has some tips for edge dyeing bridle leather?

[gmace99]

The way I edge dye is ...Stain with a water based stain. Give it a light rub up....don't spend ages on it you don't need to......next rub tallow fat on it to smooth the hairy edges.  again light rub up ......Apply glue water leave to almost dry then gentle rub up to shine.  The whole process should take less time to do than the time it took to type this.

I have a video showing the glue water in it you can see the tallow fat etc.

I hope it helps

 

[Wedgetail]

3 hours ago, gmace99 said:

The way I edge dye is ...Stain with a water based stain. Give it a light rub up....don't spend ages on it you don't need to......next rub tallow fat on it to smooth the hairy edges.  again light rub up ......Apply glue water leave to almost dry then gentle rub up to shine.  The whole process should take less time to do than the time it took to type this.

I have a video showing the glue water in it you can see the tallow fat etc.

I hope it helps

 

Nice! Thanks for sharing that, I watched the video just now. Might have to see where I can get some tallow fat.

I think I have some water  based stain there too, so will cut a scrap up and try that for colour take up on the edge instead of the oil based.

[Wedgetail]

I got a chance to try this out yesterday, including using your dye mop. Saved me a bunch of time and effort. Thanks for sharing!

[gmace99]

I'm glad it helped