Finished first holster!! Vinegaroon didn't work as expected...

[MrTobes]

I recently finished my first holster. I did some research and found out about vinegaroon and whipped up a batch. I must admit, I am not too impressed with the shade of black or the eveness of the color. Below are some pictures of what I am talking about. Here are a few questions:

The spots that did not turn black are places where I did not clean off the rubber cement sufficiently. Can I use acetone on the black surface, clean them up and then maybe brush some more of the vinegaroon on (if there is a better way, please do tell )

There is a faded part around the barrel portion of the holster. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

After I wiped it all down with some alcohol, I soaked the holster in some black tea for a few minutes and then dipped it in the vinegaroon for about a minute, let it sit for about 5 minutes, and then let it sit in a baking soda solution until the fizzing stopped. I then had to wet-mold the holster again. I still have to burnish the edges and I have not yet applied any oil or any finish like that yet because I want to fix the color first. I also was afraid to add oil to it because I don't want it getting soft so it is sure to hold the pistol in nice and snug. Hopefully these pictures will show up well enough for you all to see what I am talking about.

Thanks for your input!

[MADMAX22]

In my experience

You may need to increase the batch intensity or let it sit longer. I know that I used about 4 or 5 of the steel wool for a gallon of vineger and after about two to three weeks it worked great. The first week or so it didnt do to hot.

Some leathers will react differently. Test first.

My method for using it is do my assembly first and tooling or whatnot then dunk it in and make sure it stays down for a good couple of minutes, then I give it the baking soda rinse. This is it, then I let it dry or do my wet forming and such.

After this it will be a greyish bluish black kind of like what you have. Now I oil it pretty good. Far more then I would just plain leather as you have stripped alot of the oils out. It will probably take more then your thinking it should. Experiment first though.

In my experiences glue, rubber cement, wax ( like bee's wax that has been melted into the leather) will act like a resist for the vinegaroon and it wont change the color of the leather. Redipping usually didnt work for me because most of this stuff has gotten into the leather itself so it wont let the vinegaroon in to do its job.

[badger]

Vinegaroon black is never truly black until it's oiled.

Apart from the issues you know already about, and those pointed out by Madmax22, it looks fine.

Cheers,

Karl

[Knifeknut]

Nice job on that. The tutorial is nice for us newbs. Gotta try some of that vinegaroon sometime.

[MrTobes]

Thanks for the replies. As far as the parts of the project that still aren't black: any suggestions on how to fix these?

Also, as far as oils, what would y'all reccommend for a holster (I don't want it to get too soft so it will hold its shape)? Some research I did reccommended Satin Shene, but one of my buddies said he tried it and couldn't really tell the difference with the final result.

Thanks again!

[Go2Tex]

Sorry but I can't even see the problems you're talking about. Maybe my eyes are gone. Looks just like my experiments with vinegaroon so far. I made some up, oh gosh, months ago. Back when this topic first reared it's ugly head. I was playing around with some ideas for coloring stuff the other day and pulled out that old batch. It was reeeeally dark and turned everything I stuck into it a nice, flat gray. Looked like hell until I added some oil. I use neatsfoot, by the way. It looked better, but then, I'm not a black leather fan, so...... It sure beats the heck out of black dye, though. Almost no rubbing off. And, I suppose an added benefit is that it doesn't dye your thread, or shouldn't.

I'll say one thing about it. It doesn't work worth a (bleep) as an edge dye. Don't even bother. It won't slick for nothing. I tried slicking the edge first and it didn't seem to take. Real spotty. So forget that.

It makes an interesting ink for writing on leather. I took a small artist paint brush, dipped it in the vinegaroon and wrote my name on some leather scrap. OK, it looked like (bleep) too, but the idea has merit.

Oh yeah, and the best thing I discovered about it is, if you make a mistake, oxalic acid removes it! Disappearing ink!

[MADMAX22]

Once you slick the edges or get glue or wax on the leather the vinegaroon will not color it black,

I use neatsfoot but you can use any oil. Dont worry about making it too soft, itll take some oil to get it back to normal because the vinegaroon really dries it out. When you pull it out of solution let it dry a bit then slick the edges and they will slick up just fine. Really good actually.

After it is oiled you can put whatever top coat on you like and it should work just fine.

This particular holster if you dont want the white spots your probably gonna have to make a new holster. Sorry man.

[fishguy]

i usually brush it on, rather than dipping, let it sit for an hour or so, and then do a wipedown with a dilute baking soda solution. The vinagaroon (vinegar and steel wool in my case) seems to need to sit for at least 24 hours to be strong enough, a couple of days is probably better, when it starts getting a lot of rust in it it is probably time for a new batch (plus the rust gets in every nook and cranny of your project and is a pain to clean off). As long as it is a charcoal gray or blue gray it ought to darken up to a nice black when it is oiled.

How dark it gets will vary with the peice of leather. The black pigment is actually produced by the reaction of the dissolved iron with the tannins in the leather. The tannins are the active component in vegetable tanning so I suppose different peices may soak up different amounts or different batches may have more or less, etc. This also means it only works on veg-tan leather. I have had some peices that looked as if I had painted them with ink, and some that took a couple of coats before I was satisfied.

As for the cement, try a rubber cement pickup which you can get at an office supply or art supply store. It looks like an eraser and works more or less like one too. You just rub it on the glue spots. Works well on contact cement or rubber cement.

[Grunt]

I'm no expert, but I do use vinegaroon quite a bit. So I will put my two cents in.

Once I have a batch of vinegaroon that is the desired strength and works like it should, I put it in a big food service tub that I have just for this pourpose. I take the pieces of leather that I have cut out from my pattern and put them in the vinegaroon and let them soak for as long as it takes to get them to color, usually 10 or 15 min. When I take the leather out it is generally not as deep black as you want it to be.

Then I soak the leather in the baking soda/water rinse until it stops fizzing. This helps make the color deeper and usually the shade you are looking for.

Then I blot the leather dry using some old towels. Next I set the leather on wire cooling racks,like the wife uses for cookies, to dry. Once the leather is dry I give the it a light coat of oil and assemble whatever I am making, usually knife sheaths. I can then wet the leather and do any molding, shaping, etc. I need to at this point. Sometimes I make use one light coat of leather dye as a final touch. Usually this is not needed but, a little evening up of color is needed from time to time.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Nick

[Go2Tex]

I'm no expert, but I do use vinegaroon quite a bit. So I will put my two cents in.

Once I have a batch of vinegaroon that is the desired strength and works like it should, I put it in a big food service tub that I have just for this pourpose. I take the pieces of leather that I have cut out from my pattern and put them in the vinegaroon and let them soak for as long as it takes to get them to color, usually 10 or 15 min. When I take the leather out it is generally not as deep black as you want it to be.

Then I soak the leather in the baking soda/water rinse until it stops fizzing. This helps make the color deeper and usually the shade you are looking for.

Then I blot the leather dry using some old towels. Next I set the leather on wire cooling racks,like the wife uses for cookies, to dry. Once the leather is dry I give the it a light coat of oil and assemble whatever I am making, usually knife sheaths. I can then wet the leather and do any molding, shaping, etc. I need to at this point. Sometimes I make use one light coat of leather dye as a final touch. Usually this is not needed but, a little evening up of color is needed from time to time.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Nick

Thanks for the detailed process. One of the best I've seen to date on the subject. I do have one question though. Why do you oil before you mold? Oiling seems to set the leather and makes it difficult to obsorb water for rubbing out marks, etc. I'd think it would do the same for molding.

[Grunt]

Thanks for the detailed process. One of the best I've seen to date on the subject. I do have one question though. Why do you oil before you mold? Oiling seems to set the leather and makes it difficult to obsorb water for rubbing out marks, etc. I'd think it would do the same for molding.

Thanks

I put a light coat on to help finish setting the color and to make sure I have the depth of color I want. I haven't had any problems so far, although I don't do any really fine molding or boning. Usually the oil soaks in pretty quickly back to dry. I'm sure waiting until all molding and/or boning is complete to apply any oil at all would work just fine. I will try that on my next black sheath and see if I get different results. Thanks.

Once I am finished with a project I will apply 2 or 3 light coats of oil and go from there to my final finish.

Regards,

Nick

[Grunt]

Here are a couple of pics of my latest sheaths. These were dyed with vinegaroon the edged were dyed with leather dye in order to get a consistant color.

[Go2Tex]

OK, I see. Kinda what I figured. Nice edges.