Staining leather

[ludmasson]

So I have been staining some veg tan leather patterns with black pro eco flo water stain.  Staining small patterns have been easy, but large patterns have been extremely challenging. 

First problem is getting the black to be even through out the leather. I stain it with a high density sponge in a small circle motion. I have been doing close to 3 separate coats and still see the circle streaks. I've also dampen the leather as well so the leather doesn't soak it up so fast. But every time  I try , I still see streaks.  

The other day, I ended up staining it 4 separate times and every pass I see circle streaks, so I gave up on trying to get a even coat and went more for a marbled look. I ended up liking the effect. Waking up the next day, I found my leather to extremely hardened,  so I massaged Dr. Jacksons rejuvenating cream to soften it. The cream helped but much to my surprise, one if my patterns shrunk 1/2 inch!!! So now my pattern will not work since the alignment of my holes is off. I'm thinking the heat of near 100 degrees didn't help. 

 

Any feedback of the best way to go about dyeing leather streakless free. 

Oil, alcohol,  water, what's the best?

Thanks

Edited September 4, 2017 by ludmasson

[garypl]

I prefer oil dyes - either dip dye the piece or spray the dye on.  Dipping gives deeper penetration but spraying can also give you good results and you use less dye.

[Dwight]

If I dye it, . . . I dip it, . . . don't have any questions then about the coverage, . . . go over it then (or before) with a coat of neatsfoot oil, . . . use only Feibings Oil dye.

Basically no problems with my process.

The dip dye process takes more dye, . . . but when you are done, . . . you are done.  Ya don't have to question and don't have to worry about scraping it and the color scraping off.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited September 4, 2017 by Dwight

[bikermutt07]

 

Problem located in your first sentence. Water based dyes have more problems than questions about problems using them posted here.

Use fiebings pro dye. They say the USMC black bleeds a lot (never tried it). Just use black. And if I was going black, I would dip it.

(Pro dye and pro oil dye are the exact same product according to fiebings. They have discontinued the pro oil moniker to eliminate confusion).

Good luck.

Edited September 5, 2017 by bikermutt07

[ludmasson]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess i will be buying some fiebings pro dye. Do I use neatsfoot oil, before and after I stain it?

[retiredff]

Try an airbrush! I use it for saddle tan because it lets me make it as dark or light as I want. A cheap airbrush is fine for spraying large items (wallets etc), but for fine detail you should spend some $$$$$.

[alpha2]

If you have an item that will get a LOT of wear, don't think the spray will get in deep enough to not show the raw leather. Swab or dip it. If it won't get that kind of wear, go ahead and spray it. On belts, I always put the dye on pretty heavy, so when the belt wears, it doesn't wear to the raw, lighter leather.

[TxLeather]

14 hours ago, retiredff said:

Try an airbrush! I use it for saddle tan because it lets me make it as dark or light as I want. A cheap airbrush is fine for spraying large items (wallets etc), but for fine detail you should spend some $$$$$.

Same here. Particularly for saddle tan.

[bikermutt07]

15 hours ago, ludmasson said:

Thanks for the feedback. I guess i will be buying some fiebings pro dye. Do I use neatsfoot oil, before and after I stain it?

I only use it after.

 

I know some people here say it's best before and after. These people know more than I do and claim that it helps the dye penetrate more evenly.

I haven't had any luck testing that procedure with scraps, myself.

[Fire88]

I will add my experience with dying using the pro dye, like you I had some issues with streaking and problems with color control with brown, purple, turquoise( all that I've used so far). so I on a hunch used some dye diluter with a little bit of dye and applied multiple coats to get the color/darkness I wanted and evenness of the dye job. 

Takes some experimenting but I've had success with it.