Green with anger, not envy

[battlemunky]

I tried to search for this but only found one thing that wasn't really related.

I was almost complete on making a simple wallet and dyed it red on the inside where the money and cards go and mahogany on the outside and then sealed it with beeswax/NFO. I noticed that I could see some of the red had bled through to the exterior giving the mahogany a pinkish hue. I then dyed the exterior mahogany again and it has dried with that metallic green tinge to it.

Does anyone know why and what causes this to avoid it for the future and also if the piece can be salvaged now? I dyed the inside mahogany too. If I could get rid of the green it'd probably be fine but rubbing/buffing it only seems to polish the green! Ha!

Anyone seen this before and know why and what to do about it?

Thanks!

[battlemunky]

The middle pic is after I messed with it a little and tried to rub some beeswax/NFO into it some more. It cleaned up a little. 

It should be noted too that at this point, there is a buttload of dye on/in this leather. I'm going to let it dry for a few days and see if that helps too....ideas are still welcomed.

[ChasCS]

A Leprochaun billfold, how Devine... Ha.

 

It surely holds plenty of green, when it's full... 

 

Chas

[bikermutt07]

I got nothing. Just keep going until you can use it or make it unusable.

[Fire88]

I’ve tried multiple time to dye thin leathers different colors inside and out and have had zero luck. As far as getting rid of the green I’m not sure it’ll take dye since you’ve already finished/sealed it.

[mikesc]

Some dyes which have "metallic salts" in them will react this way with some leathers, ( depending on the tanning of the leathers, and or the age or concentration, or quantity of the dye used ) or with other dyes..I've seen it happen more with black and purples, but have seen it with browns and reds, not much, if anything, that you can do about it without knowing the exact composition of the dyes and exactly what the leather was tanned with ( both "veg tan" and "chrome tan" as terms are actually pretty vague and really do not say exactly what was used, except that one involved chromium salts at an early stage in the process )..you could try various things ( like rubbing it over with a cotton pad moistened with a very dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide, or white vinegar at around 6%) to "mute" or attenuate the "effect" , but I don't think any of them would give an even result.

You'd risk having a sort of "marbled" vaguely "insect wing" effect in some areas, could be usable, could be horribly patchy, you could also try rubbing very fine prismatic glitter ( the kind that is sold for Xmas decorations ) into the leather ( some black lambskin has the surface treated this way ) make it "sophisticated" or "festive"..a kind of potentially making lemonade from a lemon.

If you know any custom painters and can get them to give you just a quarter of a teaspoon of "prismatic paint" ( it is very expensive when bought by the quart or litre ) that rubbed sparingly all over into the leather on the outside and then sealed could give you something very unusual.

You could also "grunge" it, as above use either peroxide solution or white vinegar , but on a torn off piece of coarse natural sponge, dab it on, it should affect the dyed leather surface to leave a slightly marbled effect, do that in a few places ( work diagonally to make sort of marbled rough edged stripes about 15 to 20 degrees out of parallel to the short side of the wallet ), then seal again.

If you are artistic paint a motif , skull or skulls or say a tribal tattoo type of thing in a contrast colour , or black around the middle line parallel to the long side , right along it..

No end of things that you can do to salvage it and make a "one off"..only problem then will be if it turns out "cool", you are not going to be able to be sure to get the background metallic effect every time if you get orders. :)

Edited December 12, 2017 by mikesc

[battlemunky]

Thanks all.

Great ideas @mikesc. I think I'm going to remake it so I can get the wallet to the customer and just not over dye it. Then, I'm going to try all the stuff you mentioned except the prismatic paint just because I'm a cheap ass

I may soak it in water too and try and leach out some of the dye.

*shrugs*

[OLDNSLOW]

I didn't read all the ^^^ above message said but my wife and I drove through and stopped in the town where SLC is and spoke Kevin while there, I had bought some leather that was being offered up here some time ago, and was having the same issues.  kevin mentioned that he thought the dyes had to much pigment in them and to take the dies that I was going to use and dilute them down to 50/50 and air brush it on which I did and it did work.  sorry if that is part of the response bot a bad head ach head pounding so didn't want to read it all.   hope it helps

[Northmount]

Buff it off.  Remove the extra pigment from the surface.  Next time, preferably before you start putting any finish on top.

Tom

[battlemunky]

I buffed and I buffed and I blew my arms out! J/k, sorry for a really bad 3 little pigs pun.

I did buff the ever living hell out of it. I think I screwed up/made way more work than I wanted to from sealing it. So in a desperate attempt to salvage it I tossed it in some warm water. So far it looks ok having pulled it out but I'm going to give it a good 24 hrs to dry and see. If not, it isn't a huge loss since I can still finish it and gift it to someone else who won't be expecting a mahogany wallet and get a metallic green one instead. And I still have plenty of leather to start from scratch and make a fresh one for the original mahogany wallet customer.

[OLDNSLOW]

If you have an air brush set up that might be the way to go, if not get a hold of a 20% off coupon from Harbor Freight and buy one of the cheap set up that they have the work ok.  But until then cut your dies 50/50 with denatured alcohol and that will reduce the pigmentation the dies, fiebings is know for adding extra to there colors.  Once you die something with the die you will just need to add oil back in to replenish what the alcohol removes!! 

[midwestislander]

When I dye a wallet exterior I usually use a rag/towel to apply, not oversaturating it, then blot on paper towel. Multicoats. On the inside, do the same thing, though with a drier rag, multicoats going "with the grain. This way I can dye outside brown, tan, mahogany (my favorite) and black inside. 

[battlemunky]

@OLDNSLOW I do indeed have an airbrush setup, the exact Harbor Freight 20% off coupon struck me about 6 months ago ;-)

@midwestislander I think I may try that on future thin leather wallets since this was the beginning of the end for this wallet. If the inside dye wouldn't have been so copious I wouldn't have tried to fix it.

Thanks to everybody for the advise!