Dye Question - What happened

[tkillian]

I was doing some leatherwork for the local scout troup and I was using dye and leather donated by a leather shop. In the picture you can see my first dye test  on the left, where I stamped a scrap of leather and tested the dye. Everything looked great and was what I expected. About three weeks later I was ready to dye the sheaths I had made and the dye came out completely different as you can see on the right of the photo. The test piece was two coats and the actual sheath was about 4 coats, the leather just keeps soaking up the dye. Does anyone have an idea of what might of happened?  

[Mattsbagger]

Are the scraps and sheath from the same piece of leather? All leather takes dye differently. More coats of dye = darker dye.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Mattsbagger

[fredk]

Has the leather been stored anywheres its been able to dry out?

[tkillian]

The scap and sheath leather are from the same piece.

The leather has been sitting in my basement so maybe it has dried out, but I do leave all my leather down there and haven't had this happen before. Thank you for the responses, I appreciate other sets of eyes on this issue.

[fredk]

Deep stamp impression, two coats, high sheen looks like high moisture & oils content

Shallow stamp impression, leather soaking up 4 coats of dye looks like dried/drying out leather to me

Try giving it a light coat of neetsfoot oil. Let that soak in for a couple of days and try a test piece again

[YinTx]

Looks like the stamped and dyed piece on the left has additional finish on it.  Perhaps neatsfoot oil, maybe some Aussie, and a top coat finish like an acrylic finish or a neat lac type finish.  I suspect you will be able to get them to come out the same if you finish them the same.

YinTx

[alpha2]

You didn't at any point leave the test piece laying in the sun, did you?

[tkillian]

Thank you for the ideas. I will try the neatsfoot oil. The dye really seemed to soak into the leather.

The only difference with finishing is the first sample piece was buffed.

Thanks again for the input.

[YinTx]

On 2/5/2018 at 1:27 PM, alpha2 said:

You didn't at any point leave the test piece laying in the sun, did you?

No, I think I left it somewhere laying in a box.  Not sure I'll ever see it again.  If I ever come across it, I'll be sure to snap a photo for posterity.

YinTx