Issues dyeing straps

[alpha2]

I'm having a problem when dyeing leashes. The edges are very dark and the center of the strap is much lighter. Also around the slots it's soaking up a lot more dye. The back of the piece doesn't seem to be affected, just the grain side. I am running the straps through a small trough as in "dip-dyeing". 

I run it through three times and it's better, but as you can see, still not acceptable. I had this issue once before, and this time I burnished the edges first, to harden them up a bit, but it didn't seem to help at all. Any suggestions? I'm ready to go back to using a dauber. Also, dip dyeing takes a LOT of dye!

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[JLSleather]

You may be familiar with the term "open grain"?  Where you've cut it, the grain is more "open' (you exposed the lower layers more) - it's allowing easier penetration of the dye.  

All of which is nice info, but the question is what to do about it. 

• Your dauber is one method.  or,
• dye a wider piece, THEN cut the straps and the slots .  OR,
• leave it in the dye longer, and it will "even out", and for this approach you may want to thin teh dye further so the end result is the lighter shade.

 

[alpha2]

I knew the open grain was the issue, I had hoped that burnishing the edges would help, but I don't think it made any difference at all. I think between the incredible amount of dye required, and the waste of cutting wider straps, I'll give up on this experiment and do the dauber thing. The second and third time I ran it through, it did help, but still had some areas that didn't seem to get better. The straps were soaking with dye when I got done. 

I'll definitely have to let these dry for at least 24 hours!

Thanks, Jeff

[YinTx]

13 minutes ago, alpha2 said:

I'll definitely have to let these dry for at least 24 hours!

 

Soo... wait, the photos of the straps is when they were still wet?  You might want to give it one more go, dip once fairly quickly, in diluted dye.  Let it dry *completely* over a day or so, then use your neetsfoot oil and other finishing process.  See if you are more satisfied with the result.  If not, yep back to the dauber would be one way to do the trick.

YinTx

[alpha2]

Funny you should mention that. I just looked at them a while ago after letting them dry overnight, definitely better. I'll touch them up with a dauber a bit and let them dry overnight again, then the beeswax/neetsfoot oil/paraffin treatment. That worked on the last one I did. It turned out pretty good. (Pic below). The original dye was 50/50 dye/alcohol.