Dyeing has gone patchy

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Hi there,

Hi, I’ve dyed this 6oz  eg tanned leather, three coats applied with a dauber. It’s Fiebings oil mahogany. I’ve also applied one coat on the flesh side, after burnishing it. It’s patchy, and there are variations in the surface reflection when held up to light. Do I just keep coating it? It wasn’t 100% dry, after casing, when I applied the first coat. I waited 4-5 hours between coats. Any advice would be great, as would pointers where I’ve gone wrong. TIA.

[battlemunky]

I've had this happen myself. I think it is just something that happens and is either extremely hard to control 100% or impossible. Sometimes dying is just inconsistent.

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20 hours ago, battlemunky said:

I've had this happen myself. I think it is just something that happens and is either extremely hard to control 100% or impossible. Sometimes dying is just inconsistent.

Thanks. I thought I’d gone wrong somewhere, but that’s reassuring. I’ll give it a couple more coats and see if I can rescue it!

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On 24/10/2018 at 1:55 PM, battlemunky said:

I've had this happen myself. I think it is just something that happens and is either extremely hard to control 100% or impossible. Sometimes dying is just inconsistent.

So two more coats, and a lot of conditioner, and it turned out ok, phew. Just sold it for £40.

 

 

[Jack1970]

When I first saw it I was going to recommend buffing it like crazy but it looks like you got it all worked out.  Nice work!  Turned out great!

[Sheilajeanne]

My thoughts would be the patchiness might have been due to the leather not being completely dry. Parts of it were likely dryer than others, thus the patchiness.

Anyway, glad you rescued it!

Um, what is it, exactly?? 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Sheilajeanne

[immiketoo]

This happened because of the inconsistencies when using a dauber.  They are heavily loaded at the beginning and lose dye as you move it.  There are very few colors that will apply smoothly at anything less than 100% saturation.  This is why people gravitate toward dip dyeing or air brush.  Lighter tones are possible with thinned dye when dipped and sprayed.  It CAN be done by thinning and daubering (made that word up), in circles, but I've never had the patience to figure it out.

Looks like you had good luck with full strength.

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Yeah I’m finding the daubering (!) a bit of a chore. I need to investigate other methods. I’m going to try dipping next.

It’s a notebook. I made one for my wife and put it on Facebook, and have quite a few orders. The design was from a guy who wanted three runes put together. I don’t actually like it! But he was made up with it, so I’m happy.

[fredk]

As well as dipping try regular household sponges. The ones you can get 10 for £1 at Home Bargains, Poundland, Tesco etcetera

For bigger stuff and more than one in a dye session dipping is the way, but if you have only one, two or three items of modest size, thinned dye put on with a sponge is handier

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11 hours ago, fredk said:

As well as dipping try regular household sponges. The ones you can get 10 for £1 at Home Bargains, Poundland, Tesco etcetera

For bigger stuff and more than one in a dye session dipping is the way, but if you have only one, two or three items of modest size, thinned dye put on with a sponge is handier

That makes sense. I tried a REALLY cheap sponge a while back and it disintegrated, so I’ll level up and get something with a brand name

Aside from the patchiness this stuff had a weird, almost metallic, sheen to it after the third coat, caught the light funny. I guess it’s all a learning curve eh.