Dye or paint ?

[SShepherd]

Am I correct in thinking that paint will eventually crack or flake off ? That being the case dye would be the better choice ?
 

[garypl]

Dye will never crack or chip, but acrylic paints are also very durable.  Really depends on the project and what you want to color.

If you are trying to add color accents, either should work well.  If you want to color an entire object, paint may work on a small object that won’t be flexed much, but if you try to paint a large item like a bag that will see a lot of use, I would expect you would eventually see cracking and chipping.

Paint should be applied in thin coats to minimize chipping.  Hope this helps.

Gary

[SShepherd]

10 hours ago, garypl said:

Dye will never crack or chip, but acrylic paints are also very durable.  Really depends on the project and what you want to color.

If you are trying to add color accents, either should work well.  If you want to color an entire object, paint may work on a small object that won’t be flexed much, but if you try to paint a large item like a bag that will see a lot of use, I would expect you would eventually see cracking and chipping.

Paint should be applied in thin coats to minimize chipping.  Hope this helps.

Gary

is acrylic dye the same as acrylic paint ?

[mikesc]

Dyes have more pigment than paint, red dye contains red pigment ground very very fine, plus a "liant" ( binder ) and a "vehicle"( solvent )..red paint will have red pigment , plus a liant, plus a solvent, and some kind of "bulker" which may well be transparent to "stretch out the paint , and something to give it some texture, etc etc ..formulations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer..

 

It is like,the difference between artist's "watercolour paint" ( very pure pigments in a binder) and artist's oil or acrylic paints, both of which can have pigment plus a load of different things added to make them spread evenly, be matt, or glossy, or have a"sheen" or stick to the brush etc etc..dry fast or slow etc..

[SShepherd]

3 hours ago, mikesc said:

Dyes have more pigment than paint, red dye contains red pigment ground very very fine, plus a "liant" ( binder ) and a "vehicle"( solvent )..red paint will have red pigment , plus a liant, plus a solvent, and some kind of "bulker" which may well be transparent to "stretch out the paint , and something to give it some texture, etc etc ..formulations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer..

 

It is like,the difference between artist's "watercolour paint" ( very pure pigments in a binder) and artist's oil or acrylic paints, both of which can have pigment plus a load of different things added to make them spread evenly, be matt, or glossy, or have a"sheen" or stick to the brush etc etc..dry fast or slow etc..

can you give me an example of why you would use one over the other ?

[garypl]

Paint generally does not penetrate as far into the leather as dye.  Think of paint as more of a surface coating while dye will penetrate deeper into the leather.  

[SShepherd]

Thanks for the help. The only issue I'm having difficulty resolving is white, I can use dye for the other colors I need.

[JLSleather]

5 minutes ago, SShepherd said:

Thanks for the help. The only issue I'm having difficulty resolving is white, I can use dye for the other colors I need.

Exactly the problem - for years.  I have never found a white dye that WORKS - just too translucent to get a true white.  So i don't do white, except in small areas of items that don't get "use", and even then I use PAINT.  Some acrylics are a bit more forgiving than others, but I wouldn't use it on anything that will get flexed, stretched, bunched, scuffed....