Are There Dyes & Paints?

[abrogard]

I had tried to dye an old black  leather jacket where it was scuffed and worn and the 'dye' that I got was for shoes and it turned out to dry shiny black and came off real easily.  It seems to me to be more of a lacquer 'paint' than a dye.

googling and ebaying everything on offer seems to be much the same so I think I could use some direction from those with expertise.

If I want to dye some fairly thin leather of the clothing variety then what should I shop for?

 

[DJole]

What was the brand of your original "dye?" 

[Alaisiagae]

There are indeed leather dyes and leather paints. Dyes come in a few styles, the most common 2 are water-based and alcohol (spirits)-based; there are also oil dyes. After you dye, you need to lock in the dye (to prevent it from rubbing off) with a sealer/finish, such as Fiebing's Resolene (there are many different types of finishes, so that is like a topic in and of itself!). Your jacket will have a finish on it, and a finish will inhibit/prevent further dyeing of the product. Therefore, to prepare the area you want to dye, you may need something like Fiebing's Deglazer to remove that finish. This step might not be needed - you describe that the leather has worn quite a bit in a few areas, and it is possible the finish has worn off, too. If you could provide a photo of your jacket (both wornout and non-wornout places), that might help the people on this forum to recommend you product(s) or steps you'll need to take to restore it.

Leather paints come in some variety, but the most commonly known brand, Angelus, is acrylic-based. I thiink you want a dye for your jacket, so that the color penetrates and is flexible. Leather paints are flexible to a degree, but they mostly sit on the surface of the leather and might rub or flake off with lots of flexing and wear. A dye will penetrate the leather layers more deeply. (At least, this is my limited knowledge of paints and dyes.)

My concern is that the color of a re-dyed area may be much more vibrant than the non-rubbed off portions of your jacket - i.e., those parts of the jacket might have faded a little over time. Additionally, it is possible that the new dye might not 100% match the original dye (you know how some blacks just don't match? Like on clothes, you can tell when two blacks, say a blazer and trousers, were made by different companies). 

Where do you live? This would help the people on the forums to recommend you products and vendors available in your country.

[Northmount]

See these links for several comments.

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/38710-can-i-use-resolene-or-tan-kote-on-leather-jacket/?tab=comments#comment-240467

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/57765-dyeing-a-light-brown-jacket-dark-brown/?tab=comments#comment-372914

Tom