When should you dye your leather piece?

[Jaywire]

Hello! 

Just starting to learn how to work with leather, really enjoying it so far, making basic 'outdoorsy' things like water bottle holders, belt pouches and so on. 

I've started to play around with dying my leather, I've found loads of guides on how to dye leather but nothing that says when in a project it's best to dye your work. 

I'm assuming it's best to dye your leather after you've cut all your shapes, made all the groves for stitching and so on (so the dye gets into the edges and groves etc.) but before you stitch / glue / rivet / burnish your work together (so you don't dye your thread and so on)? 

Is that right? Seems to make sense to me but like I say, can't find anything online that specifically says this is best practice. 

Thanks!

[fredk]

I prefer to dye just as you've put it; cut, punch holes, sewing groove if required, then assemble the item.

[Spyros]

Welcome to the world of leatherworking, where finetuning the order of doing things will give you many sleepless nights 

I'd rather not dye at all if I can avoid it, but if I must, it's always the first thing I do.  I just find dying large surfaces much faster, and because I always mix the dye with something (usually neatsfoot oil or carnauba creme), and because I usually dye the flash side as well, it penetrates from both sides deeper and usually I don't have to worry about undyed leather showing in stitcholes and things like that.  And then I only dye edges and holes selectively in the end after I see which edge is actually visible and looks bad.  And yes, the way I do it has got me in trouble some times, and yes the way you describe it is probably safer and better practice.

But yeah don't expect to find too many commonly accepted rules about the order of doing things, it's something you'll always have to think about and often rearrange depending on specific projects as well.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Spyros

[JLSleather]

Each his own, but just know that it ABSOLUTELY CAN alter the look.  SO, depending on how you want it to look,.... I have dyed leather as STEP 1, also after cutting/tooling/stamping but before sewing, and also after complete assembly and sewing is already completed.  Each "works", just a question of the look you want.

That said, I generally like to dye a SINGLE PIECE, slightly LARGER than I'll need.  You can test on some scrap if it helps visualize, but i find that if you cut out the parts before dye, the edges may WICK up MORE dye than the body of the piece, making the edges darker, and with lighter shades can be hard to keep consistent.  The "open" edges DRAW IN more dye than the surface.  Now, you MIGHT  be able to thoroughly drench the thing as to saturate ALL of it, but that wastes time and dye.   Lighter color dyes are more obvious, as black tends to be black, almost doesn't matter how it's applied. 

Better, I think, to dye a piece with a bit over size.  It will likely STILL wick at the edges, which you THEN trim off - leaving your project with a consistent color.   Generally, I dye belt slots, holster slots, etc with a small brush or q-tip (yeah, I HATE those holsters where the inside of the slots aren't dyed - just looks LAZY to me).

The exception, then, is when I'm tooling the leather, though in that case I DONT WANT consistent color throughout.  Oh, after all that noise, here's an EXCEPTION ... this one was tooled BUT ALSO dyed before cutting or tooling ... AND touched up after tooling.  This was done - in part - because the guy specifically asked for a solid color (he picked the color from a color picker online) outside with an UNDYED lining. Note NO "halo" on the edges from wicking.

Edited November 30, 2021 by JLSleather

[zuludog]

For belts, belt pouches, and knife sheaths I cut out the pieces.....then dye...... then sew up the pieces.......then do the edges.....then treat with leather grease/treatment

I don't use a stitching groover, I use  dividers to mark the line of the stitching, so they just make a slight mark or depression in the leather, they don't cut into it

For wallets I usually buy ready dyed/coloured leather in the first place

I don't use water soluble/eco dye, I only use Fiebings spirit/oil/professional dye, or whatever they're calling it this week, which means that I can wet form an item without the dye bleeding out.

Edited November 30, 2021 by zuludog

[Jaywire]

Thanks for the replies and advice, only just got around to checking out the forum again, leatherworking very much a part time hobby for me at the moment. 

I think I just need to play around a bit more and see what works for me. 

I'm also using the Fiebings 'Pro Dye', what would I mix that with so that it saturates the leather better?

The colours are also quite 'heavy', so mixing it with a thinner might help me get more even lighter tones. 

That holster is something else! I've got a lot to learn... I set my first press stud this evening! Which feels like a victory to me! 

[tsunkasapa]

You can reduce the dye with either denatured or isopropyl alcohol. And clean brushes as well.

[Jaywire]

Thanks! Got loads of iso already, so I'll give that a go. 

[JLSleather]

8 minutes ago, Jaywire said:

I'm also using the Fiebings 'Pro Dye', what would I mix that with so that it saturates the leather better?

https://www.springfieldleather.com/Dye-Reducer-32oz

 

[TomE]

Can also experiment with dying leather that is dry or wet.  I think misting the grain side with water can help with uniform absorption of the Pro Dye if you're not completely saturating the leather with dye.  I have experimented with mixtures of Pro Dye and Fiebings "100% Pure Neatsfoot Oil," which turned out fine but  I am usually aiming for dark colors of English tack using undiluted dyes.  I used to burnish edges after dying but now I typically burnish with water and saddle soap before dying.  It's easier to apply dye evenly to a smooth burnished edge, which matters if the edge color contrasts with the face of the piece.