COLOR 102 DYE BASICS

[Originally published August 2006]

Leather can be left natural and not dyed - in time it will turn a beautiful honey color. 

This natural darkening of vegtan leather, will be accelerated if some oil is put on the leather as a dressing (oxidation - has nothing to do with light!). (See the posting about dressings and finishes.) 

The oil and spirit (alcohol) based dyes sold by Tandy and Fiebings are meant for dyeing veg-tan leather only. 

Although it might look successful on any other leather, it will most likely bleed off or rub off on clothing. In other words, it is not meant for leather fibers that has some sort of finish on already. 

Clean Leather 

In order for the dye to take evenly on the leather, the surface of the leather has to be clean and free of oily marks. 

I prefer to keep the leather surface clean from the start of the project. If I have to lean on the leather or rest my hand on the leather, I rest it on a piece of off-cut leather to reduce the possibility of natural oil from my hand or arm to cause marks on the leather. 

If you have to, you can clean the leather with a damp sponge or rag with some diluted saddle soap on. Then rinse it and let it dry.

Or you can use deglazer to clean the surface.

Dye Even 

Give this a thought: Perfectly evenly dyed leather will look like factory produced leather or vinyl. Leather is a natural product and uneven in nature. 

Getting an acceptable even dye job pivots around one key factor: the surface of the leather has to be saturated with the dye. 

Using the dye out of the bottle full strength might end in a too dark effect, especially if you put so much dye on as to get an evenly saturated surface. 

You can dilute the spirit based dyes with the solvents sold for the purpose, or with rubbing alcohol. 

 You can always dye in two or more "layers" to get the color darker, but by working with diluted dyes, you can saturate the leather and not get it so very dark. 

 There are experienced leathercrafters that believe in lightly oiling the leather and letting it stand a day or two and then applying the dye. The oil is supposed to resist the dye so that it spreads around a bit more before it actually gets to the fibers to color them. (This has historical roots, so remember:   In the old days the leather was different, the liquids had different recipes, the methods of the old timers is not always well explained, etc..)

My opinion is that you then place a barrier around the fibers and some of the dye pigments will not penetrate the fibers, but sit on top of the fibers and later rub off on your clothes. Especially when now working with water-based liquids.

 So for alcohol-based dyes, you might rather try the following to get the color even: 

First saturate the leather just with clean rubbing alcohol or solvent and while it is still good and wet, apply the dye - this will allow the dye to bleed and spread more evenly on the leather. 

Deliberately Uneven 

Some of the best leatherwork I have seen, have been where the dye was applied uneven on purpose - like darker around the edge. 

Whether you are trying to color evenly or not, I have found that long lengthwise strokes with the applicator is more successful and gives a more natural effect than working in small little circles. [I hope Al Stohlman does not turn over in his grave....]

"Saturate the leather with the dye......"  

 Here is the two pieces of leather I dyed in the video - they do not have any conditioner or finish on in this photo:

 

In General

• You can dye on damp leather - only use stain on dry leather.
• When you apply dye to leather, the leather thinks it is wet, and it will show darker - as the solvent in the dye evaporates, the color will lighten considerably.
  It is a good idea to let the project sit for a while to dry before you judge whether you dyed dark enough or not.
• Bright colors like turquoises will loose their brilliance as the leather turns naturally darker with exposure to oxygen (oxidation).
• White is not a leather color. White can only successfully achieved on leather if it is applied as part of the tanning process. Basically you can dye leather darker, but never lighter.  The one exception is diluted white acrylic paint.
• To dye veg tan leather black, you might consider first dyeing it in a dark shade of brown or navy blue or even purple. If the dye then fades a bit, it will not show the natural light brown underneath. However, nowadays the new black dyes come so strongly pigmented that two coats or a dark undercoat are hardly necessary.
• Make yourself a base of sponge, or layered leather or wood to set the dye bottle in to make sure it does not tip over while you are working - the spirit based dye is evil and WILL climb out of the bottle at every opportunity!
• For the same reason, always close the lid of the bottle when you are taking a breather - an unattended open dye bottle WILL fall over and spoil your project, the tablecloth, the chair upholstery, your pants and the cat and the carpet...!  Or all of them!

Hope This Helps! 

[Updated Aug 23rd, 2020]

Vinagroon

.... or a cheap effective way to turn leather black, without fighting with dyes and without fear of it bleeding off on clothing.

I have also compared very old and new vinagroon - grey vs black!
Here is the LINK

This is a very old method.  In its simplest form:  you let vinegar chew on some iron/steel for a few days and use it to chemically change the leather color to black.

The photo below shows what I am experimenting with.  I took five of those nails, covered them with 1/4 cup of white vinegar and 18 hours later dipped the piece of leather in the solution.

I have added a pint of vinegar and twenty more nails and now I will let that stand for a few days and play again.

UPDATE:  So it stood for a week and then I took the first part of this video showing the filtering of the vinagroon.

The second part of the video, where I am using it, was taken a week after the filtering process.

I like simplicity, but for the sake of giving you a complete picture, I will quote from the interwebs here:

From the forum of the America Leather Chemists Association:

The black color is the reaction of Ferric salts or oxide with tannins, nice formula for leather crafts, but it is a pain in the neck in vegetable tannery.

About "neutralizing" the vinegar's acid:  The leather may be damaged by the excess of acid: white vinegar is acetic acid and if applied in excess can give some problem according to what was stated in the post. Iron react with vegetable tannins giving a product that is black.

 Neutralizing the leather is not wrong. In the industrial process this is also being used even though the term is confusing because it does not mean to take the leather up to the neutral pH condition or the 7.0 value. It means to neutralize some of the acid inside the leather to avoid acid damage. The final pH for vegetable leather can be around 4.0 and this is far from neutral.

I recently had a question (on one of my videos on YouTube) about the danger of vinagroon attacking the metal of guns or knives if you use it to stain leather black.
Here is my answer:
The vinagroon does not significantly change the pH of the leather. So this method does not change the safety aspect at all.
BUT, leather, with its inherent acidity, will damage metal such as knife blades or guns in the long term. I have asked the Leather Chemists of America about this and the answer is quite simple. The danger to the metal happens when you bring together three elements: water, metal and the acidic leather. So you want to prevent this trio getting together.
The simplest is to use an oily/waxy finish on the leather often, thereby preventing water to get into the mix, and now the acidity of the leather cannot attack the metal.

Chuck Burrows posted this in 2010:

VINEGAR BLACK 
For giving color to the grain of leather there is no blacking that will at all compare with the well known vinegar black. This may be made in various ways. The simplest, and, without doubt, the best, is to procure shavings from an iron turner (note: some folks get the turnings from brake drums) and cover them with pure cider vinegar; heat up and set aside for a week or two, then heat again and set in a cool place for two weeks; pour off the vinegar, allow it to stand for a few days, and draw off and cork up in bottles. This will keep for a long time, and, while producing a deep black on leather, will not stain the hands. 

How I do it most times:
I use de-oiled 4/0 steel wool: dip in acetone, squeeze out the extra and hang to dry - then tear or cut into small pieces. Add one pads worth of the de-oiled steel wool to one quart of white or cider vinegar - I use those plastic coffee "cans" and punch a single small hole in the lid to let of any gas buildup. Let it set in the hot sun which will speed the reaction. I let it set for about two weeks until there is only a light vinegar odor left and/or the bulk of the steel wool has been dissolved. I also keep a new batch "cooking" all the time so I have a constant supply.
For the deepest black, apply a bath of strong black tea first (this increase the tannins) and let it soak in good, then apply a generous amount of the vinegar black. Let set for about a half hour and then rinse with a mix of baking soda and warm water, about a 1/8 cup soda to a half gallon of water, apply let set for a few minutes and then rinse off. While still damp apply a light coat or two of your favorite saddle oil. Once dry top coat as normal
Experiment - I test a piece of each new side without oiling to see how well it takes the blacking, if need be I'll do a second black tea mix to darken, then apply the oil which also helps darken.

Instead of steel wool you can use chopped up bailing or fence wire - the smaller the better since it will dissolve in the vinegar bath faster.

1) Does the 'rooning process change the color of natural thread? No
2) Should I sew before or after I apply the vinegaroon? either way - your choice
3) For the 'rooning process, how do you apply it? Dip the item, dauber it on, brush it on, etc? Could the vinegaroon be kept in a spray bottle and sprayed on the item? all of the above - which ever way works best for you and the item you are working on. I prefer dIp dying since it is simply the easiest for me, but I also brush it on for larger pieces - a spray bottle should work fine, but you would need to filter it good to prevent any clogging.

[First published August 15, 2015] 

Q&A: Black Dye Coming Off

Q:  "I recently used Fiebing’s Pro Dye (black) on some veg tan leather. Two weeks ago. I’m still getting black dye on my hands after stitching it.

Could you recommend some kind of sealer to use so the dye doesn’t come off on my clothes?"

A:  There is probably a few steps to take:

1. Make sure your leather is clean and dry before applying the dye.   Do NOT oil the leather before dyeing - separate blog post talks about that.
2. Once the dye has been applied, let it dry, and then buff it thoroughly - sheep wool remnants or cotton T-shirt works well for this.
3. At this point conditioning the leather with something like Dr Jackson's Hide Rejuvenator or Dubbin should work well.
4. You can also, instead, seal the leather with a water-based acrylic sealer, like NeatLac or Eco-Flo Top Finish.

My own goto colors that I know will never come off on clothing, is the square bottle Eco-Flow Water Stain.  If applied properly on very clean dry leather, the color will not come off.    

Hi-Lite Stain

Here is a video showing these steps:

• Applying Hi-Lite Stain over resisted leather
• Applying Hi-Lite Stain over naked leather
• Applying an acrylic sealer over Hi-Lite Stain that had dried for two hours

The photo shows the outcome of the pre-dyed and pre-resisted leather that is shown in the first part of the video.

The dyes used first to color the basketweave lines, is Eco-Flo water-based dyes.

You can click on the video to see it larger than what it is embedded here.

Dating Craftool Stamps

If you are ever lucky enough to come into possession of some old Craftool stamps, it is nice to be able to determine when they were actually made.

Stephan Szeker gave me this concise summary:

1. CRAFTOOL CO - No Number:   Most likely made before Craftool started putting the numbers on the tools circa 1950.

2. CRAFTOOL CO. - Only a number:   It was made prior to 1963.

3. CRAFTOOL CO. - With a letter prefix & number:   It was made between 1963 and 1968.

4. CRAFTOOL CO. USA - With a letter and number:     It was made after 1969.

5. CRAFTOOL USA - with a letter and number:    It was made more recently.

6. CRAFTOOL - with a letter, number and "S":    ???

7. Craftool Pro - with a letter and four digit number:    A special edition available from ????  to  2018.

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From other sources I got a few other facts:

Craftools have been made since the late 1940's. 

With such a long history, even stamps with the same number actually can have very different impressions, depending on when they were made.

In the early years most tools were hand ground by a master craftsman. Later on, tools were formed by die stamping on a machine and show no evidence of hand grinding.

Craftool Co was bought out by Tandy in the early sixties. 

As each different Craftool era arrived, new tools were introduced and some were dropped from the line-up.

This is from a 1949 Tandy Catalog:

And from a Tandy Catalog from 1952:

I will continue to add to this post as I get more information.

Push Bevel and Creasers

Was recently asked to explain the difference between

EDGE CREASERS

and 

PUSH BEVELERS

The video explains it best:

Starter Tooling 101

I want to do this post to help anybody that is just starting off and has limited resources.  There is much more that can by added to this, and I have some of those in the mini videos at the bottom of this blog post.  But the main focus will be on using just a swivel knife and the six stamps you see in the photo above.

You can download the pattern I am using at DOWNLOADS

First, get the leather very damp. This is called "casing the leather". The first video in this blog post deals with casing: 

Spray or sponge apply water to the surface until the water do not sink in immediately.

When the leather still has a dark color from the water, you can start doing swivel knife cuts. When the leather is almost at its natural dry color, you can do all the stamp tooling.

You keep the leather at this moisture level with an occasional light spray or wipe with a damp sponge.

 

When I want to get up for dinner or any time less than 12 hours, I have a smooth plastic/acrylic sheet I cover the leather with, and when I come back, I just update the moisture content again.

Trace the design with a permanent pen like a sharpie onto tracing film.  Then put the tracing film over the leather, making sure it does not shift and with something pointed (not piercingly sharp), trace your design down onto the leather.

With a stropped (polished) swivel knife, start cutting the traced lines.  RULES for the swivel knife:  Do not lean it sideways (it will undercut), lean it slightly forward to that the front tip of the blade does the cutting, cut towards yourself only while it is comfortable for your hand - keep turning the leather so that you can do this.

One of the first additions you should try to acquire, is jeweler's rouge, so that you can strop your swivel knife blade.  Here is a video about that:

This is what your cut lines should look like - about ⅓  into the thickness of the leather.

Look carefully - when lines touch with 90° or less, leave the smallest of space between them - a sharp tip can work itself loose and not look good.

Identify entities on the design, like a leaf, and cut them from top to bottom  (if a leaf is on top of a flower, cut the leaf first).

The first tool you start the carving with, is a pear shader. No big rules - it can be leaned in any direction.  Walk it like a beveler so that you get a smooth flowing surface. 
For the most part, do not use a pear shader close to the lines that you have cut.

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One more tool you might want to use before beveling, is a camouflage tool.  Personally I seldom use it, but here is the correct way to use it (it is not just the banging out of a few impressions on your floral carving).

Lean it over sharply and put one of the tips on the cut edge of the stem / leaf.

Later you will obliterate the marks the camo tool caused on the outside of that line, as you see indicated on this photo:

Now to bevel.  Rules for the beveler are: 

* keep it totally upright (it can NEVER lean back)

* keep the toe towards you so that you can see that you have it directly on the cut line

* move it slowly sideways while your mallet taps it numerous times jackhammer style

* rest your hand on the leather so that you have a lot of control.  After beveling ¾" or 20mm, lift your hand and do the next little piece.

Pick the item that is on top in your design, like the flower petal in this one  (#1) - bevel that first on the side of the line that I indicated with the blue lines.

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More Mini videos for this post: